kingmender

Excellent news. Congratulations Graham and thank you Chris for continuing to invest in your business. Great confidence in difficult times. Of course I’m looking forward to the railmotor, but I’m patient and I have confidence that this will be a great model worth waiting for. Keep up the great work and tempt us with other interesting and unusual models. Rodger

A difference in thickness of the materials. Boiler cladding being approx 1/16" sheet merely to cover the insulation. Tender sides thicker (probably 1/4" or more) as they are structural and subject to continual water pressure and corrosion - hence the plating shown along bottom edge of the water tank a few pages back. Rodger

My railway room is approx 30' x12' narrowing to 10' at one end. The two helicies are in the corners on the long straight wall. I've added some images of the track plans from XtrackCAD. Door to the room is on this side too at the end of teh shed. I've used a "swing bridge" section to fold the track out of the way. The top level will cut across the doorway at about 1800 from the floor but will only be about 300 wide. My friends shed is L shaped being approx 16' x 24' with a 12' x 8' leg. The club layout is in a room of approx 60' x 40' whch houses the N gauge in the middle and the Ho/OO around the outside. Our website is offline currently but can normally be found here and has images of the 2 permanent layouts. www.waverleymrc.org.au

Do they work? Yes. I belong to Waverley Model Railway Club in Melbourne and we have two permanent club layouts each with a helix to transition between layout decks approx 24" appart. One being HO/OO which I run on the other being N Gauge. As a British steam modeller I run mainly GWR and LMS. Kings and Castles easily pull 8 Hawksworth coaches or 10 Airfix Centenary coaches up the Helix which is approx 36" radius and 1:70 gradient. 42xx/72xx and 28xx haul 50 wagon trains with ease too and my Hattons/Heljan Garret slipped to a stand with 100 open wagons but managed 90! My home layout has a smaller double track helix of 30" and 32" radius with the up line on the outer achieving 1:64 gradient. Haulage capacity is similar although varies from loco to loco even of the same design. A friends Castle (current tooling) struggles with 5 where all 3 of mine (same tooling - Beaverston, Swindona and Wellington) all haul 6 or more. Why do I have a helix? My layout is (or more correctly will be) a railway system. Much like others shown in this thread. It enables trains to be run between stations with realistic time between each. The first level has a through station based on Trowbridge and a shed. Second level is based on Moreton in Marsh with a branch to a Cleevdon based terminus. top level (via second helix) will have a Badminton based station and storage loops for the rest of the world. A few construction pictures of the first helix attached. Similarly a friends layout has 3 levels and multiple stations based on a section of one of the (closed) lines between Melbourne and Sydney. Prototypically it is single track with passing at stations except we have no change of gauge at the border (Vic 5'3", NSW 4'81/2"). Operating nights with 8 or ten of us get really interesting particularly if large amounts of Aussie red wine are consumed.

As the design is HO rather than OO I changed the wheels for a size larger - 12mm Gibson’s I think. This also reduced the weight on the pad making it easier to push or pull. I still use the LMS twins with it though as even a pair of 42xx with additional weight struggle to move it. Not had any derailments. Occasionally catches were point actuator wire has been left too long, stopping the train dead

Thanks. 7ft plate bogies ordered from comet tonight

I have some of the recent (5 years ago?) Hornby b set coaches with decidedly iffy bogies. What replacements should I seek?

Easy, that’s just extending the hi low ratio gearbox principle. 5 forward and one reverse ratios in each of low, mid and high. Add in a further 5 reverse and a reverse reverse (forward), simples!

Simply stunning Simon. And congratulations on reaching this milestone. Running a first full lap will really underline your sense of achievement. 5 years may sound like a long time, but to have achieved all this with the immense detail you have undertaken is incredible. My mere 30 x 12 oo gauge three level layout is operational on the first level with some scenery, helix to level 2 complete, 2nd and third level base boards in construction. Yet this has taken me over 3 years to achieve. Many pages back there was mention of train spotting with binoculars. I wonder if the venues you have arranged could provide grandstand seating - echos of the Rainhill 150 celebration? The finished layout will be worth a trip back to the UK from Australia. Thank you for building it. Rodger

Thanks to all who replied to my question and for all the pictures above, really useful.. I've spent the last hour opening out the holes in the frames to fit the bearings. I've made a start on the opening up the rods to take markits crank pins. Picture (apologies for the poor lighting in the image) of tender progress. Tool boxes, fire iron rest, brake and scoop standards to be refitted. Then add a little coal. Rodger

