Showing Tag: "engine" (Show all posts)

More Plans

Posted by Rupert Connor on Wednesday, September 6, 2017, In : Web site updates 
We have updated our Trackplan page again to reflect the latest proposed changes. These have been prompted partly because the original engine shed roof started to collapse (meaning we had to quickly build an alternative storage shed, pictured below) and partly because we have given quite a lot of thought to how we use the railway and how to make it and the rest of the garden more accessible to all.

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Petrol-electric conversion

Posted by Rupert Connor on Monday, April 4, 2016, In : Locomotives 
Testing our petrol-electric conversion. After Helen's gearbox failed we decided to use the same general arrangement as Colin Edmondson's 'Scamp' design. Two identical electric motors are used. The petrol engine drives one motor, making it a generator. This generator motor is connected to the other (driving) motor via a reversing switch and PWM speed controller. Thus speed and direction control is provided without the need for a mechanical gearbox. Many thanks to Colin for his advice an...
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Night Train

Posted by Rupert Connor on Thursday, November 5, 2015, In : Locomotives 
Our first bit of running after dark. Putting a magnetic backed LED light on the metal radiator grille gave enough light to see where we were going on a Halloween night that was a lot darker than it appears in this picture



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Sad News

Posted by Rupert Connor on Thursday, June 18, 2015, In : General News 
Sad news reached us today when we discovered that Eric Walker (builder of our steam engine No. 10) passed away last Christmas. We had a lovely time and were warmly welcomed by Eric and his wife Gloria when we enjoyed an inspirational visit to his Kirton Light Railway. Since then we have received much help and encouragement from Eric with building our KLR. We've appreciated Eric's help over the years and he will be sadly missed by us.
There was much more to Eric's life than the building o...
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New buffer beams for Helen

Posted by Rupert Connor on Sunday, April 26, 2015, In : Locomotives 
Recently we decided it was time to replace Helen's banana shaped buffer beams and wonky buffers. Previously the buffer beams were made of poor quality knotty softwood, and one of the front buffers was particularly squint because we had failed to notice that the bolts that hold them in place (not positioned by us!) were not in line. We hope you will agree the new steel buffer beams are an improvement.

Before


After


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A Really Useful Engine

Posted by Rupert Connor on Tuesday, July 2, 2013, In : Locomotives 
'Helen' has proved to be a 'Really Useful Engine' with her built in walking stick holder. Imagine how annoying it is when you need to use a walking stick, only to find you have left it somewhere back down the line. No such problems with this engine!


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Two Road Engine Shed

Posted by Rupert Connor on Tuesday, April 23, 2013, In : Construction 
After the snow came the wind. Dust storms formed where there are newly ploughed fields, creating what seemed like a thick brown fog. At last there were a few nice days at the end of last week.

Karen had got fed up with tripping over a pair of points that had been lying around in the workshop pending a little tweaking to make them more reliable, and lifting some of our rolling stock on and off the track each time we used it was less than ideal. We therefore decided to get the points out of the ...
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Helen's Facelift

Posted by Rupert Connor on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, In : Locomotives 
Read about and see how Karen re-designed and (with Ruari's help) rebuilt the bodywork of our diesel engine No.5 'Helen' in the newly added cosmetic changes section on the locomotives page.

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