Hornby Garden Railway

[96RAF]

In the posting box you will two icons to the immediate left of the smiley face.

 

One (the green tree) allows you to link to a photo at an external URL (a remote web location) and the other (the black and white landscape) allows you to browse to and upload photos from your local pc.

[david_wakefield]

Thanks guys

I will have a go this evening.

I just knew that the nail it gag would appear ;)

Dave

[mjb1961]

Hi all

Just an update on my railway. I have most of the track bed erected.

I have pictures but have no idea how to attach them to a post. Any suggestions?

Cheers

Dave

I look forward to seeing the photos ,it might inspire me to build the same for my live steam,,,,mjb

[roythegrass]

David, from my experience photos do not appear immediately, sometimes not til the following day. Understandably they are first approved by an administrator to weed out the obvious. Maybe this only applies the newcomers? If at first your post & photo don't appear don't repeat but wait til the following day.

Roy

[david_wakefield]

Well here are my first attempt at uploading photos. I can see you will all get a crick in your neck. Must edit photos first.

Photo 1 & 2 show the start of the track bed construction and the last one is the layout design on the AnyRail programme. I will have another bash at the track bed on the weekend more pics then.

Cheers

Dave

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[RB51]

That looks great Dave - well done. R-

[LCDR]

  A word of caution.

 

In Wednesday I was running my garden railway in clockwork mode and one of my locomotives (A Hornby clockwork Metropolitan) decided to bounce off the track and took a tumble from the boards on to the ground.  It landed on the concrete path upside down, and sustained a dent to the roof and some paint loss, both fortunately fairly minor. and with a little work are now nearly all fully repaired.  However the derailment occured without warning, and may have been caused by a bit of debris in the track or a slightly misaligned rail joint. On inspection there was no sign of the cause.

 

I have now started adding a wooden wall to the outside edge of the boards  about 4 cm high to retain any future derailment . These are screwed to the boards, but to prevent rain puddling in the track and provide drainage I have put some small offcuts of roofing felt between the boards where the screws go through so there is a 3mm gap between them and the edge of the base boards.

 

[Jimbo1707820979]

Good effort, Dave. Building the layout is almost as much fun as running it, don't you think.  Especially in a garden where you can give free rein to your imagination - subject to endorsement by the Directrix of Operations, of course !

Look forward to more pictures now that you have mastered the posting technique. Regards, Jimbo.

[david_wakefield]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Great advice LC, I will install something similar, I like the anti puddling device.

  Jimbo is right, building is so much fun, how come if this was an indoor job it would be a chore? 

I will have another go tomorrow morning, can't wait. I am of course waiting for the "you're not as keen when it comes jobs in the house" from the domestic directorate.

Post more soon

Cheers

Dave

[david_wakefield]

After a busy weekend all of the main track bed is constructed. Permanent way is going down this week. Also going to fix a stripwood wall to the outside edge as per LCs tip./media/tinymce_upload/463f4fae7a6dbaa76b22e90c01cf682c.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/e02a27672291156e61d173b1a7726135.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/759f4efa0de9bf824e2fe3db5dd8e0e5.jpg

[LCDR]

 Coming on nicely. Well done. Bet you are looking forward to running it!

[david_wakefield]

I have had some time off this week so have been bashing on with the railway.

Basic track laying is mostly complete and I have ran a test train.

Just got about a thousand solder joints to do, signalling, stations and the retaining wall to install. Great fun

[david_wakefield]

/media/tinymce_upload/041aa9d9fd12547f8b96dcb0ec5edf97.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/61a591c9ff3ee7211cd9d0b19c5a085a.jpgPictures seem to be missing from my last post so here they are.

Dave

[2e0dtoeric]

That will be 'interesting', taking the line right past the cat-flap! Guess who'se kitty is going to sit just inside the door, pouncing on the trains as they pass!

She/he's got a nice dry walkway, as well, when the ground is damp!

[david_wakefield]

Don't panic 2e0 cat flap is not in use. We don't have a cat anymore unfortunately. 

I have been experimenting converting a Hornby class 52 and a class 60 to radio control. I have them powered by NiCad battery packs and seems to work fine.  Using parts from a well known auction site. I have converted both locos for under £60 all in.

I will give more info once I have tested them.

Anyone have experience of LiPo and LiFe batteries? I have heard that LiPos can explode or catch fire! That worries me.

More soon

Dave

[david_wakefield]

Hi All update on the Garden railway.

The track is all done, except a service loop on the outer circuit for fueling the live steam loco.

