FAULCONWOOD AND SPRINGBRIDGE RAILWAY.

[cleanerg6e]

If your conservatory has a nice view over the garden and you can see ALL the railway from there it sounds like a great place to have your controls. I've only seen a few insides of houses in the UK as being a tourist I can't just knock on someones front door and say " excuse me I'm from Australia and I want to see where your washing machine is located. My Aunt who lives in Tiverton told me never to buy a washing machine/tumble dryer combo as they don't work. If you can wash 5kg of clothes you can only dry 2kg of clothes. I was also surprised to find no light switches in bathrooms. They were all pull cords. Blimey I've got a triple light switch and a power point in my bathroom. The extractor fan in my bathroom is the size of a dinner plate and the ones I saw in the UK were the size of a wine coaster and didn't suck out the steam very well. I was told that many people were happy that Australia still seemed to be a little outpost of empire, but we are so different in many ways, although many Australian people still want the queen as our head of state. We have had referendums on the republic question but our politicians want to choose our head of state and not allow the people to choose. So every republic referendum so far has failed.

Unfortunately another stinking hot day is dawning here so another day without work on the railway. We're supposed to have a change tonight and if we get rain I hope we don't get hail stones. Pea size ones are ok but cricket ball size can do a lot of damage.

When I wired up my layout I bought electrical wire from electrical people who supply electricians and bought in bulk. My feeder wires are 1mm solid copper and I bought two reels 100m in length black and red and my bus wires are also 100m in length and are 2.5mm stranded cooper wire in black and red. I also use the 1mm solid copper wire to bond the rail joints. It only cost $37.50 for 100m of 1mm solid copper wire. Big hardware super stores didn't have reels of wire for sale as a whole, only 1m lengths.

[MikeL]

Hi,

How are your rails coping in the heat ?

I have been thinking for sometime now to create a garden railway but I find the plastic backing desintergrates in the weather ..

[cleanerg6e]

MikeL said:

Hi,

How are your rails coping in the heat ?

I have been thinking for sometime now to create a garden railway but I find the plastic backing desintergrates in the weather ..

Hi Mike what part of the world do you hail from, a hot part or a cold part? If a hottish part, due to the white covers which I've made and installed, no problems at all. I can't lay track in direct sunlight as the new shiny rails heat up very quickly and I can't touch them with my bare hands. Even on the old effort the rails would go slightly out of alignment on very hot days but oddly enough would go back into alignment once the sun went down. But as stated before the wildlife and the constant expansion and contraction of the unpainted timber put paid to the first effort.

Roy.

[mick]

I have a feeling Mike's from your part of the world Roy. Hopefully he'll be back to let you know.

[cleanerg6e]

Yes he could well be Mick.

I've also bought some wood to make station platforms for Springbridge station. I was going to make a frame for the platform out of 1.8mm x 1.8mm timber topped with 4mm exterior ply. But unfortunately part of the platform is on a curve and my wood working skills are nowhere near that good as I'd have to bend the fame to the radius of the curve. So I've bought solid pine timber pieces and will use a jigsaw to cut them to shape after using a mounting card template to get the shape right BEFORE I start cutting with the jigsaw.

Also here are two photos which show the damage the weather here has wrought. One is a photo of a cream painted new board (actually the first one I made) and the other is a green board that was to be Faulconwood station parallel with the back hedge. Thank heavens I didn't go ahead and build the station platforms otherwise they'd have ended up the same shape as the board. Neither board is fixed to the 4x2 cross pieces.

 

[mick]

Those new boards look really smart Roy - wouldn't be out of place indoors. How are you at making coffee tables? Just need longer legs (on the boards that is and no reference to your height whatever that may be).

I reckon most timber section starts getting out of shape eventually, you should see some of the cr*p that is sold as planed softwood in some of our DIY superstores. Even with additional bracing it can be a tough old world outdoors if you're a plank of wood (I'm saying nothing with that one)

Will you be having gradients on the line? It seems that some of your boards are much higher than others - is this due to the slope of your plot?

What's your exterior plywood like over there? I've used some available over here (at great expense too I might add) and it lasted barely a few months before it came apart. Not sure why it's called exterior plywood when it doesn't like getting wet. Maybe I expect too much?

[cleanerg6e]

I've never made a 'coffee table' , hardly worth it when I have a 'nest' of tables although one has the printer on it.