The inspiration of this thread is contagious. A few years back I considered building a Comet chassis replacement for a Hornby/Mainline Dean Goods. Oxford then announced one and my enthusiasm withered. However the performance of the Oxford model is lacking so the project was reconsidered. Having built the tender chassis, I got the brake rigging too far off the wheels, and made a coal space my attention has now shifted to the loco chassis. Herein lies a question, should the top hat bearings be inserted from the outside or inside of the frames? Rodger

Head South. Its spring down here in Oz as the "news" programs keep telling us. Still there are longer and warmer days to come, oh and the imminent threat of the bushfire season!

Have you considered modelling the building with part or all of the roof covering being replaced? Thus giving a “reason” for an opening that would not otherwise be there.

On the subject of pies......

Hi Simon On of our club layouts, Chadderton, that I've been part of building and now operating has the ability for two operators at the front. The design of layout is continuous loop with fiddleyard at the rear, scenic on the ends and front. It has a through station towards the left end with the goods yard extending towards the right hand end on the front of the layout. A shed scene with turntable, coaling and water facilities occupies the left hand front corner nearer the station. Layout is approx 24' x 12'. The Shed and Yard are both accessed from a goods loop. We've included "ground frames" for the yard and shed that are about 125mm x 75mm with the mimic diagram and centre sprung toggle switches to operate the points. These replicate parts of the main panels in the centre operating well. As we are using DCC sockets are also on the front so handsets can be plugged in. One operator or shunter can operate either or both ground frames working with the main operators to take possession of the goods loop and enabling engines and stock to move between the yard and shed. Goods trains can then be run into the loop by the main operators and handed to the shunters working from the front. We've found it works really well and creates a lot of interaction with the viewers. We don't run a timetable so if shunting stops while talking to the public it doesn't really matter. With all controls duplicated on the main panel we can also run without operators outside. Rodger

Healthy living - South Melbourne style.

I too tried them on the Lima bogies of GWR Syphons, they remove very little material proving ineffective. I sourced some new 3D printed bogies from shapeways as an easy replacement.

Hi Neil Try Express models. They have some hand made telegraph poles and even one with a lamp on it. https://www.expressmodels.co.uk/catalogue/street-station-lighting/our-new-range-of-warm-white-street-building-lamps I've used their lamps in my coaling stage, engine shed and gods shed. Careful with wiring the LEDs though as incorrect wiring will blow them! Rodger

100 wagons was too much for the helix - slipped to a stand, combination of incline and drag against the curve! Stunning effort though.

Ran mine on the club layout for the firsttime last week. 70 open wagons ran with ease up the helix (almost a complete turn). Will try for 100 today.............

If the image was expanded to the right I'd expect to see a brass castellated nut with split pin through it!

Lode Star finally rose from the west yesterday! Tender handbrake had fallen off but otherwise survived the trip down under. It will join knight of the grand cross in being chipped and then run on our club Aussie layout. Who said Pendenis Castle was the only western engine to make it this far

I spoke to Geoff Davis at Steam Tuesday morning, he had dispatched about 25 orders to Southern Hemisphere customers on Monday. So my star will be rising from the west soon! He had held them as they had missed Christmas posting deadline with the delay in reprinting the certificates. Good job I didn't wait outside Swindon for it, in march SK had indicated that it would be available when I was in the uk last June!

I tried to build a k's kit of one (Bugatti front end) when I was about 13. I've still got the rememants of what I managed to destroy! Looking forward to receiving this one, but hope the chassis is better than the GWR 8 coupled tanks as the gap between wheels closes by about 2mm during each revolution. Still have to find out when it will arrive, delivery date of on or after 1/1/14 is an open window. Still at least I've got Lode Star and duke of Gloucester to look forward to whenever they arrive....... I tried to build a k's kit of one (Bugatti front end) when I was about 13. I've still got the rememants of what I managed to destroy! Looking forward to receiving this one, but hope the chassis is better than the GWR 8 coupled tanks as the gap between wheels closes by about 2mm during each revolution. Still have to find out when it will arrive, delivery date of on or after 1/1/14 is an open window. Still at least I've got Lode Star and duke of Gloucester to look forward to whenever they arrive.......