Radio control seems to be working well. Top photo shows the speed controller on the right, battery and RC receiver on top of the LiPo battery. I now use a 680mah li ion 9 volt pp3 size battery

The lower photo shows the power switch and charging socket made from a servo extension cable. 

This weekend is point control servos and signalling installation is planned./media/tinymce_upload/152061a30f176dd3bae8ad9df68ffa41.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/052b3ce0b9bd3f0def6987e794d836d9.jpg

[Bulver]

You really are cracking on, aren't you, Dave?  Congrats on your efforts thus far, look forward to your updates as and when you have the time to post

 

Rod

[david_wakefield]

Thanks Rod, yes I had a building spert and made good inroads. 

Next step is point control servos and wiring. However I need a carriage storage device that can be hinged over the track. Has anyone built something along these lines? Of course I could take the easy way and remove the rolling stock but where's the fun in that. I'm thinking of using square profile guttering with end caps for each road.

I'll see if I can have a go at the weekend. 

[2e0dtoeric]

I see you have used a Gens Ace lipo. They're good reliable batteries, and use them myself - albeit in larger sizes! - I assume you know about the care and feeding of them, best charged at 1C with a purpose-designed charger, and don't run down below about 3.5v per cell, for a long life.

It is usually advisable to charge them OUT of the model, just in case they decide to go into thermal run-away and self-combust, as they pack a lot of charge into a small space, and are virtually unextinguishable, should they let go, as they provide their own oxygen. I've never had one do that, but a couple have 'puffed' and been discarded, just in case.

If one does burn, the resulting fire is very brief, but very hot, like a magnesium flare, and the fumes released are toxic.

The usual cause of a lipo fire is damage to the soft envelope, which will hardly apply for your usage! (In model aircraft it is usually the striking of the ground at high speed that triggers it!) Even Elon Musk, with his Tesla electric cars, has had a couple of battery fires, so it can happen to anybody!

You might find this link useful - http://www.instructables.com/id/Lithium-Polymer-Etiquette/

[david_wakefield]

Hi Guys

Reading 2e0dtoeric's in depth posting on LiPo batteries, it has reinforced my decision not to use LiPo batteries in my locos.

I have read about thermal runaway during charging even with the correct charger. (I bought one of these to ensure correct charging. A brilliant piece of kit.) 

I'm using pp3 style l ion batteries at 650mAh in the models now so they can be charged in situ without worrying about them. During testing I ran a loco hauling 6 coaches continuously for just over an hour with a scale speed of 82mph on a single charge.

As for the LiPo batteries, they are powering all the signalling and point control servos on the layout and saving any cables needed to run from the house.

I am chuffed to bits with the l ion batteries in the locos and their performance. Using the LiPo batteries out side solved so many problems.

Inclement weather prevented any work on point servos, hopefully next weeken all being well.

[david_wakefield]

Here is a quick couple of pics of my new Flying Scotsman with TTS sound.

Its awesome, very strong and the sound is amazing. This is the first outing of this engine and rake of Pullman coaches. This is my first Railroad model with TTS sound, most impressive.

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[2e0dtoeric]

(ahem) Samsung 7 used lithium ion batt's. They are virtually the same chemistry as a lipo!

Lipo's are perfectly safe if used correctly. (Well as safe as anything can be! Lawn-mowers and hedge clippers kill people as well!)

As I put, I've never had ne self-combust (yet!) and I work my lipo's hard in my r/c flying machines.

 

p.s. the edit button is back, and works!!  😆

[david_wakefield]

Good point well made. I think I will continue along the l ion pp3 route for the models and using the lipo batteries for layout accessories. However I will keep an open mind. I think if I were working in a bigger scale then lipo would be the obvious choice. The pp3 seems to be the ideal size for oo gauge.

 

Yep edit button works a treat

[Huwsie]

Hello David.

Looking through your posts here with the pictures - this all looks pretty impressive! Well done, and keep at it. My attempt at a garden railway failed because I put the track at ground level, not raised as you have. At ground level the track was difficult to access, keep clean, and it attracted insects for some reason. Please keep posting pictures as this progresses. 

Thank you for sharing this far.

Huwsie

[david_wakefield]

Thanks Huwsie

Very kind comments. This is my first attempt at a garden railway and has beenthe best fun ever.

Im having trouble finding dry weekends to work on it at the moment.  Ineed to make some carriage storage and wire the heavy duty bus for the live steam.  Also install servos for the points. Still no rush.

I hope you can have another go at a garden railway. It is so worth it.

Dave