Glenngary tramway

[jayvid]

Hello, I hope the members will find this thread of interest.

 

The Glenngary Tramway started life as a garden railway started in 1999 to entertain my children and myself. The tramway is built to approxiametly 1:32 scale and is set to an angle of 23 degrees, this was dictated by top and bottom end points and the distance between. 23 degrees is quite shallow in cliff lift terms but would prove ideal later, when coupled with a shortened incline length for exhibition settings.

 

Below are some photos of the early days of construction and one of where we are now;

 

Gary

[jayvid]

The name of the tramway comes from family names my son is Glenn I am Gary, you get the picture.

It became soon obvious that if any work on one of the tramcars was required then the top winding house would have to be dismantled so a third car was built. this meant that the system would run and any jobs on a car could be done when convenient.The three cars are named after my wife and two daughters Dianne,Gemma and Carli .

The top and bottom station were painted "summer Blue" and the cars "Brunswick Green " with a yellow top band.

Decals were waterslide type made on the computer and sealed with varnish after application. These proved to be not very long lived as the system lived outside 365 days a year.

The drive system used a recycled 18volt battery drill run at around 6 volts via reduction jockey wheel onto a large winding wheel. control was simply on demand ie .press a push button and the system ran untill a car approched the top station and activated a microswitch and the system would wait until it received the command to go again via the pushbutton.

Pictures 1&2 Gemma at the top station.

Picture 3  Carli at the bottom of the incline during testing.

 

[jayvid]

When you live on the north east coast one lesson you quickly learn is take on the weather, especially in winter and you will loose!. After a couple of years the cars badly needed a repaint but I could not buy any brunswick green paint anywhere locally. A trial application of the summer blue as used on the stations wasn't what i was after so an alternative was sought. whilst in a local pound shop I spotted a blue gloss paint very similar to that used by  Cadburys, cheap to buy but a nighmare to apply. After multiple coats the job was done but only on two cars "Carli" was left for another day.

This paint finish proved very resilient, this coupled with better decals meant "Dianne" and "Gemma" stayed on the incline for 3 years. It was now five years since the system was built and apart from routine drive belt changes and the addition of lighting to cars and stations, all was well.  The  motor then started to get increasingly rough sounding before finally calling it a day.

It had done five winters outside plus its life prior to that in a battery drill !!!. Due to work commitments the tramway stood idle for the best part of two years before being dismantled pending a  house move.

(Pic 1 ) trial application of summer blue  paint to "Dianne"

(Pics 2-5)  Condition prior to dismantling after  standing Idle for 2 years.

[deeslexia]

So neat !

Not for the faint hearted, I guess.

[jayvid]

The proposed house move involved selling up and moving to North Wales to open a gift/model shop just as the banking crisis struck !.

Negotiations moved painfully slow and in that time the trams were rebuilt with a view to going on display in the shop window. After a year the deal collapsed but by then the trams were back up and running.  The rebuild involved constructing a new incline and frame but reusing all other components. The track was shortened from 2 metres in length down to 1.2 metres. A new motor with built in planetary gearbox was sourced, which removed the need for the previous jockey wheel arrangement and a toothed cambelt and wheels replaced the previous drivebelt system with the original winding wheel being retained. To give fine adjustment of the trams speed, a motor control unit which works on pulse width modulation similar to how the dcc chips work in model railways was employed,  this allows the trams to be slowed to a snails pace without stressing the motor. Wiring was added so the trams ran automatically i.e. run, pause (passenger boarding), run. 

 

As the trams would be indoors weathering of the decals wouldn't be an issue, but as they would be in full sun for most of the day fading would. By chance a local commercial graphics firm had the answer, by reducing the size of the printed vinyls they use on buses these would have the longevity needed. JOB DONE !!!

 

 

 

 

[jayvid]

Over the next 2 years  work continued to improve the trams, the tracks were filled in to represent wood decking .The top station recieved some internal fixtures and fittings  and a repaint externally.

People to populate the cars and stations proved difficult to find in the right scale and the ones I could get were not very good to say the least.!. this has been an ongoing problem but I may have found a solution recently. (fingers crossed).

The incline rear wall was made thicker and a foliage area added up both sides.

To give a seaside illuminations effect a multicoloured led lighting system has been installed which has a programmable controller so a mulitude of effects are possible. 

It was around 2009 that I joined the Scarborough And District Railway modelers Club (SDRM), a move which I have never regreted. I quickly found myself helping to operate one of the clubs layouts at there Annual show. If you are in two minds about joining your local club give it a go, the depth of knowledge and willingness to help one another is truly inspiring. 

 

In early 2010 one of the Long standing club members got the chance to give his brand new exhibition layout its first public outing at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway at a mini exhibition in Pickering Station and asked if I would like to take the trams. There followed a frantic few weeks to get them ready in time and presentable to show to the public.

[jayvid]

As I stated at the start of this thread the trams were built to run in the garden and survive what the elements would throw at them, so the addition of fine detail was never planned for. Couple this with my desire to work with what was originally built rather than scrap it and start again (which has been the fate of my previous model railway layouts) to find myself taking them to a show was daunting to say the least.

