PayneTrain

We had a ladder that worked on slopes, but I think it had been tidied away by the time the loco team got there! The basic construction was to hammer stakes into the ground while the plywood vertical supports were being made, every other one of which was a ‘sandwich’ with two sheets of ply held apart by the same size battening as the stakes. This meant that they could be slipped over the top of the stakes and the height and location adjusted before being screwed in place. Sections of batten were then screwed between each of the uprights, checking the height gain with an iPhone inclinometer. We tested it with an O gauge wagon for bumps and smooth running of the track, but didn’t have an accurate loading gauge. We pretty much got it right, but her arse, sorry, rear buffer beam, hung out a bit more than expected and that was what hit an errant upright near the top.

The Bournemouth Echo references the fact that a company there builds helixes (and baseboards) and some footage of one of their products appears on the show. The design on the show was entirely ours (inc Alex the production engineer!). I have the notebook to prove it! Simon Haydn did the sums, everyone else did the work, I wrote on a whiteboard and gobbed off to camera!

I seem to remember we had a cog on it for a potential rack and pinion system. I can’t remember if this was actually ever used, don’t think so.

‘Congratulations to all those here who took part. I know that Jenny Emily and Payne Train did but I gather there were others as well.’ Cheers Pacific231G! ‘I did have one or two niggles. I don't like it when presenters are given authorship of the work of others; I could be wrong but I rather doubt whether Dick Strawbridge personally surveyed the route or chose the gauge and the motive power and "we" would have been more honest than "I" . ‘ In the moustachioed one’s defence, he had walked the route with the producers beforehand, identifying areas for different engineering challenges (such as bridges), so it wasn’t stretching it too far. Agree with the rest of your comments, hopefully there will be more history of the line/attempts to build a line to come.

As the muggins that had to cut the triangles out, it was for lightness. Additionally, we didn’t have enough wood for a tubular bridge sadly, that was one of our initial ideas. For the sake of the tv show they also wanted to be able to see the loco crossing the canal, rather than popping into a tube one end, and out the other!! originally the truss was designed to be the other way up, but this was it was stronger. We didn’t have enough material for the cross members which would have made that way up viable.

Odd question, but has anyone heard of any 700s being fitted with the wrong Chimney? I bought a Southern liveried one, which was meant to come with the chimney with a capuchon (lip), but it appears to have come with one without. It doesn't appear to be that the piece has broken off, simply that the wrong one was attached. I've got the vendor, model mania of Bristol looking into it, but it's just a bit odd. The chimney can be easily removed and replaced with another (thanks to the 'air glue' mentioned earlier in this thread!) so would be happy to simply pop in a replacement correct one. Just curious as to whether this was a common problem.