More Christmas 2011 - books and inspiration

One of the blogs that I follow is the Elly, James & Keith Light Railway which is a new Garden railway, although much further advanced than mine and with it's main proponent, James, having a substantial background in railway modelling it seems, and not afraid to take to take the hacksaw and paintbrush to LGB stuff.

One of the books he mentioned was European Narrow Gauge Steam by Trevor Rowe which looked very interesting (and which would be in English).

Full of black and white photographs from the late 60's and early 70's.  Vol 1 - which James mentioned is Germany and Austria but Volume 2 had Holland and Switzerland in, so a trip to Amazon.co.uk netted one second hand and one new for a good price.  I've yet to detail my trip to Hoorn in Holland and the Dutch Steam tram museum, but suffice to say that I now have a soft spot for Dutch narrow gauge railways.   All sorts of nice inspiration such as the following picture of a Tram engine hauling colliery dump trucks in Belgium:

Finally, a Christmas present that I wasn't expecting.  It's local so interesting and one of the nice things about buildings is that often enough has survived to put the photograph and modern day reality together.  Only had a quick dip into this so far and one to put in the car as I travel around.  

Christmas 2011 - Part 1 - Indoor running and expansion

Well, I didn't get to lay some track outside but I did get to put a circle around the Christmas tree to keep the Co-director happy.

The panning and movement on the part of the camera director requires a bit of skill, but I think you follow the drift.  And this was running on Christmas day. 

In the run up to Christmas there were all sorts of presents to me - including this from Ebay - brand new at less than 50% of the RRP (and what other people were selling for) price, and one that in absolute terms put it into 'boys toy" category rather than expensive novelty:

Radio control crawler crane.  OK, so it's overscale but I tend to think of it as one of those 'giant' cranes etc that one sees on industrial excavation works and quarries.  It will load chick peas (to represent gravel/rocks - it comes with a few plastic rocks) into the dump truck.   The operator wants to get a bit more skill up though before any home videos to avoid the laughter.

Here is a much more sophisticated video..

Chris

An idea is born - IMB or IB

One of the things on the railway has always been the modelling aspect alongside the operations of it.  OK, so G scale and the demands of the the garden mean that some aspects of traditional railway modelling just don't take place.  

Aside from Projekt X (the Stainz respray) I already have a couple of other items off Ebay (a Piko Caboose and a Bachmann Coach, as well as an LGB speisewagon) that will ultimately go under the hacksaw and spray can.   A locomotive from a chassis is a long way in the future at the moment, and I would start with one of the kits out there.

Most real life railway stock seems to carry all sort of owners marks and numbers etc - some of which I understand.  Iscatalbahn was struggling from a lack of corporate identity though.  Just putting a letter "I" on the side of things seemed a bit lame.

Whilst researching sounds available from manufacturers that might suit the locos I have as I get them chipped then I've been looking at pictures of the real locos to match size and configuration.  One of the possibilities is the Dampflokomotive der Härtsfeldbahn from Dietz  - at the The Härtsfeld-Museumsbahn and particular Dampflokomotive 12 .  

Looking around the site as one is prone to do, I came across a ballast wagon with the initials HMB for H(artsfeld) M(useem) B(ahn) in big black letters on the side.

So, Iscatalbahn can become IMB, or IB....  
Simple and obvious really...

And since a blog, like a good book should have pictures, then here is a short video (not mine) of locomotive number 12  from You tube...

Back to Rolling Stock

Enough of real train back to model trains.  

Weekend before last I took a bit of the train set up to the Midlands so that one of my hosts could see a little bit what all this fuss about DCC was about and the G scale thing (he has a HO/OO scale work in the progress in his garage).  

Part of that involved seeing how fast the loco would go - which the R1 curves I took up with me weren't really up to.  What did come out though was the instability of the HLW wagon at speed.  I've read about the light weight of the Chinese trucks/coaches from ranges like Newquida and how they can sometimes have problems over reverse curves etc.  

Well, the LGB tipper weighs in at 220 g and the HLW wagon at 160 (as does the HLW tipper which isn't pictured).   Guess it could be time to start considering putting some lead beneath the chassis to increase the weight and lower the centre of gravity, or some model loads.  

