Land grab

Thanks for the comments @playmofire and @Rhinochugger

Ballasted the track this morning, bit of tamping and leveling and then a test ride.


Seems to ride okay, and no problems with clearance. The dog-leg and down grade give it a bit of a fairground ride feel!

Now after all the slog the fun can begin!
 
idlemarvel said:
Thanks for the comments @playmofire and @Rhinochugger

Ballasted the track this morning, bit of tamping and leveling and then a test ride.


Seems to ride okay, and no problems with clearance. The dog-leg and down grade give it a bit of a fairground ride feel!

Now after all the slog the fun can begin!
Click to expand...
Wow, that's raised the bar too high - the Grandkids are currently mildly impressed by my railway, but if they saw that, they'd disown me! :D
 
playmofire said:
An excellent result, Dave, but maybe a more noticeable buffer stop for when you have learner drivers?
Click to expand...
Yes I have to work on the signage! Slow, dead slow and stop warnings. Children will be confined to the Circle line, only trusted drivers will be allowed to drive the District branch line!
 
viaEstrecha said:
Wow, that's raised the bar too high - the Grandkids are currently mildly impressed by my railway, but if they saw that, they'd disown me! :D
Click to expand...
Yup that's one of the joys of ride-on railways, grandchildren, and other children (of all ages!) love watching it, riding it and even more so (under strict supervision) driving it, even if the "journey " only last a minute. They like my G-scale stuff as well but this beats it hands down. I'm very lucky to have had the space, time and funds for both.
 
idlemarvel said:
Children will be confined to the Circle line, only trusted drivers will be allowed to drive the District branch line!
Click to expand...
If that's the case, the loco is the right colour (ish) for the district line, but you'll need a different one for the circle line (which, in London, no longer goes round in circles - so you can no longer fall asleep and still get off at the right station :shake::shake::shake: ).
 
Garden Railway envy in full mode here, some time back I nearly bough a 5” gauge Tram but after drawing it to size and access to my garden it would not get in to the back garden. I clearly built things in the wrong place!
 
Latest addition to the line is a 2 aspect home colour signal.

20220512_130549.jpg

The post is a piece of 50mm drainpipe, the head is a waterproof external electrical box, and the lamp shades are also pieces of the 50mm piping, glued on with pipe-weld. It sits in a Metpost so it can be easily removed.

The only bits I bought specially are the lights, from Scaleway Signals
Colour Light Components

20220512_130605.jpg

Inside is a 12v battery (8 x AA battery holder) and a on-off-on switch.
 
idlemarvel said:
Latest addition to the line is a 2 aspect home colour signal.

View attachment 298372

The post is a piece of 50mm drainpipe, the head is a waterproof external electrical box, and the lamp shades are also pieces of the 50mm piping, glued on with pipe-weld. It sits in a Metpost so it can be easily removed.

The only bits I bought specially are the lights, from Scaleway Signals
Colour Light Components

View attachment 298373

Inside is a 12v battery (8 x AA battery holder) and a on-off-on switch.
Click to expand...
No excuse for SPAD there, it's vast! :D
 
Just need one with a route indicator for the branch now ;)
 
idlemarvel said:
Latest addition to the line is a 2 aspect home colour signal.

View attachment 298372

The post is a piece of 50mm drainpipe, the head is a waterproof external electrical box, and the lamp shades are also pieces of the 50mm piping, glued on with pipe-weld. It sits in a Metpost so it can be easily removed.

The only bits I bought specially are the lights, from Scaleway Signals
Colour Light Components

View attachment 298373

Inside is a 12v battery (8 x AA battery holder) and a on-off-on switch.
Click to expand...
Superb job and a great piece of large scale modelling.
 
viaEstrecha said:
No excuse for SPAD there, it's vast! :D
Click to expand...
Unfortunately the younger drivers don't pay much attention to signals of any colour shape or size. At the moment safety is ensured by "one loco in steam" principle. What happens when the second loco is acquired is a bit of a worry!
 
phils2um said:
Dave, you must know your loco pretty well! In the video I thought you were going to blow right through the buffer! Nice job!
Click to expand...
Thanks Phil. The loco has nice engine braking so it can practically "stop on a sixpence". Just as well as I was driving with one hand (tricky with a "dead man's handle" and a throttle to hold) and a camera in the other. The buffer is securely bolted to the raised bed which must hold half a ton of earth, so it would take some shifting!
 
