Paint shop
Wednesday 01 February 2012
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Looking the part
Sunday 29 January 2012
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Modelling in triplicate
Sunday 29 January 2012
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Multi-tasking projects
Monday 16 January 2012
Meanwhile most of the radio-control components for the loco have arrived, prompting an extended session of rather fiddly testing. After some frustrating delays while a working set of batteries was assembled and instructions read and re-read, all seems to work. Fitting it all into the loco will be the next problem.
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Building from the ground up
Sunday 08 January 2012
Tried out an Acme sound unit, after liberating it from its previous home in a model competition entry. It’s meant to replicate a small Lister twin, so it sounds a little weedy for a multi-cylindered diesel, but it may do as a start-up/idling sound.
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More loco hacking
Wednesday 04 January 2012
Some serious hacksaw work today, as the donor side panels were removed for refitting to the new loco, working name 'Kachenjunga'. The large louvred radiators on the Alco's sides are about right for the end-on equivalents on the ZDM, so there they will go. The access doors will be shuffled around to better match the ZDM's arrangement. The new body will lift off more-or-less completely in one go, for better access to a fairly crowded set of controls. Note the guidance documents to the rear.
The second bogie, remote control receiver and engine and horn sounds have all been ordered. The intention is to share an existing transmitter belonging to a live steam loco, rebinding from one to the other as required. Hopefully not too much of a bind.
ZDM chassis trials
Tuesday 03 January 2012
First chassis trials, to see if the donor base works on 32mm. The answer appears to be yes, but as recorded on the video look out for the lighting…
The Essel bogie (nominally 12-24v) is being driven by a 7.2v battery pack and a Cambrian Models controller. The other bogie is borrowed from some anonymous incomplete kit buried in the back of the shed. The plan is to pre-order a second Essel bogie for collection at the Peterborough 16mm Society show at the end of March.
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New year, new project
Tuesday 03 January 2012
The start of another modest Grand Project, conversion of an Aristocraft 45mm gauge diesel into a 32mm representation of an Indian NDM-1 loco. Not a proper scale model you understand, that would require more skill than I possess and more patience than I would care to deploy. The prototypes run mainly on the Matheran line, but were also tried on the Darjeeling Himalayan railway, re-gauged and reclassified ZDM-1
The picture shows the donor vehicle, an Alco RS-3, being disassembled into a box of bits. On the left is an Essel Engineering chassis which will form one bogie of the new loco. The intention is to use radio control, a world first for me for diesels, and sound. Completion deadline is the Corris show at the end of August, by which time I will also need to have acquired, and built, several Darjeeling coaches. Oh, and a live-steam layout to run them on.
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Santa at Hesketh Bank
Saturday 24 December 2011
Santa appears at virtually every preserved railway so it seems, and without breaking any laws of physics, as far as we know. West Lancs is no exception, and today rounded off a successful season with over 600 visitors to the railway. My modest contribution was to blow up and issue balloons to anyone who looked young enough to want one, which was the majority of the customer base.
In contrast to last year, where the first task of the day was to clear a foot of snow off the car park and platforms, the weather was mild and even occasionally sunny.
Some photos are here.
Trackwork
Sunday 18 December 2011
Tralee and Dingle railcar
Thursday 15 December 2011
A newly-completed IP Engineering kit:
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Tram loco
Wednesday 14 December 2011
Another loco getting a makeover, this time a Perfect World tram loco. The main alteration is replacing a rather insubstantial plastic chassis with a more robust chain-drive version from Andel Models.
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New retirement, new blog
Tuesday 13 December 2011
Evening all. Not really new retirement, been doing it for about nine months, but it seems like nine days. Maybe it's true that time speeds up once you stop work.
This is intended to be a periodic update on my garden railway activities, which started twenty years or so ago and have involved a number of lines of varying sophistication and location. The latest, and probably last, incarnation is the St Aubyn Light Railway. I am rebuilding it from a continuous-run dual-gauge line into two separate lines, one 32mm gauge single-track with return loops and one dual-gauge electrified out-and-back shuttle.
To start with, this is a picture of a Baltimore and Ohio loco which I am motorising with an Essel Engineering chassis, and converting it from 45 to 32mm gauge in the process:
This is intended to be a periodic update on my garden railway activities, which started twenty years or so ago and have involved a number of lines of varying sophistication and location. The latest, and probably last, incarnation is the St Aubyn Light Railway. I am rebuilding it from a continuous-run dual-gauge line into two separate lines, one 32mm gauge single-track with return loops and one dual-gauge electrified out-and-back shuttle.
To start with, this is a picture of a Baltimore and Ohio loco which I am motorising with an Essel Engineering chassis, and converting it from 45 to 32mm gauge in the process: