Soldato
If this isn't the right place please feel free to move - my justification for putting it here is that it has 4 wheels and a motor.
Don't know if this will be of any interest to anyone here but thought i'd share my latest project which is a garden railway. I've been wanting one since i was probably about 6 as i've always loved railways and my dad has always been either working on them or visiting them with me, I had an epiphany this Christmas just gone on a day out in Betws-y-coed after seeing the little railways there again of "i'm old enough to do what i want now!" so started looking at building one.
Settled on 7 1/4" gauge (or 184mm if you prefer) as it's the smallest gauge you can ride in or on rather than being dragged along behind and the smaller the gauge the tighter turns it will go round. I've not got a massive garden, it's around 1/2 an acre but it should be enough for a decent run, if i ever get to it i could have a run of around 250-300 metres but going to do 75m to start with and see where i go from there.
This whole thing is going to be done on a very tight budget, the first thing i noticed on looking in to this is how much money some 'old boys' seem to have to throw at this hobby so you have to be a bit creative to do it on a normal persons budget.
First off i decided on the engine i was going to build, it's called a Scamp and can be bought as a kit of laser cut steel parts, a shopping list of extra bits and some instructions. The reason in going for this is as mentioned above i really wanted something i sat on and not behind and this is by far the cheapest way to go about it apart from making it entirely on your own from scratch.
So i ordered a kit and a wagon to go with it, the lead time is about a month. Then put in a huge ebay order of all the other stuff you need which started turning up in drips and drabs for about the whole month while the kit was being laser cut. Stuff like bolts, bearings, electric motors, chains, switches etc etc.
I cleared some space in the garage and it looked like this before the kit turns up
This is maybe half of the laser cut bits
Once you get your head around the way it goes together it doesn't take long to make some progress
Think it took me just over a month - 6 weeks to go from box of bits to a painted working loco.
This engine can be run either from a 98cc petrol engine or from batteries, i bought it with the intention of using the petrol engine but cobbled together a battery pack from some UPS batteries to test it and much prefer the silent running on batteries so i'll make a box for them to look neat and probably use them instead. it's only a 30 second job to switch between as the engine just lifts out so the option is always there.
This is the first test run on cobbled together track before the seat arrived.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8FVSJiHfNuPzC25y6
This is the extent of my track currently, just out of the garage and about 10m onto the drive.
My daughter seems interested in it so far
For my track i'm using 10x20mm steel bar for the rails into recycled plastic chairs on recycled plastic sleepers, it's much more cost effective than using proper rail, about 1/3 of the cost if not cheaper. I'll be making my own points as again the prices are rather eye watering, maybe £600 for a single set of points. I can buy a lot of steel bar and welding rods for that.
So that's where i'm up to, just need to keep bending the rail and making up the track now. Next bit will have to be laid through the driveway so will need digging in and i'll probably weld the whole thing out of 10x20 bar to make it more sturdy with cars driving over it.
Don't know if this will be of any interest to anyone here but thought i'd share my latest project which is a garden railway. I've been wanting one since i was probably about 6 as i've always loved railways and my dad has always been either working on them or visiting them with me, I had an epiphany this Christmas just gone on a day out in Betws-y-coed after seeing the little railways there again of "i'm old enough to do what i want now!" so started looking at building one.
Settled on 7 1/4" gauge (or 184mm if you prefer) as it's the smallest gauge you can ride in or on rather than being dragged along behind and the smaller the gauge the tighter turns it will go round. I've not got a massive garden, it's around 1/2 an acre but it should be enough for a decent run, if i ever get to it i could have a run of around 250-300 metres but going to do 75m to start with and see where i go from there.
This whole thing is going to be done on a very tight budget, the first thing i noticed on looking in to this is how much money some 'old boys' seem to have to throw at this hobby so you have to be a bit creative to do it on a normal persons budget.
First off i decided on the engine i was going to build, it's called a Scamp and can be bought as a kit of laser cut steel parts, a shopping list of extra bits and some instructions. The reason in going for this is as mentioned above i really wanted something i sat on and not behind and this is by far the cheapest way to go about it apart from making it entirely on your own from scratch.
So i ordered a kit and a wagon to go with it, the lead time is about a month. Then put in a huge ebay order of all the other stuff you need which started turning up in drips and drabs for about the whole month while the kit was being laser cut. Stuff like bolts, bearings, electric motors, chains, switches etc etc.
I cleared some space in the garage and it looked like this before the kit turns up
This is maybe half of the laser cut bits
Once you get your head around the way it goes together it doesn't take long to make some progress
Think it took me just over a month - 6 weeks to go from box of bits to a painted working loco.
This engine can be run either from a 98cc petrol engine or from batteries, i bought it with the intention of using the petrol engine but cobbled together a battery pack from some UPS batteries to test it and much prefer the silent running on batteries so i'll make a box for them to look neat and probably use them instead. it's only a 30 second job to switch between as the engine just lifts out so the option is always there.
This is the first test run on cobbled together track before the seat arrived.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8FVSJiHfNuPzC25y6
This is the extent of my track currently, just out of the garage and about 10m onto the drive.
My daughter seems interested in it so far
For my track i'm using 10x20mm steel bar for the rails into recycled plastic chairs on recycled plastic sleepers, it's much more cost effective than using proper rail, about 1/3 of the cost if not cheaper. I'll be making my own points as again the prices are rather eye watering, maybe £600 for a single set of points. I can buy a lot of steel bar and welding rods for that.
So that's where i'm up to, just need to keep bending the rail and making up the track now. Next bit will have to be laid through the driveway so will need digging in and i'll probably weld the whole thing out of 10x20 bar to make it more sturdy with cars driving over it.
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