Ruritanian Railways - 2012

[whatlep]

Spot on time, the express passed Polapiko at speed, hauled by twin ex-Austrian "Whizzycranks" 2095 class diesels:

Wow that is SO nice. Can I run my (still to be built) red DVT on the other end of that train at some point??

I think it's essential that we should try it.

Anyway, to conclude a "shunter's diary" view of Ruritania, we pick up the story slightly later in the afternoon with the Kof forming a train from the various postal vehicles lurking around Zenda:

The new parcels train gets shunted to platform 3 to await the arrival of an up passenger train. Guess what's going to happen to the parcels van on the rear of the train?

Yup, shunted with speed and style by the Zenda shunting squad!

Meanwhile, that Mallet you thought we'd forgotten about was off toward the border with the three postal vehicles. We caught up with it at the foot of Pootank Pass. Notice the shunter is at rest once more, the rake of hoppers left earlier in the day now filled with invisible ballast.

At Polapiko the Mallet ran round its train.....

...and propelled the vehicles into the goods shed road for unloading.

There was no time for loitering: back up to Zenda goes Mallet No.2 with a heavy train of nine loaded hoppers. All part of another day on Ruritanian Railways. The Imperial way to better transport!

P.S. In case anyone is wondering, shunter 14 (aka Mighty Mouse) is still around, but in Zenda works for a little TLC at the moment. More on that in due course.

 

[CoggesRailway]

The sun, the green green grass and the lovely trains. what an idylic place! Zenda shunting fantastic!!

 

[playmofire]

A very busy and interesting afternoon, and (as always) excellent photos.

 

[yb281]

Can we play like that tomorrow please mister? Oh pleeeeeaaaaaassseeee.

 

[CoggesRailway]

I wish I could!

 

[shropshire lad]

Fantastic pics Peter, you can't beat a bit of shunting

 

[JRinTawa]

Sun on the Ruritanian Railways, excellent[font="verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif"] [/font]

 

[Robatron86]

Wow! Truely amazing. I see from the posts that your line is DCC. How well does it work in G scale? How does it compare to RC control?
*Not sulking with jealousy at all...don't know what you are talking about...*
Cheers

Rob

 

[whatlep]

Wow! Truely amazing. I see from the posts that your line is DCC. How well does it work in G scale? How does it compare to RC control?
*Not sulking with jealousy at all...don't know what you are talking about...*
Cheers

Rob

Thank you for the kind words.
Short answers are perfectly and vastly superior, but may I suggest that you ask the question in the DCC or battery power threads? It's a more general question which merits wider comment than just with reference to the perfection that is Ruritanian Railways.

 

[beavercreek]

Good to see that Ruritania gets its fair share of the yellow glowing thing in the sky
Your rake of hoppers by the gravel works is a lovely picture

 

[whatlep]

About a year ago, Ruritanian Railways was delighted to welcome back an old friend in the shape of an LGB Schoema diesel shunter. The event was described in this thread:
http://www.gscalecentral.net/tm?m=163707&mpage=1#163859

The technology involved in Mighty Mouse - a Cliff Barker radio control system - worked faultlessly and can be recommended wholeheartedly as an alternative to analogue DC control for small locos. However, Ruritania prides itself on being at the forefront of technological change, so Mighty Mouse has this week undergone another traction change - back to DCC! The difference from a year ago is that the factory-fitted decoder is now supplemented by one of Massoth's latest power buffers. Ruritania's CME is preparing a learned paper (probably a Festschrift) on this, but suffice it to say that Mighty Mouse drives serenely and without hesitation across dirty track and dead frog points with just the 4 wheels picking up power.
Oh and it pulls like a dream on Pootank Pass' 1 in 20 (5%) gradient like a good 'un, as the picture shows.

 

[Gizzy]

The mouse that roars....

 

[whatlep]

It's been a little damp in Ruritania recently, so photographers haven't been out and about much. However, Zenda workshops are always busy and a visit today showed off their latest activity. Take one brown hopper that the MD has had rusting away at the back of a siding for ages, not really remembering why he bought it or knowing what to do with it:

Add some bits and pieces from a friendly German spare parts centre:

Et voila! Hopper number 10 for the invisible ballast quarry train! The MD has promised the Finance Officer that this is positively the last hopper Ruritanian Railways will acquire. Rumour has it that she said that promise being kept was as likely as finding rocking horse manure.

Connoisseurs will have observed in the last photo that the German running number on the chassis has been obscured by the simple method of adding insulating tape. Not invisible, but it passes the 1.83 metre test. The new hopper looks right at home outside Zenda depot on a test train hauled by Davenport shunter V3, now DCC fitted and a remarkably good runner over all manner of didgy depot trackwork, though sadly a little underpowered for Pootank pass.

 

[playmofire]

A very neat and effective conversion.

 

[CoggesRailway]

Nice. Btw for some reason i cant pm u back from this phone and i'm away. I will conspire with u on saturday....

 

[yb281]

What you need now is for some fully qualified idiot to re-paint the replaced hopper body as a rusting, rotting relic to place alongside the ballast siding.

 

[steve parberry]

It would appear that the german retailer is now out of red hopper doors but bodys remain, i was wondering if the chief engineer would be intrested in have a swap? just in case another donor came along

 

[whatlep]

A quick photo from August 9th. The quarry shunter proved its mettle by hauling all 10 hoppers up Pootank Pass unassisted and without any slipping. Cool!

 

[3Valve]

What you need now is for some fully qualified idiot to re-paint the replaced hopper body as a rusting, rotting relic to place alongside the ballast siding.

I just so happens I know of a fully qualified idiot not too far from where I work who couldundertake such a task.

 

[whatlep]

Ruritanian Railways held its first "Ladies & Family Day" today to bring together those suffering from an outbreak of domestic G scale addiction in a spirit of mutual support and sympathy. The day produced some memorable moments, not least the revelation of Chris M's musical taste (or otherwise.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxtAlx8vP2Y ) and Dave Hub's self-igniting LGB Porter, sponsored by Standard Fireworks. Even more remarkably, all 3valve's engines made it up Pootank Pass at the first attempt: a tribute to the powers of added lead and removing those pesky LGB skates.

Anyway, some pictures:
Shay and Whizzycranks at Zenda station

Coggesrailway claims this belongs to his kids. The driver is his (and a fantastic scale model of Dave Hub).

Whizzycranks with Coggesrailway's driving trailer waits for Mel's sublime Corpet respray to climb Pootank Pass.

3valve's lovely Accucraft Baguley and Bram's neat US loco with a very neat, mostly weathered rake of adapted LGB Toytrain wagons. Both battery powered via Cliff Barker controllers.

Finally my own Mallet on duty at the postal depot while the quarry shunter trundles round with the invisible ballast hoppers. In the background, various ladies discuss the properties of radius 1 curves. Or something.

The MD and Chief Financial Officer of Ruritanian Railways would like to thank all those who attended, brought stock and didn't break their son's carefully built Lego rolling stock. We're not mentioning names, but Ian, you know who you are.