|
Callie, the Thin Controller
The Tram and coal wagon amongst the flower pots.
Polly part-built, showing the IP axle boxes and
the basic mechanism
The very simple mechanism of Roger’s Diesel. The switch came from an old tape
player. The gears are a mixture of
Maplin and Lego Technic.
The tram’s innards are an IP chassis. Note the Lego Technic pulleys and belt for
simple 4WD. The clips allow the
chassis to be removed to access the batteries, which are recessed into the
boiler.
And this is Polly’s – built in a German hotel
room with a blunt knife and a tube of glue, but it works. The Lego wheel is pushed onto the axle
through one of the off-centre slots to form the eccentric. You can just see the end of the original
Polly pencil on its axle at the bottom of the picture.
|
GRAMPS’S GARDEN
RAILWAY
Built in 1999 as a summer project with my grand
daughter, Callie, it was a 12m long oval, going round and through the garden
shed! Our whole garden is only 10m by
7m at its widest point so we did not have a lot of space. The track was built from Peco 45mm flexitrack laid on a track-bed
made from upturned guttering, itself laid on bricks bedded in sand. The track was laid as flat as we could get
it, which gave us a 6 inch embankment at one end.
We get many of our ideas from Garden Rail magazine –
essential reading if you want to try it yourself.
The models are mostly hand built – literally, in
that very simple tools are used as I constructed many of them in foreign
hotel rooms using the only tools I could get past the baggage checkers at the
airport.
MSS
Steamer
Bought from the Signal Box in Rochester and modified
with a meths burner, new safety valve and water top-up system from IP
Engineering (both engine and parts are now sold by the super people at Dream Steam.). If you buy one of these, (they are amazing
value), don’t try to use too tight a curve, (ours were 1m radius – too tight
for the original model, OK for the modified version), don’t have any
gradients and don’t use the whistle. Do install the Dream Steam meths burner,
(filled with their supplied syringe, NEVER anything else), safety valve and
water top-up system. You will then
have a very good little real-steam train for around £200. We can keep this engine running all afternoon.
PPS
Steam Models, who also supply the MSS models and spares, sell their own
“Janet” loco, which has all the extras plus gas firing and a high pressure
boiler for about £400.
Roger’s Diesel
One day the railway owner realised he could
increase productivity by providing transport for his workers. Being of a mean disposition he got the
workshop to use all the odd bits and pieces they could find – an old diesel
engine, three pairs of seats from a bus shelter, an oil tank, a model T
radiator and an old wagon chassis. Add
a few chains and sprockets and Roger the driver had an instant diesel bus.
Tram Number 1
Built from balsa wood and plasticard on top of
an IP Engineering chassis (just £24),
the Tram is a battery powered model of what I could remember of pictures of
the Wisbech and Upwell railway trams.
It’s not to any particular scale as I was limited by the size of the
tunnel entrance to the shed! To make
the IP chassis work well you need to add a couple of Lego Technic pulleys and
a belt to give it 4 wheel drive. It
will then pull anything in any weather, despite leaves on the line.
Polly the Parrot
Polly was the decorative model on top of one of
Callie’s pencils. She broke it about
three years previously and I’d been promising to fix it ever since. I found her (Polly that is) in the bottom
of my suitcase just after watching a hilarious Tom and Jerry cartoon in which
Tom is using one of those American hand-cart wagons. And so Polly was born again as the driver
and power for this hand-cart. The
mechanism is very crude – a Lego Technic wheel offset on the IP engineering
wheels, (I also use their axle boxes to provide quick and simple bearings),
acts as an eccentric round which is bent a piece of paperclip wire to act as
an actuation rod. The gears came from Maplins and the motor I found in an old
battery powered toy.
Polly is hilarious as she hurtles round the
track.
Dennis the Menace
We are great Beano
fans. Dennis was a Christmas gift
(complete with Dasher the spider). The
pirate ship came from a church concert’s tombola stall, courtesy of Callie. I think it may have originated at a certain
burger chain I prefer not to mention.
The chassis is now made from Lego Technic with IP Engineering’s
wheels. I tried wobbling wheels but in
the end decided that a smooth passage for Dennis was better. The motor is glued onto the chassis, along
with a lump of stick solder as a weight.
The Buildings
An Oast House, Hogwarts Castle and Hagrid’s
cottage (well, that’s what we called them) all came from Whelans of
Sheppey. They are incredibly cheap and
incredibly heavy. We decided not to
paint them but they have very intricate detailing, which could occupy you and
a paintbrush for weeks.
Go to New Track
|
Yes, it’s real steam
Roger wanders past Hagrid’s cottage
Tram Number 1 ambles through the fields
And past the Oast House
Roger’s passengers have been made invisible by
the inhabitants of Hogwarts.
Polly’s turn past Hagrid’s cottage.
Dennis sails the, um, oceans blue gardens
green?
|