Today on the WGLR

whatlep said:
yb281 said:
Round n Round said:
Very Posh, Mel.
Mike thinks we are Posh because we have carpet in our ginal,
but I think you out rate us now. :thumbup:
I am proper posh Trev. I sometimes get out of the bath to have a wee. :bigsmile::bigsmile:

Doesn't the coal get in the way? :bigsmile:
Not as much as my huge loofah. :bigsmile:
 
Take care with that wee in the bath Mel, it will corrode the galvination!!:rolf::rolf:

Lovely line by the way mate. It has developed into such a homely railway.
 
Great idea with the basket Mel :thumbup:
I,m for ever looking for mine in the garden :wits: tend to find it with my foot :laugh:
 
Thanks again for the kind remarks chaps. :thumbup:

Bram recently found a really cool shunting feature with the Cliff Barker RC kit and I've become a bit of an addict for it. I park my Hartland wagon conversions in the various sidings all around the railway and then send a loco to pick them all up, then start off again dropping everything off. It's all very simple, but a great way of passing an hour or two in this lovely weather we're having.

Basically there are three places to pick up the trucks from - the interchange siding at Gooey .........

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......... the yard at Gooey livestock market ............

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.......... and Cockshutt yard (which doubles up as Wetton yard too).

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The train is quite short when it starts out on it's journey ..............

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.......... but by the time it's picked everything up, it's really long by WGLR standards.

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As the wife will tell you, I'm easily pleased. :bigsmile:
 
I was just thinking the same Tony - full of atmosphere AND purpose - a winning combination.

It feels like the Gooey interchange needs a standard gauge 121 DMU or something now for the passenger services!! I would also love to see a more W&L inspired tank engine in use, perhaps bashing one onto an LGB 0-6-0 chassis from the Corpet or Frank S? (or even the Spreewald) using some of the GRS detailing bits? It feels like the W&G would have had it's own engines built, just like the W&L Beyer Peacocks, the L&M Kitsons and the Manning Wardles on the L&B.
 
Tony said:
Mel you are seriously building some atmosphere into your line (watch out for some ideas stealing over the winter) can you elaborate about this shunting feature (unless if missed it) and maybe a video :thumbup:

Tony
I'll try Tony, but it's easier to do than to explain. The handset has a HALT and RESUME feature, you just press the halt button and the train slowly stops. If you then press the resume button, the train pulls away again returning to the speed setting at which you were running before the halt. But Bram has found that you can change the direction in between the halt and resume, so you can stop the train and then (after a realistic wait) it will propel it's train in the opposite direction into a siding etc. It's great fun, I've never really been into shunting, but this has got me hooked. :thumbup:

On the subject of atmosphere - funnily enough I've just had an email which could result in me having to give this a lot more thought .......... and then putting it into words. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. :bigsmile:
Hopefully, more news to follow.
 
jameshilton said:
I was just thinking the same Tony - full of atmosphere AND purpose - a winning combination.

It feels like the Gooey interchange needs a standard gauge 121 DMU or something now for the passenger services!! I would also love to see a more W&L inspired tank engine in use, perhaps bashing one onto an LGB 0-6-0 chassis from the Corpet or Frank S? (or even the Spreewald) using some of the GRS detailing bits? It feels like the W&G would have had it's own engines built, just like the W&L Beyer Peacocks, the L&M Kitsons and the Manning Wardles on the L&B.
James, right now I'm in the middle of a slight re-vamp of part of the garden to make the wife a nice seating area. Not only will this be a nice place to sit and watch trains go by (and mean we can fit more visitors in), but I have a plan for a bit more gauge 3 - including a run round loop, a siding that will look better in photos and possibly a small platform. All of this has got planning permission from "the authority" although I haven't been able to convince her of the need for the 2-6-2 tank and B set that is currently on special offer from GRS.

Of course I tried the W&L loco idea with the Accucraft model, but (for various reasons) it didn't work out. I've now decided that the original 3 WGLR locos will be derived from LGB Ottos with new body work. I've got 2 of them and a 3rd is in the planning stage. These are supplemented by the adjoining tramway's 3 locos and 4 larger LGB locos which are supposed to have been bought from Europe when the line passed into preservation. I think that that will probably be about it (apart from visitors of course). I think the W&L locos are unique and I'll leave them in Welshpool. :bigsmile:
 
Mel that sounds like a lot of grand plans - so I'll leave my suggestions for specific W&G locomotives there, suffice to say I was thinking something specific to the W&G, not a copy of any other lines locomotives - perhaps with GWR modifications, like safety valve covers, new chimneys and a cast number plate? for example? :) Does it give you any ideas for the existing Otto based locos?
 
I mentioned above that WGLR No.3 was in the planning stage - well it's now in the building stage.

Some of you may remember that a few years ago I had a go at Anglisizing an Otto by changing the cab roof profile, making slightly larger tanks and adding a new dome, chimney, smoke box door etc. The result was Nellie;

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The problem was that she never looked quite right to me, something to do with looking almost as wide as she was long I reckon. I came to the conclusion that the cab is really pretty big for such a small loco, so now I've tried to balance this by making even bigger tanks, extending the footplate and fitting a proper front buffer beam. I'm a lot happier with the result, still plenty to do though.

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She will be converted to battery RC too.
 
Neil Robinson said:
Nice one Mel, she looks much better now, not the least because you've hidden that odd looking smokebox saddle. :)
Yes Neil, you're right. I need to add another row of rivets along the bottom of the tanks too, but I'll have to order some more.
 
Mel - that looks grand - any way of getting a GW safety valve bonnet on somewhere? and perhaps a GWR plate on the side tank? ;)
 
I hate to differ (Sorry Mel), but I think there is too much tank. The length is OK but the hight over powers things. I know its a bit like a VoR after it hit a wall, but thats my pennyworth!
Agree, that the smokebox saddle/valve top looks better covered.
 
stockers said:
I know its a bit like a VoR after it hit a wall,
Aha, my bet is that is what the WGLR engineers were trying to achieve.

I has a certain chunky presence .......:thinking:
 
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