Have I become a Rivet Counter ?

It is a bridge I suspect that all model railway people face - the chasm of the rivet counter, when historical accuracy or true to life realism says no to a purchase or running trains.  Problem is that some people can become so obsessive that its almost like - OK so my model railway represents October 14th 1962 (which whilst a random date I've just made up had some pretty important things happen on it) because look at the photos on the newspapers in the shop... etc...

I had one of those moments this morning but I think I'm still safely in the land of the non rivet counter.

Last year I got my first (and so far only) double motor locomotive - the Austrian 2095.  This is a nice, red, diesel that will happily push the snowplow around the garden (although yet to try with actual snow, but it had enough oomph to cope with the brick in the cart).  I like it because of its compactness (length is only 460mm) and lack of protruding parts, nooks and crannies were it to face actual snow....

After some research this morning I established that mine has the generic LGB European Diesel sound card.

It has the running number 205.06.  There were 15 of these locos made for Austrian narrow gauge lines.   

LGB have made the locomotive with a number of running numbers.  So today, we have on eBay another 2095, already fitted with a Massoth digital sound card but in the red/cream earlier livery of Austrian railways and the "eagle" motif at the front. 

And with an hour left there are still no bids on it.  The starting price is reasonable and realistic - at £300, then a Massoth chip is £175-£200 ish new, meaning only £100+ for the loco.   Double heading would mean 4 motors vs the evil snow and immense pulling power.  However, it shares the same running number - 2095.06- which means is replicates the same real life loco in an earlier livery.  

Do I need it desperately?  No!  

Would I like it? Yes!

Finally, with a few minutes to go, someone puts a bid in on it.  

Ultimately I decide not to bid because of the running number issue and because I could also use £300 towards the Dollnitz Diesel fund.  Put the two side by side and once aware of it, then my eye, and I think those of a number of my friends would be drawn to spot the similarity.  And I know that there are other running numbers out there and which will presumably crop up at some time in the future.  

Still in the land of the non rivet counters...  

  

Feb 16th 2013 Shepton Mallet show

Yesterday I had an outing up to Shepton Mallet (about 90 miles away) for the Small and Delightful Railway Group show - Narrow Gauge South West.

A friend enquired if I went last - when I didn't know about the show - and the link to a report by Mick's Roving Reporter blogspot and the excellent Photo report.  2012 was the 20th Anniversary and I think that lots of stops had been pulled out to make it an excellent anniversary show.  This year seemed to be not quite such good overall quality and quantity to judge from the photo report, but the show is a victim of its own success and was quite busy, making good viewing difficult.  I suspect Mick the roving reporter had some sort of press pass to get his photo report without lots of people in the way.

That said, I came away with some ideas for inspiration and eye candy, which is the whole point of going.  I managed not to spend too much - although could have handed more over to Steve at Back to Bay 6 but was restrained.  

In no particular order we have...

Barton Ings Railway - a little tile and pipe industrial railway.   I'm certain I've seen this in the magazaines a while ago, and it is clearly G scale.   As with everything at the show it was lovingly modelled with those little bits of detail that mark the great out from the good.  What particular piece of inspiration I took away from this layout though was the drive through Engine shed - apparently there in the prototype.  This will break up a stretch of flat track/siding out int he garden and is something that I can model given my level of skills.

What I think is the G scale national touring layout was there - I've seen it in similar style at the Warwick Show last year.  Few different side details (no skiers for example) but the locos and rolling stock looked very similar.  

The South West (aka Bristol and Gloucester) G scale group was there with a little (automated ?) Tram layout.  The first picture shows the overall figure of 8 whilst the second has the particular ideas that I shall probably be "borrowing".  Expand the picture and you can see the string of "fairly lights" strung between poles, with simple slots cut in tubes to take the wire.  My experience of real life Germany is that at outdoor bars etc then they go in for this bright light atmosphere.  The second one is the simple kiosk marked Ticket Office - which given that I now envisage having a siding with excursion cars, will just help add that extra bit of flavour.   

One of the principles behind Garden Railways would appear to be that if possible don't make the train or track viewable from one location for the entire length of a journey.  On an early railway visit I encountered creative use of Trellis to shield trains.     

   The Pigsty Brewery (and remember my earlier blog on Brewery railways and the book from ebay) showed how a low relief building might be used, which was something I had started to consider, and which reminded me of the Guinness Factory in Dublin.

Next up was not in G scale.   With my somewhat crude hat on then I would say HOe although I suspect the truth is something else.  This was a model based around Hurst Castle but what I could use was the idea of walls with archways in them, and trains and track running through.