The weekend passed without any problems and the reaction of the public was superb with many fond memories of riding such systems on holidays, the operation of funiculars both electric and water powerd prompted a lot of discussions.

Following the success of the first outing the trams received an invite to the SDRM clubs annual show, but before that a small control panel was  built to enable the public to act as the driver and also to help explain how the top and bottom stations communicate with each other, the addition of this little panel has proved very popular with visitors of all ages especially the younger ones when "don't touch" is the norm.

The enquiring minds of the children were to prompt the next major modification with the question  "where does the driver sit ?".....back to the workshop !!!

 

[jayvid]

Sorry pictures did not upload.

[jayvid]

With the top station stripped ready to add an extra window between the boarding doors for the drivers control booth, I decided to add a further window low down so the public could view the winding room mechanism.This resulted in the wiring needing a tidy up and a repaint to make it presentable, lighting was also installed to aid viewing

I have always kept a log of the running time the trams have done so with a bit of maths I am able to calculate the distance each car has coverd. As cars "Gemma" and "Dianne" had by that time  done over 21,000 metres each the wheel sets were dismantled to check for wear. Considering I had used a very basic plastic wheels revolving on M6 bolt threads arrangement trimmed with flat washers and nylock nuts, I was surprised to find very little wear evident. Tram car "Carli" now used as a display model in the old green livery had only done just short of 5,000 metres so plans were made to build a fourth car to allow the system to run in either livery.

 

 

[jayvid]

The new car build followed the method uses on the origlnal three and received the doors previously taken from "Dianne" during one of its upgrades. In keeping with the use of family names on the model the new car was named "June".

When work first started on the model much of the early woodwork was done in my fathers workshop, who at the same time started to build a system which would run on water.To move the cars by using water alone involves making the car at the top of the incline heavier than the one at the bottom.This is done by  filling a tank mounted in the frame under the car body but the problem is that in model form there is not enough space to allow for quantity of water required to overcome the frictional losses in the system. Work progressed as far as building prototype frames and a makeshift incline, numerous tanks were built in copper and plastic with tipping mechanisms and self priming syphons for filling and emptying, two car bodies were started and disgarded when work ground to a halt.

The cars on Glenngary are based on the ones that ran at the Corner cafe in the North bay Scarborough and were a very basic box like design, where as the ones dad built had a more rounded roof line and are slightly longer. These cars are currently part of the display at exhibitions but the plan is to adapt them to fit the glenngary clearances and fit them out with more ornate fixtures  and fittings.

 

 

 

 

[jayvid]

Time for a further update.

To give a drivers eye view of the incline a minature video camera was installed next to the drivers control booth and coupled with a 7 inch monitor.One of the operations we invite the public to attempt is to park the trams side by side at the mid incline point (this is done on some full size trams to even out the load on the cables and to protect the cars from vandalism etc when not in use). Parking the model trams when viewed from the side is relatively easy but doing it via the camera view only is suprisingly difficult.Earlier on in this thread I mentioned about the poor quality of the figures that populate the tramway. The solution has come in the form of the clubs 'N' gauge figure detailler who has kindly offered to weave his magic in a rolling programme.The tramway has now completed 10 exhibitions and with future outings yet to be confirmed, the opportunity has been taken to give the top station an interior refurbishment, this includes woodpanelling, new flooring and new fixtures and fittings and the first batch of people are ready to go for their makeover.All in all plenty to keep me busy in the coming winter months.

Edited November 13, 2013 by jayvid

[jayvid]

Over the last couple of months both the top and bottom stations have received new interiors.The exteriors have had numerous details added over the last year inbetween show outings these include; side walls and roofs at the boarding doors, roof detail and top station flag pole aircraft beacon, flower tubs and advertising hoarding at the bottom station.
The first batch of figures have returned from their makeover by Geoff Britton  (SDRM member and co builder of the clubs N gauge exhibition layout "North of England Line"), and they look superb !!.
We now have six outings confirmed over the coming year so I better get on with the 3rd set of cars asap.

Edited March 8, 2014 by jayvid

[jayvid]

Rebuilding the cars started by Dad

First job was to remove the roofs which had warped badly since been built in 1999. To make these cars fit on the Glenngary incline the height had to be reduced by 20mm, in order to achieve this a flatter roof profile would be needed. With the roofs removed the half round supports could be gently separated from the remainder of the bodies. Following a clean up the window areas received multiple coats of Pewter paint. Wood panelling and battens were added and painted in Insignia red. External sliding doors were added next and new roofs made and painted. Brass hand rails were used to carry the dc  battery supply to the internal lighting unit 

The frames differ from the previous builds by being of all plastic construction.This meant that a lot more bracing was required to make them strong enough. only time will tell if they will prove  able to withstand the inevitable knocks and strains of prolonged running 

 

Gary

 

[jayvid]

First pictures of the near complete 3rd set of tram cars with the roofs not fixed yet pending the arrival of the repainted figures. New display stands have been made as the new cars are too long to fit the old ones. 

