Silver Fern

Things have been rather busy in the last month, I ended up getting my hands on a 7.25" gauge silver fern that appeared on trademe. The fern has always been special to me, dad took us kids on a trip in her to rotorua in the early 90's and everything about it felt modern, right down the air operated internal doors.

So to celebrate I decided it would be a neat idea to 3d print it in 1:24 scale, the 3d printing part is almost finished with the underside still in progress. I intend on 3d printing the seats this time around, this version is more of a test print as I've altered the front end and with a bit of effort managed to thin out the walls.

A Girder to Far #4

 The 1:24 bridge project almost finished, I've still to finish the under side Truss segments and then i'll call it finished

Those that are interested in printing it can download it here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6722083

Print, Paint, Attach & Repeat until mad.

Its all about the reflections

The underside of the plate girder finalized and in production

First run across the bridge

Db takes in the morning sun

A different POV

Ja & Ka double header

A Girder to Far #3 - A Pier into Madness

Continuing the 3d printed bridge for the garden layout, we needed a concrete base for the 3d printed piers to sit on so after searching countless plastic bottle types I stumbled upon the ice cream containers and quickly realized it would suit my needs. I removed the bottoms of the container and slipped it into position, I packed the outsides with clay & small rock and proceeded to pour the wet concrete which is where the container sides started to bow outwars requiring some reinforcing with small sticks embedded in the clay. I vibrated the container for a few minutes removing the bubbles and covered it up for the night. When I removed the plastic this morning I was very pleased with the result. The second pier finished last night and when test fitting in place this morning the friction of the wood halfway down was to much, thus its halfway through receiving #40 sandpaper to enable a better fit. 

The rockwork has been redone somewhat, the white pipe has been removed and the water now dribbles down over the rocks. A concrete path has been hidden on top of the dam to allow people to walk over.

Cementing in a pad for the Pier, Ice cream containers are not ideal without reinforcing the sides I've discovered. 

The next morning, plastic formwork removed and im quite happy with the result, the exposed pier has been sanded back quite a bit due to a slight warp in the wood itself. Without sanding there would be no removing the printed pier.

Second pier almost touching the concrete, a bit more sanding to get it down flush

Playing with paint, also experimenting with various top caps with the lettering  '2024" & "Portland Railroad" embedded into the sides.

A Girder to Far #2

 Continuing the bridge project along, it became apparent I had mucked up a step or two. Although the curves where nice its not ideal for this setup. The new pier was cemented into a 2ft hole unlike the old pier which was able to be pulled out after a bit of effort. The top deck is has been removed eliminating that issue.

3d Printed Pier still warm from the printer, a lick of paint and test fit. Still need to concrete in a pad for it to sit on and more weathering. Very close to finishing the bulk of the printing for this project, The material being 2.7kg of UV resistant ABS Plastic (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene is a very tough, very durable plastic used in a wide variety of manufacturing) & more than a few bottles of rustoleum spray paint. The parts screwed into the wood frame.

Old and new Piers

3d printed Pier test fitting

Much better alignment

1:24 El crane

First Pier Wrapped up

A much straighter run 

A Girder to Far #1

With the raised deck out of the way its time to tidy up the main bridge, I did have a nice truss before but dogs running under it and catching it on their backs ruined it. This time I'm sure 3d printing some girders can't go wrong. each section individually screwed into position and can easily be individually replaced/painted etc. 

The first attempt to span 1.2 metres have been installed and continues to expand.

I have been playing around with the pier surrounds, brick would look good but a bit out of place.

Rake of 8 W wagons rides across the bridge. 

The more I look at the bridge the more the top deck is irritates me, a step in the wrong direction all in fear of trains going for a swim.

Further Progress

The piers will slip onto the wood, strong & tidy.

English Electric DF takes a run. The last few moments show some dodgy track sections needing to be straightened out somewhat.

Years back, a bridge to fit the budget, iceblock sticks, balsa and steel shelving. 

Pond layout Raised Deck

A quick post showing the pond 1 gauge layout expansion. A raised wooden deck similar to the Westside of the loop upgrade at the start of this year. The old/current path sitting on concrete blocks have each slowly sunk in various ways and I'm not really happy with the size of it all anyway, so time to redo it and better utilize the space for future 1 gauge railways running in & out of the area via spiraling & tunneling under the 7.25 inch railway as an alternative to the "fence line incline" route.

The deck is cemented in place, the posts & struts are H3.2 and the decking made up from the old 25cm long sleepers from the 5inch railway. my wrist has developed more muscles from all the hammering! 4x $10 bags of nails for the sleepers alone.

