keidal

The weather is pretty awful, so I'll tell more. What started out as a simple "railway engine toy", has become the desire to build something more than that [still evolving] and hence that is why progress has been so slow over the past months. I forgot to mention that Nigel cut all the sleepers for me - having myself trying to cut them individually from 3 mm plywood; no thanks. The photographs show the Aluminium "rail top" laid in place for effect - it will in reality be countersunk screwed in place, probably glued as well. The driving and tender wheels have different rim / tyre profiles and of course no flanges, as presumably they're sold for dolls prams and the like. When painted, probably matt black, the lack of a few spokes will not be so terrible. Because the wheels are different, the sample track gauge is 136 mm [excluding the "flanges"] but now the gauge will be 141 mm, which is near enough a scale 4' 8 1/2". The wheels were originally going to be fixed on 3/8" / 10 mm mild steel studding with nuts and washers locating them to a correct back to back distance. The studding would run in a length of copper tubing glued into the chassis frames. The frame material is Oak - 6 mm thick for the loco and 8 mm for the tender. However, having thought about wheels not rotating when being ridden, due to minute changes in level of the track - and no coupling rods, I have embarked on a more adventurous solution. The wheels have brass 3/8" internal diameter bushes and the axles are 10 mm mild steel, reduced for the wheel bushes and then reduced / threaded M8 for the securing nuts and washers. I'm toying with the idea of doing away with the outside washers and making some cranks, soldered to the wheel bushes - they will have to be pinned to the wheel hubs probably. The axles have flanged Oilite bushes and they will be kept at the correct distance apart with a length of copper tube. The chassis frames will be slotted and the Oilite bush flanges will be on the outside of the Oak frames, rubbing against thin 2 mm wide Phosphor-bronze strips - actually 4 mm scale [for example] electrical pick-up material. There will be very minimal side play and the wheel sets will be held in place by thin screwed on wood strips, to allow removal. I'm currently considering a small amount of simple springing - with light gauge spring steel. The photographs show some of the details mentioned !

The boiler is a length of 150 mm internal diameter UPVC ventilation tube with a 1.5 mm wall thickness and this and virtually everything else needed I've bought from ebay suppliers. The smoke-box wrapper is a piece of the same tubing, it leaves a small gap at the bottom, but that won't be seen. The glue is from a plumber's merchant and is brushed on [brush included]. MekPak won't do the job - I tried. 150 mm diameter plywood discs are available on ebay for temporary stiffening. The poor photograph shows the white tube and also the turned basic smokebox door. A friend has so far turned the smoke-box door, chimney and dome - both needing finishing, safety-valves and whistle. The loco and tender bodies and chassis are ongoing [evolving] and if interested, I'll tell more. The wheel sets are ready for painting - and possible connecting rods, but that's another story. The track photographs show various details etc and this is a sample piece about 1200 mm long. The "track bed" is a nominal 8 mm thick mdf board approx. 300 wide and I have enough materials for 8 boards in total, each 900 mm long. They were cheap off-cuts from a discount timber local shop. They will be framed on the underside for stability. I don't know as yet how the boards will be joined together when required to be played with, but this will be solved. The rail is 15 mm x 12 mm with a 22 mm x 4 mm flange glued and screwed to the inner face of the rail. The sleepers are 25 mm x 3 mm x 270 mm long at "correct spacing for 30' 0" lengths of track - 900 mm long for this track. I will give the sleeper spacings if required. The chairs are pieces of 15 mm x 15 mm Scotia molding, 15 mm long - selected with a minimal chamfer on hidden angle. Between the moldings are 15 mm x 5 mm x 15 mm long "pads for the rail support and to give a scale appearance. Each sleeper / pad is screwed from the underside. All is glued with pva adhesive and all is "true" using a heavy duty precision straight-edge. On top of the rail, will be a length of 15 mm x 2 mm Aluminium strip - yet to be fitted. The track will be "weathered" painted with appropriately coloured wood stains and it is intended to use cat-litter for ballast - or that is my good intention. The timber is Birch I believe and all the timber required has been purchased from Nigel Bradley, a guy who will do anything for you, no trouble at all, superb quality timber and accurate machining to the highest standards, at a very good price and quick delivery / excellent packaging. His email address is sawdustandwax@outlook.com [ please mention Keith if ordering ]. More to come in due course with photographs if anyone's interested.

Hello Benjamin, Thanks for your interest. This all came about mid 2020's when I started to think about what I should buy for my two grandsons' Christmas presents. One is just about one year old and his brother is five. Looking at all the plastic toys / games etc. available was a pretty awful experience for me, being well past 80 years. Over the past decades, I've dabbled in all scales of railway modelling from 2 mm scale to 7 1/4" gauge [ I designed a North Staff Rly tank on the Dart castings ] and the bright idea came to me - why not make something from scratch railway-wise which might last for a few years and give the boys and their friends something different to "have a go on" ! The concept started out as a shuffle along simple loco with an upholstered seat, instead of coal. The idea soon developed as I realized that my interest in the Highland Railway, pointed directly to an 8 wheel tender. Two very young persons could possibly ride one behind the other on an 8 wheel tender without hopefully, it would not tip-up backwards. Then came the problem of spoked wheels. Sellers on ebay sell platic spoked wheels and the correct scale diameter wheels are available for a Barney 0-6-0 loco and tender, using a scale of 10 mm to one foot . Then the fun started designing the model, utilizing materials easily obtainable on ebay etc. because I was and still am "shielding" at home. If anyone is interested, I can give more information about standards, construction and anything else, as this is an ongoing project and it might be finished in time for this coming Christmas. I'll just mention that the quite realistic looking track, has a very small upstand flange on the inside of the "rail" because the wheels do not.

