The river queen

Showing off a 1:45 scale RC Stern Paddle River Boat I 3d printed for dad for his O gauge american railway.

Based off the river queen. The length is approx 1mtr & weighs 2.5kg

The main body is screwed into the hull and is easily removable.

Wired up about 50 LEDs with the 2xAA battery box painted white on top. The main battery for running engine is just sitting on top for easy access. Inside is a staircase and smaller cabins with 2 large saloons.

At the end of the clip a hurricane in scale terms almost capsizes the boat.

 

Willow Creek triangle

 A nice before & after shot. of the Willow Creek triangle track construction & realignment program coming closer to completion.

Before

Digging out what will become the lower lower pond and building up the embankments & ramps to make everything wheelbarrow friendly, also dug the main drainage channel a foot deeper removing all the growth and prevent my initial dig from flooding up

First run around the top loop

First run around the top loop, video quality is not the greatest. I managed to hold the camera with 1 hand while driving with the other.

 

The long straight

The longest straight section on this railway so far, I wasn't happy with the current righthand turnout thus a left handed turnout which will allow for a nice straight section is to be built. The rear curve has now been realigned and shifted to the new center of the now widened embankment. I've also managed to use the solid tree trunks cut over half a year ago and backfill with clay to make nice straight lines. Worth mentioning the 4 wheeler pictured carried all the logs 1 at a time and then rolled off the wagon & into position.

Before

#4 on work detail

More progress on the 3rd turnout.

From below

A turnout for the better

 Today the top triangle edges closer with the first of 2 turnouts a good way into construction, I'm replacing the sleepers with harder treated wood to hold it all together.

Completed first turnout, wagons run through perfectly. The frog I ended up having another go at with a decent cutting disc, now a 4 wheel wagon runs through having all 4 wheels supported. The blades are currently held together temporarily with a piece of wood, friction alone holds it into place until I fabricate something out of steel.

2nd Point finished, wagons once again glide through. Lots of landscaping & earthworks continue.

5" Railway continued.

A quick update with a few shots of the railway in its current form, mainly spending time extracting clay from the pond and sending it to form the roadbed in various places.

Top loop, the upper pond has once again turned into an Open-cast Mine for the extraction of Portland clay.

Showing varying layers of the roadbed, clay forms the base, chalky clay next, then gravel and finally sleepers and track followed by ballast.

"Willow Creek Junction", 15" railway on left meets the 5" on the right.

The roadbed for the triangle is largely there now, going to continue widening the roadbed to at least 1m wide at the top. The upper pond is now twice as big and continues to expand 1 wheel barrow load each time, hard to see in the picture.

Upper pond

Lower pond, It's become apparent the G gauge track needs to run alongside the 5" track and expand the circle to match it.

Looking from below, Roxy checking the height of the roadbed

1:24 Scale NZR P Coal/Rubbish Wagon

I spent some time redrawing the P wagon in 1:24 scale, breaking down the chassis into 6 sections to print everything in the right orientation while not needing any support material. A big factor being time, I printed it in 0.2 resolution instead of 0.15 set to normal speed. The detail inside the hoppers weren't rendered by the printer properly but looks fine from a distance, especially loaded with rubbish material etc. 

I drew up the braking rig so that from a distance it looks about right without functionality or being too carried away with accurate detail no one sees.

My idea is to print maybe 6 or so here in Portland where they were numerous up until just before I was born. I'm a bit unsure on the colour scheme except the wood panels were painted white or a light grey and the framing & chassis black or a dark colour, need to explore this further.

Found this picture of the P wagon stored at Motat in Auckland, need to go visit, looks like it's seen better days.

Printing wagon parts. Very different size, feel & build styles since I last built this wagon frame, an effect some modelers' call "rubber banding".