Toby vists SRR!

We had a go at a 5" day a month or so ago. Weather was terrible but we did have a couple of trains running around. No one took photos! Too busy BBQing... and eating inside...

Toby's innards - Before

Toby's innards - after

However Toby the Tram stayed on for a re-wire. He was a new Tram with a PWM controller and secure wiring, headlight taillight etc. He'd did subsequently suffer a failure in a solder joint (my fault), so is back for a service call... under warranty.

Aside from the minor repair, he has had a little bit of a makeover. How about a 3D face, a chimney, a steam pipe and a bit of paint - not too much as he is a working locomotive!!!

Carriage brakes!

I have been working on SRR too. The ride-on carriage has been re-bogied with Warrick Sandberg mechanically braked bogies. The ride height changed etc. I finally decided what to do about connecting the brakes. Thought about cables, cams, levers... bearing in mind on the SRR track the curves are tight(ish) at 3.9metre radius and the bogies turn a fair bit. 

So ONE bogie now has FOOT brakes. I plan to build another carriage so will get a pair of unbraked bogies and use one on each carriage plus one braked version. 

The brake lever on the bogie only needs to move 5-10mm at the end so I roughly calculated the mechanical advantage, made a pedal on a shaft, a return spring and lever, a short activating lever, and linking piece out of an offcut of 20x10 rail. Grade 8 bolts connect it all.

The pivots are quite loose and the clevises are wide to allow for turning in the curves. It take very little pressure to feel the brakes, and full pedal will lock it up!

Oh, and the carriage now has LED marker (tail) lights...

Side tracked...

This mess came out...

Amongst other things needing doing (like house stuff) I rewired our friends' 'Tram' - Toby... Replaced a switched resistor speed 'controller' with a $5 chinese PWM controller. $5 for a 6-60VDC 1200watt speed controller - including postage! Toby now has progressive speed control and a bit of dynamic braking... 15 amp circuit breaker/switch, LED headlight & tail light, and a really loud horn!
It is all 24v now. All tied up and hopefully vibration proof!

 

 

Meet 'Esky'

Our little basic general purpose locomotive has been re-purposed and re-designated. 
Meet Thomas's Friend, 'Esky'!

Down the S-Bends...

Both S bend kinks beside the house are finished. So the riding car with feet hanging out clears the water tank and the new slim shed. 
The track will be level with the top of the brick paving and filled in with granitic sand to the rail tops. Won't be used a lot so a quick sweep will clean the rail tops and clear for wheel flanges.

SRR successful opening...

The crash test dummies arrived on Boxing Day. Notwithstanding a re-jig of loco suspension, the Southern Riverina (Garden) Railway has had a successful opening week.

Nearly ready for Official Opening of Australia's newest railway...

The Siding...

 Beside the house we have added a slim shed, so we need another "S" bend for clearance. 

This one is a 2m length with 1m curve each way. So about half the displacement of the 3m bend around the water tank.

Day two...

Since the service car works I have put ends on and tidied it up a bit.

Folks, we have Australias newest Railway!!!

Main oval circuit is in one piece!

The main 33m oval is in one piece. All welded joins except the removable points which have welded plates at the bottom of the rail, double bolted together. No expansion joints as 2/3 of the track can move on the road bed - enough, I hope. I calculate about 1cm movement from 0 to 40C...

Still have some levelling and ballasting to do but...

And still have the Y to do, but have everything lined up and the track is nearly levelled - which affects the levels on the Y of course.

Back to track work

Now that the turf under the track has been dug out, and the track moved back, I have been levelling, welding joins, installing the sleepers, packing the granitic sand roadbed, and using it to ballast too. 

I am 2/3 of the way done - for the main 33m ( about 8x7m) oval. And it is starting to look like a railway.

With one big shove I can get the small bogie all the way around the 20 odd metres!!!

Railcar Frame/Chassis

The Railcar chassis will be MS rectangular bar 20x10mm. Made a start...

Sod all... gone

Finished digging out the grass sod from under the main oval of track. Weed mat down. 

Next weld, and level the track, install granitic base, sleepers...

The levels for the "Y" and the side track by the house are dependant on the main track, so they will be last.

Heatwave

Yesterday made 39 celsius, today looks like its done at 34, but it has been over 30 since 1030! Inside jobs tilit cools.

Have decided to use granitic sand roadbase for the railway base.  It should set well. 

I will get a trailer load and leftovers will fill a few holes in the drive...

Railway Navie...

Trying to stay in the shade this morning, but the sun caught up to me 10 am it's 30! 

Even after rotary hoeing a couple of times it is still hard to chip out the grass roots. None-the-less I have made significant progress...

Weed-mat might help keep grass out of the roadbed, I hope.

Rotary Hoe...

I'd sure hate to cut up the cooch grass by hand. Especially this next few days - 32 at the moment, then 34 tomorrow, 39 Thursday. 

Moneys worth out of the CHonda motor in an hour or so. All the spoil will go to filling in the dip down to the lake. The slope on the right is quite concave... 

Now to clean it out by hand - then cart the roadbed in barrow at a time... after I find the right material, at the right price! 

Took levels with Maz this morning. The ground level varies about 120mm, so will get the road bed level as I can, then top dress the grass up to level... eventually. But we really just need the main oval finished by Christmas. And FYI, it is a mere 33m around!

The Station, 'Platform 9 3/4' tidied up.

We have tidied up around the 'platform'!

Sprinklers re-planted; the green caps cover valves to control the flow to this pair of edge sprinklers.

At the far end in the pix the rail top is just below old ground level, the near end it is about 3cm above... 

So next job is to shoot some levels with the Lufkin 'dumpy' level. Then move the rest of the track rotary hoe and dig out the rest of the track base... 

Then a trailer load of granitic sand. 
Oh! and I still have sleepers to finish...

Start of the Railcar

Here is the start of a freestyle rail motor... A ride-on and tow vehicle. Driven axle (450watt) from Warrick Sandberg. Front bogie die cast wheels from Ian Ramsay (DNC). Pillow block bearings... China ($4 ea). Custom Axles, Peter...

Might look something like one of these...

Flush concrete Finished!!! ... well all but...

Well, here is the other end of 'Platform 9 3/4'... except for being one bag short! I think I will emboss something in the last little triangle...

Tried a new idea with this and cut 20mm wide strips of a 6-7mm old foam hiking mattress and put the strips in the gap... saved a lot of time cleaning out the rail-checkrail gap. Worth it!