Dodging between the showers today I managed to finish my footbridge over the District Line - the "bridge to nowhere".

20220515_180722.jpg

I have nearly finished my stockpile of spare timber. I bought the garden fence posts (75mm x 75mm) which form the basic structure., but everything else is just leftovers from other projects. I pleased with the deck which is from reclaimed pallet wood (*) - it's very rough and knotty but it's nearly an inch thick. The bridge leads from the grandchildren's tree-house (repurposed shed panel) and it's designed and made to be stood on so they can watch the trains go underneath.

The headroom is 1.45m which is enough that children can walk under it without banging their noggins and adults can ride the train (sitting) likewise, unless Richard Osman turns up for a go then it might be quite close. (For non-UK readers, Richard Osman is a UK TV celebrity and he's 6 ' 7"). I couldn't make the headroom any higher otherwise the fencing along the top of the bridge would be higher than the neighbour's fence, and I wanted at least 50cm for the bridge fencing. As it is the neighbours might be miffed that children can see into their garden occasionally but the house on that side of the fence has been vacant for 2 years so there's no-one to ask. Anyway the low bridge just adds to the fairground ride feel.

(*) I am told there is a shortage of pallets. Why is it then, in the UK anyway, that if you have something delivered on a pallet, the driver refuses to take the pallet back. Added to the list of many things I don't understand.

The look I wanted for the footbridge was inspired by this bridge in Milton, Ontario:

11672909.jpg
 
Some signage for the District Line. The obligatory trains crossing sign:

20220518_113849.jpg

Some stop signs to keep @playmofire happy:

20220518_113447.jpg

One for the gradient:

20220518_113509.jpg

Finally, new station (request stop) sign:

20220518_113522.jpg
 
I set up the new point as a sprung point. This is designed so that trains going "anti-clockwise" (right to left) on the Circle Line can drive through the point, but going "clockwise" (left to right) take the turning to the District Line. That means that I can safely let younger drivers go anti-clockwise round and round the Circle Line, at least until they discover the reverse button!

20220518_113543.jpg

It is literally a spring fitted under slight tension to two holes drilled into the frame and the tie bar. Bit crude but it works. It took a while to get the distance and tension right so it was enough to close the point correctly for left-to-right trains but not too strong to prevent the right-to-left train driving through. I had to partly dismantle the point to make the tie bar move more freely. The black gaffer tape on the tie bar hides the holes drilled during the "trial and error" phase! I had a variety of springs to try, from a variety box, £8 from eBay, so I have plenty of spares! I probably should have fitted some kind of adjustment screw in case the spring looses some tension over time, but we'll see how it goes.

20220518_113557.jpg

The District Line is more or less finished now, so the next posting will be as and when I get the second loco. Laters!
 
Northsider said:
Just for Dylan Thomas, is it? Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas - Poems | Academy of American Poets

Given the incline on the branch line past Fernhill, it gives new meaning to
'Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons'
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Click to expand...
Nothing quite so prosaic. I was looking for a station nane with Fern in the title in the list of British station names and this came up. Same for Audley End, as I live around the corner from a street called Audley Way As the station was at the end of the line Audley End seemed appropriate!
 
idlemarvel said:
I set up the new point as a sprung point. This is designed so that trains going "anti-clockwise" (right to left) on the Circle Line can drive through the point, but going "clockwise" (left to right) take the turning to the District Line. That means that I can safely let younger drivers go anti-clockwise round and round the Circle Line, at least until they discover the reverse button!

View attachment 298643

It is literally a spring fitted under slight tension to two holes drilled into the frame and the tie bar. Bit crude but it works. It took a while to get the distance and tension right so it was enough to close the point correctly for left-to-right trains but not too strong to prevent the right-to-left train driving through. I had to partly dismantle the point to make the tie bar move more freely. The black gaffer tape on the tie bar hides the holes drilled during the "trial and error" phase! I had a variety of springs to try, from a variety box, £8 from eBay, so I have plenty of spares! I probably should have fitted some kind of adjustment screw in case the spring looses some tension over time, but we'll see how it goes.

View attachment 298644

The District Line is more or less finished now, so the next posting will be as and when I get the second loco. Laters!
Click to expand...
"Simple but effective" is the phrase you're looking for, Dave.
 
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