Hello, Put simply, I'm building a toy engine and tender to run on track which I've designed. It's a "sit-on and shuffle along" model of a Highland Railway Barney 0-6-0 loco, which I'm building to a scale of 30 mm to one foot. The model is as close to scale as possible and is roughly one and a half metres long. I don't have a workshop but I have a friend who is turning up some items for me. The engine and tender are being built using mainly plywood and timber, the boiler is 150 mm upvc white ventilation tube and the spoked white plastic wheels are from suppliers on ebay. The track has a gauge of 141 mm [ near scale ] and there are 11 sleepers to the 30' 0" scale length = 900 mm board length. The track boards will join together - 6 boards are planned for the time being. My two very young grandchildren will ride on it - if they wish to ! I will write more if anyone is interested and I do have a few photos. Keith

Thank you for your replies - I'm very grateful. I'll have a think about the Barney model and will probably start new . Being a doddery old electronic nerd, can anyone please tell me how to put photos from my pc on to this site, if and when I write something soon ? Thank you, Keith

Hello, can anyone tell me please what cross section typical pre-grouping plain coupling rods were [ HR 0-6 -0 Barney ] ? 5" x 2 "ish is at the back of my mind. I am making a "toy" model of a Highland Railway 0-6-0 Barney loco with 8 wheel tender, scale is 30 mm to 1' 0" scale, for my very young grandchildren to sit on [the padded seat] tender and shuffle along the track ! If anyone is the least bit interested, I'll tell more ! A sample length of track has been made to 136 mm gauge but the final gauge will be 141 mm. Best wishes, Keith

I have taken two photographs of an enlarged photograph at Achanalt station, which shows the 30' length of track which I refer to. Despite what the official drawing might show, it seems to me that those on site probably chose to "do their own thing " within limits. The track clearly shows that the sleeper spacing of 2' 9 1/2" beyond the first sleeper is not adhered to and at a guess might be closer to 2' 3". The remainder of the sleepers appear to be at random centres ! The second photograph vaguely shows the short S signal which I have mentioned previously. It's all good fun really ?

Thanks for this information - and my maths was incorrect for a 5.43 cm offset, as I had worked on a diameter of 3 metres, not a radius. I'll try again sometime ! The platform height appears to be approximately level with the bottom of a coach buffer - and I'll probably work that out as well, at the same time.

Thanks once again. I have seen a photograph of a length of track, preumably 30' 0" long at Achanalt station [platform] and it has 11 chairs between the fishplates. I'm presuming that when this track was originally laid, the sleepers would have been 9' 0" long and I'm assuming that the sleeper spacing was 1' 0", 2' 8", 8 x 2' 10", 2' 8" and 1'0" - unless you can suggest a different more appropriate spacing. I appreciate that this is nit-picking but I'm hoping to produce some realistic looking track in 3 mm scale. The station is on a curve and I've settled for a three metre radius, with the tracks [a loop arrangement] 30 mm apart. I've literally spent hours fiddling about with Templot2 for this simple station layout [with one siding] but being a computer nerd, it's way above my head ! So I've used some school geometry [from c. 70 years ago] and with an 80 cm long platform the offset in the centre is 5.43 cm.

Thanks again for all these comments. I have seen photographs what I believe were lengths of 24' track having 11 sleepers and 30' track having 13 sleepers. The reason I'm so interested is that I would like to produce a realistic interpretation in model form, of the trackwork in 3mm scale [Scalle3] at Achanalt station - I'm aware of radii restraints ! I'm wondering if anyone or Templot could suggest, or preferably define the sleeper spacing which was specified by the Highland Railway for 24' and 30' track lengths please ?

No, beyond the S signal in the direction of travel - a few metres only.

There was a much taller Home and Distant signal just ahead of this S signal, which was sited just beyond the end of the platform. There were no other signals before it. The other part of the loop gave access to a single siding, via a Y point before the platform.

Thank you for all these comments. I'm particularly interested in the lines described in Peter Tatlow's book : The Dingwall - Skye Railway and specifically in the Achanalt station area. There appears to be 11 sleepers to a length of track which is on a very large radius curve. Here, there is a short signal post with a large white painted S on the arm which presumably means "just start and then reverse on to the other loop" - the point is just beyond it on single track ? I've not seen that feature on other HR station photographs.

Hello, Can anyone please tell me if the Highland Railway normally used 40' 0" lengths of rail, which I believe they did and also, what the sleeper spacing might have been specified for a length of track ? I have looked at many photographs of straight track and the number of sleepers appears to vary between eleven and fourteen - presuming that they were 40' 0" lengths, which I believe they were - or were they 30' 0" lengths as standard ? Thank you for any suggestions. Keith

Can anyone suggest how to make a parallel boiler, without using rollers, from flat brass sheet please ? The boiler which I need to make is 43 mm diameter [approx. 4' 6" dia. in Finescale Gauge 1], for an LNER P1 0-6-0 loco. electric motor, not live steam ! I was thinking of using something like 0.5 - 1.0 mm flat brass sheet and I have some lengths of copper tube just a bit smaller in diameter. Will I have to anneal the brass first, somehow ? Could I incorporate "Jubillee" clips in the process for example ? I would soft solder the meeting edges I do have a hefty engineer's vice and basic tools. I have a 300 mm length of 1 3/4" outside diameter brass tube, with a wall thickness of approximately 1/16" - and I have been quoted £75.00 to turn it down to 43 mm diameter, leaving a short length un-skimmed for a smoke box ! Too expensive to even think about. I have bought the Isinglass drawing for the loco - an LNER P1 0-6-0, which is only available in 4 mm scale. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Keith