Ox Mountain Railway

[stockers]

Great progress - looks brill.
I like the way the straight section of track down the driveway is not actually straight - it gives it more character.

 

[trammayo]

I[size=14pt]'ve got the missing one of the pair.............. ?[/size]

To think that I had the anwer before you posed the question

 

[trammayo]

Great progress - looks brill.
I like the way the straight section of track down the driveway is not actually straight - it gives it more character.

'Tis pure accident Alan - the fence and the drive both come closer together. I only put the fence up to stop the cows coming in (and they've been kept out of the bog for the last 8 years) and now I need to get to the other side of it! Trouble is, if I take it down, Murphy's Law dictates that the cows will get back in again

 

[trammayo]

Thursday was another "soft" day with the added complication of a strong wind. I wanted to cover the baseboard in felt as well as finish off framing up the missing section of the loop. The latter was done in situ and then dismantled (for the need to feed the loop through the fence and back). I found the roll ends of torch-on felt I had been looking for and decided I would try and do the job inside.

First problem - no propane for the roofing torch and the second was having to crouch down to do the job (not wanting to set fire to benches or the like).

It took a couple of hours fiddling with a normal gas blowlamp and when done I took it outside just in case there was any timber smouldering! Anyway - the pics....

Friday morning - the open loop ready for threading through the sheep netting with track screwed down (and tested for electrical continuity!) ..

The difficult bit completed (threading through, securing and leveling, finishing felting - no wind thank goodness - and the track down! ..

I wanted to test it out so I used my latest acquisition to prove the track and the power continuity. There are no feeders in at the moment so the whole track length (120 feet) was energised by its connection to the original line. Five pics of the "prooving" ....

Some views of the extension....

Looking towards the loop - the farthest extent of my line now ...

The loop again ...

And finally, looking through the fence into our neighbour's bog field - with the stream some 6 foot below the level of our drive. It was not an easy job working on the steep slope with briars and rotting branches. I can see another job looming up. SWMBO reckons I should do something to prevent locos, or stock, falling into the stream! She's right of course! ...

So, apart from cosmetic enhancements - gardening bit - there is a need for feeder cables and also a chance to place a building or two in the loop area ( but musn't desecrate the cat's final resting place!), and I must consider something to catch errant railed [de-railed?] vehicles - I need to prepare for the "official opening" When time permits!. Also going to a small mod on the bridge and finish off the arched bridge. Then finish off ............

 

[trammayo]

I sorted out something to stop (hopefully) anything plunging into the stream. I had saved some linear offcuts of uPVC fascia board and I used a piece to co around the stream side of the loop. It was spaced off the baseboard using some 50mm long pieces of 1/2" pipe (still imperial plumbing sizes here!) with some 80mm screws into the side of the base. I had a few dregs of oil-based masonry paint - Lichen green - and blathered the guard "rail" with it.

 

[beavercreek]

Good job mick..just the ticket.

 

[trammayo]

Thanks Mike. Had to get the basic bones of the extension up and running. Will be servicing and testing stuff in the coming weeks so might post some pics.

 

[trammayo]

This morning the weather looked as though it would brighten up and I thought I might further test out the trackwork. That didn't happen as I hadn't emough batteries charged up (I was going to run some battery operated stuff) so my thoughts turned to the feeder cabling for the extension.

I had a "chocolate box" lying around which could be used to make the connection to the short wires already in situ so ......

Connecting the feeders up...

The choc box ...

Screwed to side of baseboard (fence side), holes drilled in bottom to let water out, and connector block filled with Vaseline to stop corrosion....

Cable clipped to side of boards and entering hosepipe "conduit" at ground level ....

No digging the drive up here - fed through drainpipe from drainage channel ...

And heading for the tree! A hole needs drilling in the blank end of the channel and the wire will terminate in some sort of a waterproof box at the other side of the tree - ready for a short unpluggable link to the control panel ...

Sun is now shining so its back out to it!

 

[trammayo]

Job now sorted .....

20mm hole drilled through concrete, cable enclosed in hose pipe and food storage box purloined for railway use ..

Connected to control cabinet (via battery cupoard) using plug and socket from scrapped Flymo....

Just unplug and put the lid on the box and put the cable in the battery cupoard...

 

[trammayo]

Finally managed to do some serious testing (between rain and hail) to prove clearances and the like. First off was my railbus, now converted to battery operation (2 AA cells), and I needn't have waited for the batteries to charge up because the old ones still had some life in them. ....

Heading for the extension....

Coming round the loop through the fence. The railbus is "gauge sensitive" because of the narrow wheel tread and large wheels. However there was no problem on the extension ..

Approaching the bridge ...

.. and returning to the main line ...

My Kitson tram loco, van and bogie coach is based on the Castlederg & Victoria Bridge Tramway. It will operate on batteries (but didn't 'cos they were not fully charged) or track power (which it did). All I do is plug the loco into the four-wheel van for track pick-up or an open truck (with crates concealing the batteries).

Back over to the main line ..

More to follow later ....

 

[playmofire]

The shot of the railbus returning to the main line is magnificent, Mick. And the dual power system of the Kitson is cunning in the extreme.