Even more on Maintenance of Way

Ann went for a walk on Sunday down the side of the estuary here and they were doing work on the track.  She had her camera with her for birds or nice estuary pictures but took the following picture of a digger on rails apparently towing some sort of truck with bits and pieces in it.

More on Maintenance of Way

Ann - who hasn't seen all of the stuff together but has seen it arrive in bits - made the comment that I had more support vehicles than some real railways.  The snowplow was an ebay bargain, and Ann now wants track down and snow to be able to play with it: the bottom of the blade is adjustable to get minimum clearance and putting weight (a brick is often used) in the truck bed is good if used for actual snow clearance.  

Having the two ore truck was inspired by the video of the Nicki Frank S:

The Nicki Frank S - ideally in a blue version - is the tender engine that I'm saving up for, but given the costs then it could be a long time.   I suspect that other non 0-4-0 tender locos will come along.  

The cable reel cars were one of the few items I have bought new as the small ones didn't seem to come up on ebay, and the searchlight wagon was a German ebay bargain.  There's bits of glue left where a couple of figures have been mounted, and some railings are broken but it was substantially cheaper than anything I've seen here in England.  The yellow wagon in front of the crane is to be used as a crane support wagon - ropes, taurpaulins, spare jibs etc.  I also have some flashing lights to fit to the snowplow once I've made a frame.  .  

Technically its not Trainspotting if there's no trains and I'm not standing around ?

One of the interesting things about having the railway has been reading about how real railways operate.  I've got some more of the Industries along the tracks books but have also become fascinated by the whole "Maintenance of Way" thing.  It has answered my question about what the big long yellow machines are that I see in station sidings - which is tamper machines tied in with re-ballasting track.

Well, one lunchtime recently I was walking to W.H. Smiths on the lane between the park and Central station when I came across track being lifted at central station, and diggers and bulldozers adapted to run on both tracks/wheels and railway track.

Not ideal pictures, and they were taken on my mobile phone but useful for inspiration.

Subsequent looking on ebay has come up with the following two videos...  (The first one is the speeded up 20 second version for those with short attention spans - search for Cat 319D should bring up the six minute original).  Could be a good party piece to do with a radio control digger at model shows... 

Now who wants to build the following in G scale ?   The Llanfair and Welshpool have a baby tamper machine from South African gold mines.  

You can never have too much track or rolling stock

Came across this on my travels...

The worlds longest G scale train ?

Sound, DCC and locomotives

The last entry on the locos provoked a comment about sound wagons.   I've actually got two of these although only one is DCC but pictures of both will serve to illustrate the principles.  

First up is an official LGB product.   In pre DCC days they obviously made a number of factory converted "sound wagons" so those with smaller engines could enjoy sounds.  I'd have to read the instruction book to see if track magnets would trigger additional sounds, but on DC it makes a steam train sound.  The wires out the front left connect to the power supply socket on the rear of the (DC) loco and as the track power is increased (thus meaning more speed), the chuff increases.   The speaker is floor mounted.  I bought the coach because I wanted the style of 4 door coach and the price was right (excluding sound) on German ebay.  

 The 9v battery will serve to provide power in the event of track failure, such as going across points or an isolation track.  

Next up is what somebody lovingly crafted and I bought with the Spreewald.  A standard LGB DCC sound module has been fitted inside a (resprayed) goods wagon.  This has a digital decoder fitted and thus has its own ID - currently set to number 1 (it should be possible to change this).  When placed behind a loco with the same ID, then the sounds increase as the loco increases speed and the other sound functions (bell, whistle etc) are also available (in reality the same message is being sent to two decoders with the same ID number).

With its own DCC ID then it is possible to have this wagon sitting on its own making noises as if it was a loco: so it really needs to stay permanently behind the loco.  One of the problems with sound - in all scales I suspect - is finding place and a suitable mounting for the loudspeaker.  Recent technology has produced a range of thin, almost flat loudspeakers which are idea for mounting in the cab roof of a loco which seems to be a favoured place.  Power pick up is via the track (see wires to take power off the wheels, but again some sort of buffer (Capacitors?) have been fitted so that in the event of isolation (e..g point frog etc) the sounds will continue to play.   

A tale of two red locomotives...

