A favourite pursuit is designing, building
and running live steam model railways. I usually work to a scale
of 1:19, that is approximately 5/8" or 16mm to 1 foot, The
models follow narrow gauge practice using a track gauge of 32mm
(1.25") to represent real trains that run on lines of 600mm
or 2 foot gauge or thereabouts. From the vagueness of the last
sentence you will gather that I do not count rivets when I build
models.
The Birches Barn Light Railway runs at ground level round a suburban garden. The main circuit is 1.25 scale miles in length. Track is Peco SM32, mainly on a concrete foundation. It is secured with a 1:2:2 Rowland's mix of cement, peat and sand which protects the track from human feet, footballs, BMX cycles and wild animals.
I recently joined the Stafford and District Model Engineering Society. As well as a 16mm narrow gauge circuit the club has 2 1/2", 3 1/2", 5" and 7 1/4" available. I am building my own 5" gauge De Winton locomotive form a kit. See my Chaloner pages for progress to date.There are several steam and diesel video clips on my garden railway video page.
Wild Rose Wild Rose is a home build project serialised by Keith Bucklitch in the journal "16mm Today" otherwise known as SMT. The loco is the original which Keith copied to develop the series. This is a model of a typical quarry Hunslet as used extensively in the slate quarries of North Wales. The model is designed to be built without any commercial parts. It is simple enough to be tackled by a beginner who wants to learn metal working techniques. Building Wild Rose requires use of a small lathe. Wild Rose has a simple pot boiler and slip eccentric valve gear. It can be built with either methylated spirit or butane gas firing. Plans for a whistle are available to download.
Frog Frog is a model of an early Bagnall locomotive. It is similar to the full size locomotive Isabel which is based at Amerton Farm near Stafford. The model features working Baguley valve gear and a drumhead boiler (Bagnall's name for a marine boiler). It is fired by solid fuel (actually Homefire smokeless fuel). Stoking a loco this size is a challenging task. Mind you there is no physical effort involved since the firebox takes just a thimblefull of fuel at a time. It has to be fired every 70 yards or so. On a ground level line this can take some doing. More pictures
Idris Construction of Idris was described in SMT during 1995 with full working drawings. It represents a de Winton locomotive as used in North Wales slate quarries. The model is simplified by using oscillating cylinders. A centre flue boiler is used. Orignally fired by methylated spirits, Idris now sports a Butane gas burner. For more infromation read the Idris Story and you can download the plans in PDF, GIF or DWG format. For more pictures see: Another image of Idris , Three quarter view, Underside with burner removed and Underside with burner in place .
San Fairy Anne is a model of a Hudswell Clark locomotive. It carries an internally fired JVR type C boiler, and has working Stephenson valve gear. This loco saw several years service on the BBLR before the valve gear wore out in 2001. New eccentrics, sheaves, valve rods and motion plates were made and fitted early in 2002 and it is now running better than ever.
Detritus Detritus is an interloper on this page. It is a working model of a typical smallish industrial diesel locomotive. Construction was largely from recycled material. It uses an glo-plug engine taken from a Nitro Hawk radio controlled car. The drive train is mechanical with forward and reverse gears and a lever operated friction clutch. An effective silencer makes it quieter than my lawn-mower. The pull-cord starter from the car makes for easy starting. For more information read the Detritus Story.
This loco is not in the same league as Mr. Wada's fantastic Gauge 1 creation which you can find described in Steam in the Garden web pages. Nonetheless it was fun to build and is a great crowd puller at shows and garden meetings.
LINKS
If you want to contact me about leisure activities Send e-mail to: dave.watkins@blueyonder.co.uk
A favourite pursuit is designing, building
and running live steam model railways. I usually work to a scale
of 1:19, that is approximately 5/8" or 16mm to 1 foot, The
models follow narrow gauge practice using a track gauge of 32mm
(1.25") to represent real trains that run on lines of 600mm
or 2 foot gauge or thereabouts. From the vagueness of the last
sentence you will gather that I do not count rivets when I build
models.
The Birches Barn Light Railway runs at ground level round a suburban garden. The main circuit is 1.25 scale miles in length. Track is Peco SM32, mainly on a concrete foundation. It is secured with a 1:2:2 Rowland's mix of cement, peat and sand which protects the track from human feet, footballs, BMX cycles and wild animals.
I recently joined the Stafford and District Model Engineering Society. As well as a 16mm narrow gauge circuit the club has 2 1/2", 3 1/2", 5" and 7 1/4" available. I am building my own 5" gauge De Winton locomotive form a kit. See my Chaloner pages for progress to date.There are several steam and diesel video clips on my garden railway video page.
Wild Rose Wild Rose is a home build project serialised by Keith Bucklitch in the journal "16mm Today" otherwise known as SMT. The loco is the original which Keith copied to develop the series. This is a model of a typical quarry Hunslet as used extensively in the slate quarries of North Wales. The model is designed to be built without any commercial parts. It is simple enough to be tackled by a beginner who wants to learn metal working techniques. Building Wild Rose requires use of a small lathe. Wild Rose has a simple pot boiler and slip eccentric valve gear. It can be built with either methylated spirit or butane gas firing. Plans for a whistle are available to download.
Frog Frog is a model of an early Bagnall locomotive. It is similar to the full size locomotive Isabel which is based at Amerton Farm near Stafford. The model features working Baguley valve gear and a drumhead boiler (Bagnall's name for a marine boiler). It is fired by solid fuel (actually Homefire smokeless fuel). Stoking a loco this size is a challenging task. Mind you there is no physical effort involved since the firebox takes just a thimblefull of fuel at a time. It has to be fired every 70 yards or so. On a ground level line this can take some doing. More pictures
Idris Construction of Idris was described in SMT during 1995 with full working drawings. It represents a de Winton locomotive as used in North Wales slate quarries. The model is simplified by using oscillating cylinders. A centre flue boiler is used. Orignally fired by methylated spirits, Idris now sports a Butane gas burner. For more infromation read the Idris Story and you can download the plans in PDF, GIF or DWG format. For more pictures see: Another image of Idris , Three quarter view, Underside with burner removed and Underside with burner in place .
San Fairy Anne is a model of a Hudswell Clark locomotive. It carries an internally fired JVR type C boiler, and has working Stephenson valve gear. This loco saw several years service on the BBLR before the valve gear wore out in 2001. New eccentrics, sheaves, valve rods and motion plates were made and fitted early in 2002 and it is now running better than ever.
Detritus Detritus is an interloper on this page. It is a working model of a typical smallish industrial diesel locomotive. Construction was largely from recycled material. It uses an glo-plug engine taken from a Nitro Hawk radio controlled car. The drive train is mechanical with forward and reverse gears and a lever operated friction clutch. An effective silencer makes it quieter than my lawn-mower. The pull-cord starter from the car makes for easy starting. For more information read the Detritus Story.
This loco is not in the same league as Mr. Wada's fantastic Gauge 1 creation which you can find described in Steam in the Garden web pages. Nonetheless it was fun to build and is a great crowd puller at shows and garden meetings.
LINKS
If you want to contact me about leisure activities Send e-mail to: dave.watkins@blueyonder.co.uk
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