They sell some wood and it's absolute cr#p over here as well. I saw a piece of wood in our local DIY superstore and looked like a piece of swirly spaghetti.

No gradients on my line not with the lengths of trains I want to run and yes a lot of boards are higher due to the slope of the land.

If you don't paint exterior ply or any type of wood it won't last too long in the weather be it our sun and rain and or, your.........rain.

[cleanerg6e]

Hi all, I've uploaded to my channel on you tube 3 new videos of my outdoor railway. One Midland and a couple of Southern. Please take a look and tell me what you think.

I so far have only a limited run on eighteen boards and new exterior ply has been ordered to make another eight boards. At the present time I'm having two NRM City or Truro's fitted with sound and the work's being done by Howes. So in the future I'll be able to have a Charles Dickens running session with a 'Tale of Two Cities'. One is 3440 and the other is 3717. Actually 3440 is a 80th birthday present for my Dad. I've had trouble with Hornby A3 and A4 tenders derailing on my insulfrog points and I was wondering if the flanges on the wheels are a little to deep. Any suggestions? The A3's and A4's are modern ones with loco drive.

Roy.

[mick]

I'd be very surprised if the derailments with your A3/A4 tenders was anything to do with oversize wheel flanges especially since they are the more recent Hornby loco drive models. What radius points are you using? I'm guessing that being outdoors with all that space they're large radius? Is it all points or just an isolated one? Do they derail in both directions? Do they derail when travelling tender first? In my experience I'd begin by looking at the track itself and work on from there. You might have to spend some time freewheeling the tender slowly across them to determine the cause of the problem watching for any spot where the wheels are not in contact with the rails.

I really fancy City of Truro too but I was concerned that outdoor on my inclines it would struggle. I like it in its latest livery with black frames.

[cleanerg6e]

Yes I had a look yesterday Mick ( between showers of rain ) and I used a Bachmann GWR guards van as a comparison as that van has a long wheel base. The flanges of the A3 and A4 tender seem to ride up on the frog of my large radius points and they seem to have little lateral movement. Taking a close look at the flanges of the loco bogie wheels and tender, the tender wheel flanges are definitely larger. It's as if the loco bogie flanges are to the RP25 standard but the tender flanges are not.

This happens on all points whether the locos are traveling forwards or reverse, and also if the tender is coupled to the loco or pushed or pulled by the GWR guards van. Also the tender is extremely light in weight and that may also be contributing to the problem. I'm wondering if a set of Alan Gibson wheels may fix the problem.

The Bachmann A1's tender wheel flanges seem to be much finer than the Hornby A3 and A4 tender wheel flanges and at the present time don't seem to suffer from the same problem. I should say that this problem has only emerged on the Hornby A3 and A4 tenders and that other tender locos in their range seem perfectly ok. It may have something to do with the long rigid wheel base of the A3/A4 tenders.

[mick]

I'm not sure if it will be any help but here's some photos of one of my A4 tenders for comparison. This one's from R2338 'Sir Charles Newton'.

The flanges look extremely fine and I would certainly not have thought they were too deep. Here's a closer view of the flanges:-

I've also done a pic of the tender base if it's any use.

All four axles have sideways movement so it is relatively flexible. If you don't have lateral movement of the axles then have you checked the back to back measurements? Perhaps that's a problem?

[IanR]

I can't understand it either Roy. I have both the Hornby A3 and A4 and I use insulfrog points but I don't have the same problem as yourself.

Ian.

PS Enjoyed your videos.

[cleanerg6e]

Hi Ian, have checked back to back measurements and all OK but little lateral movement. May have to lubricate axles on tenders but not with model oil but with graphite powder used to lubricate pad locks.

Glad your enjoying the videos and at the moment I'm making up more new boards and covers.

The Ladykillers is a great old movie and one of my favourite lines is 'Over here Loui. I also have A Run For Your Money, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Man in the White Suit, The Titfield Thunderbolt, Oh Mr Porter! and Train of Events.

A Run For Your Money was filmed in the fictitious Welsh mining village of: HAFODUWCHBENCEUBWLLYMARCHOGCOCH.