Next up in a scale wise 1/25 etc was the Yellow Ridge Uranium Mine.   Lots of mining inspiration and a working ore tippler, although I caught the end of it working and then didn't catch it working again.  Wanted to see how the trucks were held in place but suspect it is just some retaining rods. 

Last up of the larger scale layouts that I took pictures of was the Schmalspur Workstadt Bahn.  I didn't capture the RHB snow blower going round but I found this a useful indication of what could be done as a G scale layout, and was interested in the engine shed and the "double fairlie tram" - based upon an original in Saxony.  

Then we come onto photos that are purely eye candy.   I've had American leanings probably ever since I started this idea, probably only nipped in the bud to some extent by LGB not making much American stuff (at least not that was brand new) and especially not geared locomotives as in Shay, Heisler or Climax.  Bachmann make them but an early forum post warned me of the dangers of running Bachmann Shays (10 or 18 volt, I suspect 10) on LGB 24 volt track power.  End result very likely to be a puff of blue magic smoke.   As always, with hindsight I should just have bought a shay when they were available somewhat cheaply and just had the innards replaced.   

That brings me to Tuscora Mine.  Unfinished as a result of the poor winter and round of viruses and bugs we have had.  Long and thin, and almost a layout in two parts.  This has the promise to be very interesting when finished.   

And final photo was Gamle Carlesberg - literally "Old Carlesberg" but in reality a model of a view of the factory.  I have been here (pre model railway days) and its a good trip from the centre of Oslo.  Off to the far right is the famous elephant gate.     

Here is a much better picture of one of the Porters on the layout.  And this is a close up one of the elephants.  This website from the Danish Tourist authority  has a bit on the history of Carlsberg and more photos of the famous elephant gate (now without trains).   

Smoke fluid: Legal disclaimer: Take note

Ok,

Like Grandma's secret cookie recipe, I was given an alternative to the (expensive, possibly overpriced) LGB Smoke Fluid.  I have shared said recipe.

No guarantees it doesn't harm your smoke elements or damage your engines.
But I have shared it.
Your risk I felt amongst consenting adults.

Following a conversation tonight then CLEARLY YOUR RISK.

Will it burn your house down?
Probably, if you try, really, really, really hard (legally I suspect we are into Arson territory at this point) and set it up so it can burn your house down.

I thought I would test the questions about spills etc..
I was never one to shy away from practical chemistry....

My results (your tests may differ) into the mixture as quoted..(which form now on must remain one of those freemansonry type "not to be divulged" secrets.

Throwing matches into a pool of the secret mix...  No fumes, no vapour, all a bit of a dud really...
This does however set me thinking about at what mixture is there fuel vapour/flammabillity   A bit like saying "can I make napalm at home?".  (I suspect pseudo Napalm might work better with BBQ gel rather than fluid).

So from here we progress to the "spill test" concept... Is it volatile ?  And at what percentages ?  I'm sorry that I don't have those answers to hand for you.  Next weekend on the Iscatalbahn bomb range might have some answers for you.  (Napalm per se is Petroleum Jelly with tweaks which set me wondering about BBQ lighter jelly...

Boys and Girls: DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME

For the following tests I put a piece of kitchen paper into the bowl that had previously had the lit matches dropped directly into bare fluid...  Stirred it around, ensured it was thoroughly soaked and then set light to it.  

 

     

Iscatalbahn fire and rescue were on alert and had the pitcher of water to hand and the smothering (aka "deprive of oxygen" plate (and if you don't know how this works then go back to school).

A word of warning about water...  

The water is to ensure no problems AFTER the fire is out, otherwise you might be into big burns territory... I have no idea if the patent mix is into this territory, but I'm finding out only outdoors..

Now:

a) I have yet to get the "secret recipe" burning without a base (e.g. impregnated tissue)

b  I have yet then to pour water onto it.  

(Away hopefully to a railway show on Saturday, but Sunday otherwise to play in the garden).

So, give it an impregnated tissue and set direct fire to the tissue and it will burn, and the tissue is a conduit/wick and appears to therefore burn fairly slowly...    

So, where does this leave us ?

Well, back to the realm of common sense, except todays litigaticious society doesn't seem to start off with a concept of personal sense and responsibility.  

Botched self install of a smoke unit and leaking fluid everywhere ?  I dunno if an electrical spark would set that off, and again that is fresh territory.   