For a while I was aware that a "red" steam locomotive would keep the co director somewhat happy.   The problem to those G scalers out there will be readily apparent: LGB (nor did anybody else) didn't make many red locos, and those that they did, tend to command a price premium.  (With Christmas looming I was contemplating a James - the red engine - from Bachmann).

I'd been bidding one Ebay over the summer on various ones as they came up whilst I got a feel for what would pass as the current 'market rate',with neither of the red engines of which I was aware being currently in production.

Thus informed I placed a reasonable bid on the Corpet Louvet loco on ebay.  (LGB 20790).  Unchipped and no sound but nice and red and shiny...  Which I won....  The marks are where I've removed the nameplates originally affixed: I'm working(waiting on proofs) on some new ones.

Well, Murphy's law comes into affect at this point as a Cambrai (photo below) appears second hand (at a reasonable price) with one of the dealers.   The Cambrai comes ready chipped and with factory fitted LGB (generic) sound...  This was a big plus if I was looking at the secret re-naming projekt (as the disassembly of the Stainz for Projekt X had taught me much about renaming and respraying and source material) and deadlines and Christmas.  

The running gear is the same at the earlier Corpet Louvet (albiet coloured red) since it is another Corpet Louvet but this has the red coloured domes but plainer (black rather than gold) fittings.  From a dealer this was a fixed price and I must have dropped on it within  a couple of hours of it being posted as being available.  One of the principles of bargains has got to be "buy it whilst you see it, as it won't be there when you go back", so Iscatalbahn became the owner of a second red loco and took a decided French lurch in its running stock.  

The original Cambrai can be found here - Cambrai in museum.  

The CdeN 36 is outside Paris here - CdN 36 in museum

Whilst here is a video (not mine) of CdN36 in action:

      

Locos on Parade: a photo the Co Director hasn't seen (yet!)

Are secondhand locos to G scale railway people like shoes and handbags to (most) women: you can never have enough?  Ann is somewhat aware of these coming into the house - she can tell it's a loco by its size and weight of the parcel at the post office but even she (nor I till tonight) has seen them displayed all together.

The two red engines (see next post) cost more than the sum of all the others put together probably (one is a loco from a starter set and hard to value seperately).  I've been lucky (or patient) with assorted ebay bargains and two of these come from a deceased estate sale - a Borsig top left, and a Porter bottom right.  The Porter was an indulgence - I liked the look of it, whilst the Borsig was to enable double headed running  - I figure same engine, same gearbox, same chip, then not so much to go wrong.  Same is true of the two Stainz although they have yet to be chipped.    

Of the locos, then the two green Stainz (top right) are not chipped, as is (not) the centre Corpet Louvet.  The others are all chipped, but only the Cambrai (bottom left) and Baltic (centre row and centre) have built in sound.  There is a sound wagon that originally came with the Spreewald that will provide sound to a matching DCC ID number.  

Didn't set out to end up with this many, but various 'bargains' happened along the way.   My favourite is still probably the Spreewald. (-2-6-0) whilst Ann likes the Zillertal (0-6-2) although once the red engines are up and going then I can see her allegiance changing. Currently she wants to see one (something) with the smoke oil.... 

The Spreewald - my favourite to date

The Zillertal - Ann's favourite to date.  

   

What I should have been buying...

I've mentioned before (an early post about research and inspiration - Model Railroader ) that shunting and splitting/spotting/organising trains was an early concept behind patio rails and that still remains a major operational reason.   In the article there were blue/red/black etc wagons - which in HO/OO guage were mostly small two axle wagons that wouldn't be that big.  Of course, G scale makes everything somewhat larger, and whilst I've been buying 300 mm long stuff (alot of G scale stuff on bogies is 415mm or even longer), even that at 4-5 wagons takes up alot of space.

Recently I discovered that I could Hartland Locomotive Works mini series from Back to Bay 6.  These are coming out at approx 175mm including couplings.  The cheapest way to get them is the "take and make" kits", that involve a bit of assembly and screwing (I think I assembled mine in under ten minutes).   The goods wagon has under 20 parts (including screws).  OK, so these are never going to win prizes for detail - for example there's no buffers but the moulded detail is there on bolts etc and they are certainly going to be durable.

I got a basic wagon (as above) and an ore wagon (which is in the video with the Red Diesel).  Colours can vary and are apparently a random choice although I suspect a telephone call will give you a choice from what he has in stock.   At £12.50 each plus postage I shall be back for more of these (stake wagons and tank wagons too).   