[cleanerg6e]

We've had a spell of sunny days on this side of the world and I've been spending some time making some more boards - eight in total. It takes about a week to finish them off as I have to let the 'no more nails' type glue dry and then I coat the underside with a wood sealer. That takes 24 hours to dry and cure. I then apply three coats of cream paint to the sides. In summer I can do that in about three hours as with the heat from the sun as it takes only 30 minutes for it to dry. In winter the paint takes 2 hours to dry. On the third day I paint the tops grey with another three coats. I also do the hinged spacers on those two days. On the fourth day I undercoat the covers with two coats. On the fifth day I top coat the covers with two coats of white paint. On the sixth day I fit those to the spacers. After that I can start to lay the track. Most of the track on these boards will be canted as most of it is on a curve.

I bought a 'tracksetta' type template. I couldn't get the Peco one as the model shop had run out of the Peco ones so I bought one made by Brunel Models and its made of perspex with a dovetail joint at each end so you can have as many joined together as you like. Brunel Models is in Cheltenham, arrr Victoria. Australia.

I did a little test on a scrap piece of ply. I painted it with a couple of coats of grey and did a ballast gluing test to see if the exterior PVA glue would be OK and it was, so now it looks as if I'll have to ballast the railway. I will only ballast in the 6' or between the running lines not the 4' or between the rails as it gives a chance for any small amount of debris to fall between the sleepers. I do go over the track bed with an outdoor vacuum before any running as it helps to keep the dirt to a minimum. I think I'll be using Hornby semaphore signals which although are aimed at the toy trainset market are rugged enough for outdoor use. They will have to lay on their side when the railway is out of use.

I still have many boards to redo as this latest batch has only extended the railway from the garden shed to the back hedge and I'll have to take some photos and upload them for you all to see.

Roy.

[mick]

Blimey, all that painting sounds like a lot of work Roy but I guess that's nothing compared to the task you'll have of ballasting it all.

[cleanerg6e]

Here's a photo of my Jubilee and Princess on new laid canted curves.

[cleanerg6e]

As ballasting on an indoor layout is tedious for most, you don't have the quantities of ballast that you have on an outdoor line and I'm going to try two ways of gluing the ballast to the boards. Firstly I'll mix up some exterior type PVA glue and water in a used but clean 1.8 litre plastic ice cream container and apply that to the boards with a 1 inch paint brush. I'll then sprinkle a fine coating of ballast over it. Secondly I'll try the indoor method of applying the ballast dry to the boards and then using a plastic squeezable tomato sauce bottle of 500ml size with exterior PVA, water and a little detergent, then dribble that over the ballast as you would indoors. I'll see which method is quickest and adopt it. After all I don't want to be nearly 80 by the time I finish the ballasting.

I have read of a bloke who used for his ground level line, ballast and quick drying cement as when glued ballast gets wet it turns white whatever colour the ballast is but returns to normal ballast colour once dry.

All track side buildings will need to be sited, eg signal boxes, signals the former being able to be removed so I can close the covers. Station platforms will be fixed permanently as they're only 2cm in height and the spacers are 3cm in height.

Roy.

Edited April 27, 2011 by Guest

[cleanerg6e]

mick said:

Blimey, all that painting sounds like a lot of work Roy but I guess that's nothing compared to the task you'll have of ballasting it all.

Yes Mick the painting is fairly involved but you get into a routine. The ballasting is going to be on a large scale, to say the least. My local modeling shop doesn't like me buying too many products at once, like Streamline Track. If they have four full boxes they only let me have three.

On one of your videos you run a Deltic with sound. I have on video a Deltic on the SVR with a horn that makes the loco sound like it has indigestion!.

Howes told me that the Deltic sound is one of the hardest if not THE hardest of all the diesel sounds to capture properly. The Napier engines have a very distinctive sound to them.

The video showing the 9F Evening Star looks wonderful. It's hard to believe that although classified freight locos they were also used especially in the later years on passenger trains and had a good turn of speed. What a waste so many were scrapped when only six to seven years old. You can tell BR was government run and using taxpayers money rather than a private company using investors money.

Roy.

[cleanerg6e]

With the rebuilding of my outdoor railway I've uploaded photos showing mainly assembled boards and completed posts and cross supports. I'm now going to show how I rebuilt the cross supports and later I'll show how I make the individual boards.

First a photo of a old cross piece on one of the posts.

[cleanerg6e]

Now for the wood as it is in my garage. I had 10 4.8m lengths of wood delivered and then cut them in half giving me 20 2.4m lengths otherwise I can't fit them in the garage.