 

[CoggesRailway]

Just caught up with this brilliant!!!

 

[trammayo]

Thanks for your comments Gordon and Ian.

The dual capability for the Kitson arose because I made all the wheels and their conductivity wasn't great. I built the van (which is weighted) using Bachmann 24mm wheels and fitted a socket, with a corresponding plug on the loco after removing the electrical pick-ups. The open truck I use also recieved an identical socket and a battery holder (4 x AA). Trouble is rechargables don't really cut the mustard!

Back to more pics of yesterday. I coupled my latest Annie (acquired from a forum member!) to a rake of Bachmann J&S DRG coaches and found that my testing strategy wasn't just a whim. The Big Hauler fouled the sheep netting and I had to snip away to obtain the clearance!

The line has many (many) Big H's - the MD's flights of fancy I'm afraid! In saner, more logical thought moments, the MD buys something smaller and probably more useful for the line's tight curves. The MD is also the PW Engineer which might show some correlation with his purchasing policy - see it, buy it, why?

Anyway some pics...

Coming off the link line ...

And back round, crossing the viaduct before the extension (Freight Depot) junction - which also gives access to the high-level line ...

 

[trammayo]

THe MD is also a tram enthusiast and thought maybe the trams could reach parts that the railway couldn't. Unfortunately no purpose-built tramway extensions have got off the drawing board. However, having frittered away the line's capital, the trams do provide a service now and again (keeping the wheels oiled) and the rail derrick doubles up for tree lopping duties and assessing the possiblities of stringing up overhead....

Tram and trailer passing the "foreign" car dragging the tower ...

Trying out the new extension ...

And back on the main line...

And how do they operate without overhead you might ask? Well the CME (another of the MD's alter egos) has temporarily fitted Model T engines under the floor - petrol electrics - one motor mechanically disconnected and used as a generator.

 

[playmofire]

You made the wheels on the Kitson! Bridge builder, wheelwright...a real industrial revoluton man!

I like the trams - very evocative. Abandon the trains for a while and have a tramfest, overhead cables or not. (Maybe the trams get their power through a conduit system.)

 

[trammayo]

I like the trams - very evocative. Abandon the trains for a while and have a tramfest, overhead cables or not. (Maybe the trams get their power through a conduit system.)

Hi Gordon - yes trams were (are) my interest and my line started as a tramway but alas all that remains of that short-lived dream is one pole that I jacked out to make way for the points ..

I have half a plan (in half a mind - does that make it a quarter?) to build a short tramway along the back of the garden and shed wall.

 

[trammayo]

I dug these pic from my archives .....

Early years (well 2006) after I had doubled the track - the pole was to be the main strainer for the wire over the link line. The triangular junction was originally built at the reversing wye for the steam tram.

Leeds Tramways Co. 4-wheel steam tram trailer as supplied to that concern (later rebuilt as single-deck bogie car!) ....

Maintenance "train" ....

Kitson tram engine with trailer ....

No condenser fitted (yet) ....

Steeple cab (as the tramways of Blackpool, Burnley, Leeds, Bradford, etc.....

I built a Birney car, in the tinplate style (printed on photo paper, varnished and stuck on the wooden shape but cannot seem to find any pics yet.

 

[trammayo]

Managed to find the missing pics (oh no! some might say) first the Birney car (door positions reversed for British Isles Sits too high on Bachmann truck - needs a scratch-built one and the rest of it finishing (if the humidity hasn't managed to blur the printing ...

The triangular juction (reversing wye) ...

Steeple cab with "trolley" rope ..

Hauling scratch-built stock...

And the lower saloon interior of the trailer car

 

[trammayo]

Having had the help of my youngest son for the past couple of weeks, I (we) had to concentrate on none- railway related chores. My son is back home now so I thought I'd try out some more locos on the extension.

The Bachmann Monster (45 tonner) had to be tried out for clearance (new bridges etc) and passed - literally - with 4mm to spare. Phew!

Then I tried the mogul (a case of little and large I'd say), with a combine I bought off ebay which had never turned a wheel on my lines ....

First the 45'er round the loop - not much to spare - then the mogul which would probably pass through a mouse hole ....

 

[playmofire]

Thanks for the photos of the tram set up, Mick. I don't know how I missed those. I lived in years for most of the first 28 years of my life and remember the trams in Leeds. My first secondary school was in the city centre (Leeds Central High) and for my last couple of years there, before I changed shcools for the sixth form, I lived in Moortown and remember using the tram home. There were quite some gradients on the Harrogate Road, especially up to Chapel Allerton, then a drop down to the junction with Gledhow Valley Road, after which there was another climbup Harrogate Road to Moortown corner and then a right turn onto Street Lane. The route was circular so it was also possible to go round via Harehills and still end up on Street Lane. The Harehills route had sections which were segregated for trams, sometimes in the centre of the road and sometimes on the left hand side.
In the late 1950s, the trams were replaced by buses. The new buses on the Moortown route were horribly wrongly geared and on the uphill sections to Chapel Allerton and Moortown Corner they were either revving away and vibrating terribly in too low a gear, or juddering away and struggling in too high a gear