This shows them alongside comparable LGB wagons.  

Red Diesel

One of the bargains I've picked up on Ebay on my journey so far has been an LGB "Schoema" 0-4-0 shunter which cost me the price of an LGB Sound card, and came fitted with such and was already chipped.   The front headlight has moved out of the lantern and I need to unscrew the body and replace it, but for now it's my first diesel with sound.  It's got a really nice "engine turning over" sound on the start up sequence which I like.  The video isn't the best - I think my camera doesn't do very good video under artificial light (previously it's all been daylight) but some experimentation will tell.

The still photos though are the usual excellent quality I have come to expect. 

The first truck behind this is a Hartland Locomotive ore truck, followed by some LGB ore trucks. 

This last one shows a couple of POLA figures that I bought.   To me the figure on the right is thinking something along the lines of "will the boss finish speaking to his girlfriend/wife/ex about dinner/the kids/ alimony and we can all get a move on with the job and get out of the cold and into the warmth for a  coffee".   

G scale on a budget - Part 2

More pictures of ebay bargains.  I've since discovered from the original purchase of these that the plastic footsteps on the ore wagons are very prone to break, as are the plastic framing on top of the newer tank wagons (notice break front and back).  Boxed stuff is packed with plastic inserts to protect these vulnerable parts.  The tank wagon is also missing is drain plug should I wish to fill it with water and then drain it...   A little glue may save the day and repair things though.  I understand the plastic that LGB use can be somewhat glue resistant, so I'll try plastic weld and then Araldite is probably the order of the day.

G scale on a budget - Part 1

It has been said that G scale means expensive, and like lots of statements the truth is "it depends".  Those who want live steam and super detail can pay for it.   There is also the question of "new and shiny" vs the used and 'played with'.  Prices originally looked very comparable with HO/OO scale and am discovering that I may not have compared like with like.  It may seem like I have bottomless money pit for purchases but the following illustrate how "if it looks right, and the price is right, it can be right".  Possibly it also reflects my learning about descriptions on things on Ebay, especially if unboxed.

The following are pictures of the stake wagons featured earlier.  The first one has the buffer and the (detachable) vacuum pipe for the brakes.  On the second model its lost its vacuum pipe and the the third has lost its buffer and pipe.  The effect from my viewpoint of running stuff in the garden (where the originals may well have got lost in previously) is minimal.

More on Goods loads

The original philosophy was to have 'shunting and delivery" options for actual operation.   Experience and (limited) size of garden are colouring this a bit, although the discovery of Hartland Locomotive Works' small wagons (to be covered in a later post) has again altered this, this time for a more positive experience.

Anyhow, I want to have loads that are 'delivered' and look the part.  I suppose this is my reaction to riding the Chemin der Fer in Provence when we saw milk and other produce being taken on board, and newspapers and a bicycle (wrapped) being delivered: this was a working railway dong useful stuff for people.

I had previously bought some Playmobil Milk churns, and the yellow fencing is also playmobil.  The fencing was to see "put down and take up use" on the original patio concept.  The sacks are a 1:32 item from Britains - ultimately to get the sticky label taken off, resprayed and weathered and replaced with a decal of something more appropriate, probably either fertilizer from Hydro or a building item (e.g. sand, cement).  The beer crates come from two sources- the red ones come from the back of a much smaller scale lorry, whilst the Zillertal ones are from an Austrian guy aimed at G scale modellers - presumably with the famous Zillertal Beer Keg wagon from LGB in mind (I didn't originally want Green Zillertal ones) - that a German chum got for me.  Personally I suspect that these would either be transported in a box car (to protect the bottles), or a smaller wagon as part of a mixed load for one small halt.

  

Taking Stock: Goods Vans and loads

As the saying goes "have been busy" and lots of it to do with railroads both miniature and real, so lots to appear on the blog now that I'm settled for a bit.  First up on the blog is a look at my current (plain) goods wagons.  There was an article in Model Rail International 2011 (which seems to be some sort of yearly special) about the logging industry both American and Continental (mostly Austrian/Swiss and Rhb/Zillertal) but it covered making model logging loads from real timber.   I was aware of this when I engaged on the great garden tidy up and kept back some of the wood, and have added to it more recently.  One of the important things was to use wood of roughly the same diameter within a load.