I have filled locomotives "on the go"without flashback from eye dropper bottles.  That is at my own risk and at the secret recipe mix.  I suspect 100% BBQ lighter fluid will give you problems (least of all being no smoke).

"Hey, let's be careful out there."

And to see who is paying attention then let me know where the  above quote comes from and I'll see what I can sort out as some sort of reward.  

Chris   

The trouble with Gardens and Curves....

...is that they invariably get in each other's way...

Today I got back into the garden for a bit, and carried on with some planning.   It's still fairly wet - and indeed rained a little today but I was able to get some measurements.

In a nutshell the problems I have are:
a) I need to curve round the obstacle of the mock orange and hawthorn, and cope with the slight angle on the garden and use the best radius of curves I can.
b) Walk across the middle bit - portrayed by the red boards in the diagram below -so down to the width of only one decking board.
c) Try and get a double track circuit...  It's stll going to look a bit like a train set but in the absence of a major land grab and something really radical that probably takes up most of the lawn, then this what I have to work with.
d) To judge from the roots that I have already encountered - lifting the mock orange is not a solution.

The schematic uses a piece of track - the 60 degree crossing from a man called Bertram Heym which I haven't got yet.  It may just be a case of getting one and playing around with it.

Still, it was good to be back out feeling that  was moving forward, so that come the sunshine I can run trains...

This needs to be only one board wide, so you step from the patio onto the other board alongside the lawn. 

What I had towards the middle of last year.  It ran for a bit before (surprise, surprise) rain stopped play.  

View of the boards again.  

The schematic of waht may work.  Digital is the way to go but points likely to be manually operated for starters.  This uses more R1 curves than I would like but I think I'm going to have to live with it.  At the bottom I've got the double slip installed with the simple crossover for comparison.  I think the double slip probably adds hugely to the versatility of the track.  

February Reading

As I decide to blog more regularly then it also strikes me that the little things get blogged as well.

Since becoming a bit of a train junkie then I've been buying more model railway magazines than I used to.  I say more because I always bought the occasional one when there was something really good in a modelling sense that I could port across to my other hobby of model soldiers.  

So, here's what's on the reading table for February and why....

Possibly not one of the best issues for me (looking for G or On30 or scenery) but I'm suckered into this a bit by Part 2 of Build a Quarry Branch having got Part 1 last month.  Next up is a scenery article on building low relief structures - always useful for gaming and the garden layout may feature some as well.  OK, so the techniques from indoor OO to outdoor G of building are going to be very different, but the principles will be the same.  Finally there was the Build a Snowshed article - which scaled up may become a build a leaf shed...  For me personally, given my somewhat special interests then probably a C+ issue. 

This is not a constant purchase although close.  Star item for me was an article on the real life Pingauer Lokalbahn (Austrian Narrow gauge).  The excellent - if possibly too time consuming for me - series of modelling French Inspired Urban scenes continues.  A German N gauge "shed" layout, which provides some inspiration around the edges e.g. the diesel refuelling tanks.  More on an OO French layout building series.  Probably a B-. 

Last is the very occasional purchase being decidedly HO/OO or smaller (e.g. N) and (essentially) British. 

Two items of major interest int his issue.   3D Printing, featuring of all things a Dutch Tram engine!  I've yet to post Hoorn 2012 visit or videos, but last November I got to see a Steam Tram Engine in the flesh.  Second up was an article on real life small trains - tank engines with a carriage or two, box van or mixture.  Local interest here with one at Tiverton Junction.    Third attention grabber was an article on making your own transfers - but really the "wraps" or "skins" that are seen on some modern carriages and buses and overlap the windows: in the article its footballers.  Add in the usual range of articles on line side detailing and buildings and a solid B for me in this issue.  

New and old Track ?

A couple of days ago some points arrived that I had won off ebay.  Whilst handling them one of the metal pieces on the underneath brok - and I could see where it had been soldered - and hte soldered joint subsequently broken.

It remains to be seen if I can develop soldering skills to repair this.

At first I though I'd got a somewhat hacked about point but close inspection reveals that the actula plastic moulded underlay is a bit different as are some of the bits underneath.  I can only presume that one is an older and one a newer style and to judge from the quantities that I have, and the actual build quality then I suspect which is the newer.

We live and learn.  Guess I'm going ot have to learn how to use a multimeter (to test current) alongside the soldering iron...

Equally I might find a live steamer/battery enthusiast to pass it onto to as I can see the soldered joint being a constant source of weakness, and indeed the whole design structure looks inferior.