For this years shows the Morris vans return last seen in 2010 .The last ones  we had were given away as competition prizes etc but I have only recently been able to get some replacements.

A test session yesterday highlighted a couple of loose wiring connections but were soon fixed. The video camera and monitor performed much better since the rerooting of the cables to reduce interference problems. So we are good to go, first  show next weekend ( 26/27 April  details of which are on my website )

[jayvid]

Six days exhibiting in 2 weeks makes one realise that one is not getting any younger, the trams perfoming better than the operators !

the system covered just under 5000 metres during the shows.

Next outing is in July so we have the chance to get the new cars up and running. When a new cable is fitted it will stretch over a period of days so this has to be taken into account before final adjustments can take place.

[jayvid]

A long setup and test session with the new cars resulted in them settling down quite nicely, the usual continual fine adjustments not being required this time around. As with the other cars the new ones have been named after family members, This time it is our four  Grandmothers  (All who are sadly no longer with us)

Margaret -Tilly   After  Margaret Norman and Frances Dowkes (Tilly)

Daisy- Ellen       After Daisy Lickes and Ellen Hildreth

The first public running session for the new cars won't be just yet as tramcars "Dianne" and "Gemma" are fast approching the 40km milestone so we will  get that out of the way first

[pointstaken]

Not my area of interest, but a rather splendid piece of modelling, in both conception and execution. Allowing the young'uns to operate it might well get them involved in constructing models at a later time. All in all Glenn and Garry, a thoroughly worthwhile effort, both in modelling and in photographing. Thanks for that.

 

Dennis

Edited May 26, 2014 by pointstaken

[jayvid]

Thank you Dennis for you kind words.
 
Unfortunately the Glenn in Glenngary is too busy these days keeping Northern Rails fleet of trains operational to do any modelling, but he will have a play with my oo gauge layout when he visits  (don't tell his workmates ).
The reaction we get when at shows is what makes the hours spent on it worth wile,with many  recounting memories of holidays spent riding to the beach on such systems. 
The shows we have done so far have nearly all been home club organised events with only a couple of invites further afield but that's the price one pays for being on the fringes of what is  a fantastic hobby.

 

Gary

[jayvid]

This weekend  (July 12th and 13th) we will be making our 3rd visit this year to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway at Pickering Station for there  Classic Cars & Vehicles Weekend.

When the tramway ran in the garden the original three cars were used in various combinations to allow for maintainance etc this means that they have accrued different "milage" totals. Top of the shop is "Dianne" with "Gemma" just over 1000 metres behind. Later this weekend "Dianne" should pass the 40km mark and still has its original axles and wheels.

Joining us at the NYMR mini shows this year is the Brand new GoathlandinOO layout .This is thought to be the first exhibition layout to use Hornbys railmaster computer control system and is creating a lot of interest from modellers and the public.

[jayvid]

setup session for this weekends mini show at Pickering station

[jayvid]

With the changable weather and the schools summer break just around the corner this resulted in a relatively quiet weekend show at the NYMR.The trams ran faultlessly on what was our thirteenth exhibition outing.

Tram car "Dianne" passed the 40,000 metre point just before 3pm on Sunday, Thats 25 miles in old money !

(Pic ) SDRM Chairman  Mike Johnson starts proceedings.

(Pic 2) Time to chat

(Pics 3) View from Goathlandin00 layout

Edited July 16, 2014 by jayvid

[jayvid]

Two short videos of the trams in action.

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy

Gary

[jayvid]

Its time for the SDRM's annual show at the Pickering Memorial Hall 16th/17th August.  With three floors of layouts, demonstrations and traders so there is something for everyone.

This is our home event and will be our fifth with the trams so the pressure is on to bring something new. After a busy winter the top and bottom stations  have been refurbished with new interiors and external details added. The front display has been revised with led lighting added. Two new cars will be running for the first time in public and two model  morris vans made up in red to match the new cars, one of which will be given away as part of our free to enter "guess the distance travelled by Margaret -Tilly tram car" competition. So come and see us in the foyer, drive the trams, have a chat and enjoy the show.

Gary

Edited August 10, 2014 by jayvid

[jayvid]

  Back home following what has been our busiest show to date. The SDRM clubs annual show proved to be as popular as ever. The trams spent most of the weekend running in manual mode with drivers at times queueing to take a turn.

The new tramcars performed well and earlier concerns regarding the robustness of the frames contruction ie plastic rather than metal proved unfounded. 

[jayvid]

Our next outing will see us returning to the NYMR at Pickering Station for their 3 day Diesel Gala  (12/13/14 September) . This will be the last chance to see tramcars "Dianne" and "Gemma" in their current form as by the end of the weekend both cars will have passed the 25 miles travelled since being built and are in need of an overhaul. The dark blue paintwork they have carried since 2001 is no longer available and attempts to match it has proved unsuccessful so its time for a change.

The cars will be fitted out similar to the new red cars and will have new lighting fitted. The work will be done over the winter as time permits and the cars should be done for the first outing next  year. At this time the events diary for 2015 is empty so when that will be is unknown.