As always I'm far faaar behind the 8-ball with updating this blog. The railway has been expanded to double its length and has gone from 1 RC powered loco to 5! without further ado lets have look at whats been happening...

Fyansford lime hopper, these came in 4 and 6 wheel Versions. I printed the doors for it too but i have to redesign it wasnt rugged enough and the actual ones tipped

A9 prepares to push an empty ore train back up the Wye to the loader

Alexanders steeplecab does its thing

The railway built its first and second set of scratch built points on the last day of the year, point number 2 seen here was installed at 11.58 on near years eve!

Alexanders steam tram departs

D1 and 14 come off the new leg of the wye

D1 grinds uphill with an empty ore past the new 3d printed signal box. This design is off thingyverse by badgerbreath. I scaled it up to 1:24 and then made a roof from bbq meat trays from bunnings crimpted

Point 2 at midnight new years eve!

Alexanders battery electric

D1

Alexanders Baldwin 2-4-2 brings an empty log train around viaduct number 1

The grade drop is more noticeable here. The steeplecab, AD3 and D1 are all visible here along with the railways Caterpillar D8H which can be seen clearing a pad for the railways new engine shed. A proper railway workshops has always been planned for the railways port base of Hastings but this will take care of the locos engaged in shunting the mine and doing branchline trips in the Yarra Valley area

3 Baldwins!

A down empty Tea and sugar is seen here traversing the loop on its way up the hill. The inside leg of the Triangle is yet to be built in this picture.

the D8H doing some damage to the yard with D1 Behind! I bought this kit on a whim and I've become extremely attached to it despite it not being rail related. it still needs some weathering and some more painting but I'm generally pretty happy with it.

this is the current track plan in scale to my house, the new passing loop still needs to be done but as it stands its an extremely effective track plan. Last run day saw 4 trains running concurrently without really running out of room which I'm very happy with considering theres under 15m of track!

Theres plenty more news but you'll have to wait till next time.

Happy new year!

More progress??

Some unexpected extra energy over the weekend and a chance acquisition of an extremely large lot of secondhand Peco track meant I could finally finish the extension off. 

It needs a bit more work but this allows me to focus back on some more Australian rollingstock and to finish the mine triangle/loader.

 The second and third trains into the new loop!

Both of the railways Porters are finally together running on RC! Alexander was kind enough to leave one of his controllers here which allowed dad and I to have a short running session.

 D1 the railways boxcab waits for Alexanders Steam tram to enter the loop.

 D1 having a well deserved rest between work.

 Load test!

 D1 runs a combined empty ore and supplies train back to the mine (D3 and the mystery EE featuring in the background)

 The future mine interchange. the siding to the left will be for empties to be exchanged for loaded ones, behind the guards van is a point that will eventually join back to the siding on the right creating a triangle. This area will require its own dedicated shunter eventually, most likely one of the lines 3 porters.

second passenger service to the new station.

A rare ray of sunshine.

And finally heres a drivers eye view of the entire mainline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-wn9ECwP3Y&t=46s

till next time.

Future plans (Pt.2)

 Construction begins!

Tools of the trade.

Gently "finessing" a rock to fit the track through!

 took me about 4 hours to get everything level, unfortunately because of the material the stakes are made of they bend quite easily and after a bit of thought I decided to leave them the way they were, eventually I plan on planting plants or something underneath them so hopefully you wont see the posts

 Another view of the future formation

 Thanks to melbournesparks (yes him again!) I was able to source some old decking material that once cut up was quite a suitable bridging material.

The loop on the left and right hand sides you can see the points for the future wye, I have about 6 sets of points still to construct so these have been "locked" out of use for the time being

 the finished extension!

 First train over the full loop

The new arrival... Converted from one of the railways Steeple cab electrics this box cab was one of the lines early experiments with dieselisation. I'll go into this loco a bit more in a future post.

The boxcab hauling a train over the extension, unfortunately shortly after this photo was taken it lost RC signal at the high end of the loop and ran off the end (lesson leant, if you're running always have the bridge in) and destroyed an end beam, broke both bogie mounts, smashed the cab and broke out most of the windows. Just another thing to fix.

Till next time.

Future Projects

The title is a bit of a misnomer as I completed the first stage of the extension last week but its never too late for an update right?

When I was first Surveying places to build the railway I knew I'd have my work cut out for me no matter where I put it but due to ease of access ended up putting it in my front garden bed which has been a good fit but has made it extremely hard to expand onward due to the steep slope needed to descend the garden. After a lot of surveying I decided the only way was to cross over into an adjacent patch of grass and spiral my way down on a 1:30 which I hoped wasn't too severe for my stock.

This is the "master plan" how much of it is actually constructed is yet to be seen. At this stage track will progress to badger creek as "stage one"

 The site before work

 Site of future wye and mine interchange

 The track gang has arrived and removed a section of track ready for the interchange point very kindly made for me by melbournesparks. Thanks again mate!

The point laid in, time for a beer!
Little did I know that this is how things would stay for the next almost 12 months. Progress is as usual Glacial.

An update

Its been a fair while since my last update which has been mainly due to the fact that theres been little progress but lots going on in life outside! So ill do my best to write a few posts with updates. Firstly heres some photots from past running sessions. Most of these feature another local modeller "Melbourne Sparks" who makes some excellent models of trams and tramway equipment. 

My first loco (like most people I'd wager) still running strong although it'll be ready for some work soon

 Porter number 9 running a pass

Melbourne sparks's Sydney steam tram and trailer. Built on a stainz chassies it runs as good as it looks. Trailer is built from plywood, styrene and PVC pipe for the roof. 

 #9 crosses the grade crossing

till next time.

Building a bridge

The G scale layout itself has existed for just over 3 years (as far as i can tell) and yet in that time it has probably only had about 6 months of running on it total spread over those three years. The culprit for this quite terrible performance is the long curved trestle bridge at the far end of the railway. This bridge was designed to be the feature point and as such has different height bents on a constant curve into a short straight, the bents were constructed from hardwood on a jig i made on some plywood and have survived the weather quite well being completely unprotected. The deck was the major weakness of the design being made from marine plywood which after a year managed to get moisture in it even though it had been coated quite a few times. it was so bad every time the Aristo C16 drove over it you could watch the deck deflect by over 5mm! I really should have screwed the deck to each bent which would have held it together but for all of the reasons the bridge was never very good

Mark II bridge

Due to the aforementioned problems with the wood decks i had the idea of using plastic garden edging for rails and recycled plastic garden stakes as uprights to make a kind of plate girder bridge. Unfortunately the girders cracked as soon as i tried bending it despite trying to build it with a curve in it! As mark two never got beyond construction i dont have any photos of it

Mark III

Mark 3 is a bit of a blend, the best of both worlds if you like. It uses the recycled plastic tomato stakes as uprights with a wooden deck screwed on using brackets. this has been by far the most successful iteration of the bridge requiring no maintenance in the four months of continuous operation (trains running every day!) this bridge is due for some aesthetic upgrading at some point as I loath the "railway on stilts look"

 Test fitting the bridge deck before painting (note one of the original trestle bents reused on the new bridge)

Completed bridge with a visiting lyn from the eltham south electric tramway

 Painted bridge

Train dashing across

Another update, prototype aluminium bar point has failed miserably so back to the drawing board. Once i get some cash back post Christmas ill invest in some brass rail and try again.

Last night I borrow my brothers camera and attempted some artsy shots...

Thats all from me folks! Have a merry christmas!