This morning I spent some time running trains in the freezing cold & then the sun appeared so started filming, it does show the raised deck midway through planking so its relevant..

The new bridge will replace the existing one only re-using the existing piers, looking at many bridges at the moment and figuring out what I can realistically 3d print in a human timeframe

Showing the west side connection in works. The 7.25 turnout will be shifted right about a foot and tracks realigned then the shed will extend out 4m further

The end point of the raised deck will connect with the wood deck coming in from the left

Reflections

Midway through decking, this design allows for the trackbed to be raised 2 inches if needed in the future? sinkage etc..

Loop complete

Siding entrance shifted back.

1:24 Ww makes another early morning run but now on the new raised track

I did borrow some audio from an actual Ww and attempt to poorly splice it in.

English Electric DF 1954

 The DF class gets its stripes. I managed to get around to bringing the Df class closer to finishing. I did have to redraw & print the front windows, also managed to install the glazing. Also visible are the new W class insulated meat van wagon (White) designs for 1:24 that continue to fabricate. As I write this 5 have been produced so far and currently on its 3rd version, more on that later.

Df 1506 Whangarei  *W wagon on left with steps leading to it

Another shot of a white insulated meat wagon, the wrong side up. First time i've seen a Df parked that way. Morrinsville March 3rd 1964 (door hinges on LHS as per my model)

Pond Liners

 Showing the result of a couple pond liners now in place, filled with water and a small start to water plants & lilys thanks to a local friend "in the know" turned up randomly with an assortment of foliage in buckets upon hearing of the pond project. I too got quite excited with the idea of goldfish visiting the local petshop, I selected a variety of sizes & introduced them to the pond. They lasted 3 days before all suddenly disappearing!  I have a 12v bilge pump, solar panel & regulator not yet installed but will form a water feature somehow & serve to filter everything. With a plan in place on expanding the garden railway with at least an additional larger loop around the perimeter of the pond. The big question here is obtaining more track..

Peacocks the size of buildings terrorize the 1:24 scale world forcing staff to shut down the railway as a safety precaution.

18v Battery Power

I recently saw a post about 18v Battery Power being used on model trains as a source of motive power, the sort you might use on a drill or any 18v tool really. I did have a broken electric weed eater which I abused in wet conditions stupidly wrecking the motor (situated right near the blade & thus the air cooling method almost attracted the water). I salvaged the battery plugs & wired up a Radio R/C train controller which had an input voltage of between 6- 28vdc which I have been wiring up to various diesels. I did find a "Low cost Reversible Speed Controller 6 to 28V FC 3A" on Trademe for $10 from a chap in wellington and have so far used it on the Ka build, it lacks remote control so once she goes there's no stopping it, on the other hand there's no more having the train jerk on bad patches of track which caused considerable headaches and stole the "fun" away. This morning when testing the "Ka" I was able to straight away focus on lining up the wheels & correcting the wobble rather than scrubbing track clean of bird poop and then still having to go back over missed spots.

In the future I have a crazy plan of running a single track alongside the 7.25" starting from the other side of the shed following the 7.25  downhill, alongside the fence and perhaps once at the bottom a return loop initially, since its not going to be electrically live I'm thinking about cheaper rail alternatives such as aluminum rail or some L section of some material?

Ozito 18v

Dx easily makes room for the battery, with 2 motor bogies it lasts about 3-4 hours

The smaller locos that can't fit a battery will have to drag these W wagons, the wagon top sits in place securely on the chassis held with a friction fit.

The tender holds the battery, the single motor chassis lasted an hours running today and battery is 3/4 full, before I took the photo I wired up the carriage lights to the Ka, with the speed on minimum the lights turn on while the loco remains stationary.

Trademe Seller - "chripy" $10 NZD Low cost Reversible Speed Controller 6 to 28V FC 3A

Pretty empty train for the school holidays, the lights need to be in the end corridors when running, and then also the main lights when at a station etc. Since the lights are 12v led strip that runs the entire length putting out way to much light I will reduce the light strip into small sections

Building an brick arch railway bridge

After receiving some used bricks I spent some time wandering youtube and stumbled across DIY videos of people building brick archways and figured it would make an interesting challenge. I decided to place it at the bottom of the lower horseshoe loop where it would build up a few inches of water during rain. I also needed to raise the track height about a foot.

For the arch I built a frame out of scrap wood, using "no more nail" glue and screws. This held up the weight of the bricks, a few bits of wood held it up and when time to remove the frame I got rid of the supports and the frame dropped down and slid out without issue.

Once the bricks are all in place I'm toying with the idea of plastering the sides with cement & a lick of paint.