I've been bidding over time on Ebay to get a number of the stake wagons - which generally seem to be in demand - at a reasonable price.  Remains to be seen if I keep all of them as logging wagons and the logs themselves still need chains etc to secure them.  The other loads get more discussion in my next post.

 

Things I do for Trains: Chris the Brickie...

Just back from the first night of my 10 week evening class on bricklaying.   I want to have some (lift out) bridges on my layout and that involves probably at least one brick pillar even if I'm looking at decking etc for the main layout.  And the brick faced flowerbeds are falling apart and need some maintenance and I want to have my logging camp extension in one of them.

Bit surreal really to do something like bricklaying at evening class given that I've previously normally done computer based skill courses, or things that take place in a classroom.  The DIY course had all the girlies... :-(  (There is a girlie on the bricklaying day class and her work looked excellent - as Ann said she could be someone like a landscape gardener).  Also the course brought home how we haven't really moved that much forward from Roman times....  although one might argue that bricks didn't come back into use after the Romans left until circa 1500 AD...  Carpentry I can see as an extension of my modelling skills, but bricklaying is well off base... It would be interesting to hear all the stories of why people are on the course as we seem a fairly motley crew...

We build walls up, we take them down (the lime mortar we are using doesn't set in the timescale we are on).   By week 4 if we are good then we may get to leave our walls standing....

 I did about 4 foot by two bricks high tonight, with each attempt better than the last.  Learned alot already - I'm obviously not the first G scale train man he has had on a course... By the end of it then I think I will have got value for my £80 course fee.

Ann of course wants one of these...

Given that it is a tripartite build - base, column and bridge bit, then I had been thinking of a base and bridge for a bit of the Garden.

Working on the builders bottom, tattoos, and wolf whistles...

Chris

Logging camp - Garden work and track planning again

My new PIKO R2 (920mm) curves arrived last weekend (along with some second hand LGB R3 curves - 1175mm).  R3 is the default minimum standard for 'anything will run" but still a bit big for my garden.  I've already accepted that 'big and long' locos or coaches don't belong on my likely layout as it is at the moment and 500 mm may be the maximum length of either if it is not to look a bit silly.  

I spent some time on more detailed undergrowth clearance - Ann previously has tended to hack away on clearance, but has tended to produce a 'coppice' effect, thus making future years worse.  The end result of this was lots of wood for the stake cars for the proposed logging camp (and the Zillertal - link this time is to a tourist article - makes lots of its money from carrying wood) and I put out some track with some new curves.  The ultimate aim is to have a 'lift out' bridge across the path, so that is functional on non operating days.

Welshpool and Llanfair again - coaches

One of the unexpected treats of the visit were the coaches on the railway which are ex Zillertalbahn stock and which are typical of the real life stock that have informed the LGB models that I have.  LGB made/make replica Zillertal coaches which I don't have but the similarity with others should be apparent. The bottom coach is what we actually rode on.

Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway

August 4/5th was the Llanfair Garden railway show and the steam gala on the W&L light railway.   A long journey North and West but an excellent day.  More to come, but a couple of videos for now the ride on the railway.

First up is riding on the carriage balcony behind the Countess engine.

Next is seeing the engine Joan depart with a rake of Zillertal Carriages. 

Enjoy !

Chris

More Graft in the sunshine: Supervision

This was more supervision than my actual graft as I was busy in the house going through the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated.

The black stuff represents "no grow" liner.   It's good to see the weeds and "slug reserve" material go.

Until the school at the back has finished (so there is no visibility) and I've dealt with a couple of visibility issues on my side then I can't see me leaving track out permanently at the moment.  Spring 2012 for full working.   And I think it will come down to physically laying track on the garden - without an accurate garden plan then my track planning software is limited usage, and this is very much a project of fit it in with what I have rather than a blank sheet.

Ann did all the hard work, although I do feel that she had encouraged the "slug reserve" in the first place.  Since I had ordered ground clearance some months ago, or else nuclear armageddon would occur with me and my blue anti slug/snail pills, then things had already improved.

The black area to the right of the Yucca is for the "Logging camp" extension.  Full details yet to be worked out but it involves some sort of (temporary) bridge across the path...