Another First: even if not very exciting

Had the locos out a bit tonight.  I wanted to see if the chipped Spreewald had had the smoke unit chipped as well.  Sadly the answer seems to be not.   We ran a bit around the garden to build up power but the reality is that they will go into smoke on a standing track.

This is a new video of an acquisition from a while back that people won't have seen.  It's and LGB 0-4-0 Porter.  American, and from what I gather somewhat over scale in that it is 1:20 scale rather than 1:22.5.  It was an estate sale (which is always sad news) but a bargain price that meant I could buy it, even though it didn't belong with anything that I have because I like the colour and its looks.  Can one ever have too many locos ? 

Discovered that the Zillertal (chipped but no sound) also has working smoke generator.  The house is beginning to reek a bit of citronella oil....  :-)  (Thanks must go to Paul who shared his recipe of 50% BBQ lighter fluid and 50% Citronella oil, which is way cheaper than official LGB smoke fluid).  

And the big (if unexciting news) - I changed the ID of a decoder inside a loco from Factory Finish no 2 to no 8...  And it still works...  Until my MTS 3 magic box arrives and I can hopefully use my Massoth to change then I am stuck with ID's from 1-15 (rather than 1-22) but its a big step.  I can start work on sorting out the (far too big fleet) locos I currently have.  

Chris

Rain stops track laying: Indoor time

Well, another wet weekend.
I'm now getting a bit frustrated about getting the layout sorted and running something around it.  It won't be finished by a loooooong stretch, but restoration of a running oval will at least allow me to get the train out again...

So, rain stopped play...

And this was after I'd bought supplies in, the previous weekend and my (second hand) R3 point had arrived on Saturday morning.
So, I spent Sunday going through assorted boxes - to make some sense of what I have and also looking at couplings.  I knew some needed changing - the Bachmann knuckle to the LGB hook and loop.

I also spent part of the day doing a bit of a stock take (as its one year on, and there was lots of nice stuff on Ebay ending on Sunday - none of which I won...) and in the process realised that I had LGB stock with bachmann couplings, and some had also had their buffers attacked a bit to make the Bachmann stuff fit and work.   A brand new Bachmann item was the Dogfish brewery reefer - bought in part for any children and ham fisted adults to play with, saving the more expensive LGB stuff for more trusted hands.  It's nice and bright (if big) and pictured here with the ATSF Caboose and entirely inappropriate Cambrai Engine.  

Parallel Curves - Messing around with track

Well, the weather abated for a bit in recent weeks but my bad back continued with a bout of sciatica which only started to disappear about a week ago.  I still have a bit of tingling in my big toe, and the occassional pain in my hip.  I supervised Ann in digging up a Yucca that would get in the way generally - of people, access to the garage and the railway.   It has however given me an idea for an extension to work on after the initial loop.  After a weekend away I had last Monday off to get supplies in for this jubilee bank holiday weekend.  So, it was more decking boards, more blue bricks and on Saturday Ann went with me to carry home some decking planks and went to Screwfix to get me some mending plates and screws.

I have had to give up some proposed real estate though to the siting of a compost bin since I'm now becoming the chief "weeder".

As everyone in the UK knows however, after Saturday the rain started - well for us it started on late Saturday afternoon.  So, not out today much.  I have been wrestling with a problem though.  On the "ideal" circuit I have a loop with nothing smaller than LGB R3 curves, to be able to cope with all locos, and to have an "up" train and a "down" train, then the inner circuit is PIKO R3 and LGB R2.  The problem is meshing these together via points.

A friend has lent me the LGB Track Planning and Technical Guide.  I'd be looking to buy my own copy if the copies around (Amazon etc) weren't so expensive.

Reading through this though and the track planning guide diagram - which is repeated in the catalogue.  

But what this doesn't make clear,until one starts to look at it closely is that there is no connection between the blue (R3) track and the Green (R2) track.  R1 (Yellow) and R2 (Green) would appear to be designed to mesh together easily but not R2 to R3.  

I have the added difficulty of the Garage not actually being at 90 degrees, more likely 80 degrees, so coming out of the curve, then the available space narrows.  Picture and playing around with railmodeller below.  

The green rectangle is a check of parallelness between the two sets of track.  

Another day off tomorrow though, so hopefully more progress and if nothing else at least restoration of a running to be able to get the trains out if I want.  Review and analysis of another corner has suggested the need for a R3 point so I'm watching and bidding at the moment on Ebay.  

A quick look last night at something else also brought out one of the first hazards of garden railways - Snail on the track !