THE NORTH-WEST WALES 16mm MODEL RAILWAY GROUP
A GROUP WHICH IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF 16mm NARROW GAUGE MODELLERS
THE GARREGLWYD QUARRY RAILWAY
A 45mm gauge, 7/8" railway built by Phil Hindley
All photographs courtesy of Phil Hindley.
The Latest News Update:
.. and, the photograph, below, shows part of the line.
If you are interested in what Phil is doing indoors you might like to follow this link:
Phil's description of the enhancements he has made to his Roundhouse "Charles" locomotive are described in the Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers Model of the Month for July 2016 which may be found at https://www.16mm.org.uk/2016/07/01/july-2016-modifications-to-a-roundhouse-charles/
Phil adds: "I don’t have the space or the facilities (a catering department !) for a group meeting, but I always welcome visits by individual members, subject of course to the current virus situation. Give me a ring if you want to come round at any time."
-----------------
Phil provided a video of his Accucraft Baldwin 778 and WD wagons for the Easter 2020 virtual meet-up, and says -
"Some of you will know that I don’t have a garden layout (no back garden!) just an oval test track around the backyard. It was originally built for American 0 Scale 12V DC operation, but with some adjustment and removal of points it will now take 16mm scale live steam."
The video can be viewed at the link below :
TIME FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT AT
THE GARREGLWYD QUARRY RAILWAY
A further 4 skip wagons have been built from Simply 7/8ths brass kits, and await painting grey to match the existing modified LGB skip wagons, above.
Also awaiting painting are a Simply 7/8ths open wagon based on the Croesor Tramway wagons and an ex-RAF wagon as used on the Festiniog Railway from one of David Williams' kits, which went together very well, below.
Changing the theme somewhat, I've been tempted to dabble in Fn3 (1:20.3 scale on 45mm gauge) and with a D&RGW 2-8-0 live steam loco on reservation it seemed a good idea to get something electric in the meantime.
The locomotive, below, is an Accucraft D&RGW C-16 obtained via the well known auction site, already equipped for dead rail operation and complete with rechargeable battery, receiver, speed controller and transmitter.
Above, a couple of items needed fixing such as the missing whistle and Accucraft had only provided one safety valve on the steam dome. I didn't think much of the shape of it, so the top of the dome was drilled out and a new insert provided with the new whistle, two new safety valves and the existing steam valve. The top part of the whistle unscrews which may be a help on layouts with tunnels of limited clearance. The crew are Woodland Scenics figures which needed fairly drastic surgery to fit in the cab. The lights were on a separate supply with non-rechargeable batteries so I've kept that arrangement but changed the headlight and marker light bulbs to LEDs.
Below, The only other alteration to the loco itself was the provision of a 'chuff cam' on the rear driving axle. This comprises a square block of brass fixed to the axle with the corners contacting a micro switch. The sound system does provide for automatic chuffs varying with the power supplied to the motor, but I didn't think they were accurate enough for the whole speed range.
As supplied the tender had all the battery/RC equipment without the sound system but it was all loose and rather an untidy mess. Now all the equipment is firmly fixed in position, seen below. The new 2" dia speaker with its sound enclosure is mounted over the existing hole in the centre of the tender floor. Above this is an aluminium plate carrying the rest of the equipment fixed with double-sided self adhesive foam pads. The on/off switch with a LED indicator and battery recharging socket are under the tank filler. In the tender body itself the main rechargeable battery is top left in the photo with the radio receiver and speed controller alongside it bottom left. The new sound card is top right with the lighting supply battery bottom right. An on/off switch for the lighting is fixed to the coal doors at the front of the tender. A six pin plug and socket connect the tender electrics to the loco. The sound card is from Mylocosound, an Australian company, and its programmed by infra-red signals from a television type remote control. There is an infra-red receiver on the sound card itself, which obviously needs to be exposed to receive signals, and also one on a flying lead which can be sited elsewhere. In my case its on the coal doors at the front of the tender.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZj0I-iGbj4
The link, above, is of the first trial run. Maybe the whistle sound needs to be turned up a bit and the bell turned down. There are 9 different whistle sounds available. The exhaust responds reasonably well to the speed control, it chuffs louder on acceleration then eases off when the set speed is reached and the sound tails off when it coasts to a stop.