Just a test picture to test the picture hosting process from Carl.


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Wow it works. Puits - fait Monsieur Administrator.

Great, tomorrow I can send some updates from my railway including progress on the live diesel.

Looking forward to that David!

mikey

That is just a cracking locomotive David.

It has appeared on here before I think but either way tell us all about it.

It all sounds very interesting, please tell/show us more.

Cant wait to see this!!

Mikey

Your last pair of [img] tags are redundant but other than, test successful I would say.

I must confess it is freelance 2-8-0 and not a scale model of a prototype, but has similarities with the Baldwin 2-8-0s that worked on La Robla.

It is freelance partly because it is my first attempt at building a live steam loco and I wanted to use a Lady Anne boiler and motion. Additionally I wanted a 2-8-0 tender loco to get the coal trains from Covadonga to the ports at Villa and Gijon. Chassis and most other flat bits are scratch built with liberal use of odd fittings from Roundhouse.

My railway, the Gijon, Villaviciosa and Covadonga, is supposed to be 750mm so the model is 32mm gauge.

I designed the chassis online using Autosketch, an old and simple, but good, CAD package.

Basically I added the 4th axle to the Lady Anne dimensions and added a few further modifications and emailed the Autosketch file to a company in Birmingham. They laser cut the frames from my CAD file. Price quoted was £20 for one set of frames and £30 for 3 sets. So I might build another loco as I quite like the aesthetics and I did order 3 sets of frames/coupling rods. If anyone wanted a set of frames/coupling rods then I can supply them at cost ie £10.

Apart from the rolling chassis which I designed in 2D CAD I made up the rest as I went along safe in the knowledge that the mechanical asoects were a Roundhouse given and that I did nt have enough 3D CAD ability to design the superstructure in advance of the build. This caused a few problems and some extra and unnecessary back engineering to get everything to fit but nothing too difficult. Before building the superstructure I did a few basic outline manual drawings to ensure I was happy with the aesthetics.

I could have built the boiler but figured the advantages of using the Lady Anne one was too good to miss. I guess the cost of the loco was about £650 for the bits from Roundhouse and a couple of hundred for sheet brass, radio and fittings. I acquired a secondhand R/H tender
from ebay for about £50. Total would be a little under £1k.

The most laborious job was making the superstructure flat platework like the cab. I am not an engineer and had never built anything out of metal before so I scribed out the parts on brass sheet and then roughly pillar drilled and hacksawed this out and then carefully hand filed back to the scribe line. Most components are assembled with small and hidden 10 and 12 ba screws so that it is easy to disassemble the whole locomotibe back into a kit of parts.

All Spektrum gear is in the tender and there is a working scratch built headlamp. Chuff pipe and whistle are to be fitted later.

Painting is a combination of Halford Car Aerosols using a combination of satin and matt black. On some of the photos the matt appears quite satin but that is after I cleaned the matt areas with an oily rag, hopefully in time this will revert back to matt.

The whole loco building process was little more difficult than building a Lady Anne kit although it took probably two or three times as long. Most of the difficult, non flat, bits have been engineered by Roundhouse but it has been a very satisfying experience to complete and the best aspects are the performance of the loco, a Lady Anne in all but name, and the aesthetics of the loco geometry, which I find very attractive. It's a model of a prototype that worked on the fictional Gijon, Villaviciosa and Covadonga railway just east of Oviedo in Asturias.

If anyone wants any further constructional details please ask. Additional photos to follow.


David

My admiration knows no bounds David. I could never even contemplate doing something like that. One thing though; change the title of your thread to your lines name. give it some credit.Brilliant!!

Mikey

Hope you dont mind David, I took the liberty of changing the thread title. Please lets see more of your line.

Mikey

Mikey, thats fine and thank you for the compliments.

There are a series of photos of my line under the Garden Railways section thread called David Grantham's Railway.

The GVC is, literally at this moment, being extended with much use of my beloved cement mixer. If the weather is OK tomorrow I will take and host a few pictures of the extension plus the other projects listed in progress below.

The railway has no or little detail at present as most effort is going into the heavy work of earth shifting and track laying. Plans for the next coupe of months are to lay the extension track, lay ballast, add a few Hornby O gauge signals air connected to the point actuators, introduce a couple of scratch built coaches into service, install the overall station roof into Villa and finally try to get the live diesel test run.

Until tomorrow here are a few more photos of Covadonga the engine.

Nice. It definitely resembles a baldwin.

David,

That is an impressive piece of modelling, more details please.

You say that you may have a set of frames....and rods.....I would very much like a set please and will pay whatever the rate is.

I have loads of projects to build already but an 040 (0-8-0) Corpet is tempting for the future.

Have Roundhouse seen this machine? They should be duly stunned as we are.

That's a lovely job and you must be duly proud of your work, David.

As Carl suggests I would certainly contact Roundhouse with information of the build and some photos, I expect they would be most interested.

I did send some photos to Roundhouse who asked if they could use them for their own purposes. I of course agreed but have not seen anything published.

I should acknowledge how helpful Roundhouse were in providing a CAD file of the basic Lady Anne chassis as a starting point for me to design the 2-8-0 version. Also they were very helpful in providing the appropriate parts and components without me having to by the 3 part LA kits and then throw away the unrequired components.

I have the highest regard for R/H customer service but I cant help wondering why they dont market a European 45/32mm loco. Maybe Accucraft can be persuaded to add another axle and pony truck to the Beyer Peacock 4-4-0 tanks making them authentic Alcoy and Ghandia 2-6-2s. Anyway I am sure the directors of the GVC will be happy to acquire one of the 4-4-0 versions soon.

Still raining outside so pictures of the extension build delayed for a day or two. For now some pics of the first nearly complete scratch basic GVC coach and the live diesel.

The live diesel has not even been test run yet. Work has been delayed since Xmas due to a number of family illnesses but things are largely back on track now.

Next step is to start the glow motor and take some readings. It seems that I have the choice between a large fuel tank or an onboard battery, when I would prefer both. As you can see there doesnt seem to be room for both as the fuel tank currently extends beyond the buffer beam, unless there is a way of building a custom shaped tank to fit the limited space available.

Looks very promising.

Could you give us more technical details, like engine type, what type of motor for the dynamo, control, battery, electric circuit, the list could be long.....

I found those thermic engine very interesting, I saw the one Carl made,

Which will give the longest running time David, fuel or battery?

mikey

Excellent David.... you are joining the hallowed elite dozen or so world wide who have ventured and succeed in live G scale diesel.

I would build a simple fold-up and soft solder nickel silver or thin brass fuel tank to fit any odd space that exists.
Or use a smaller battery. Hi amp nicads...??

Can't wait to see this running.

I feel like getting mine out now.....

Mikey,
the battery should last at least 4 or 5 hours or more whereas fuel is likely to be 20 mins to 45 mins depending on what space can be found. At least thats before I dropped the battery after a heavy rainstorm interrupted my brief photo shoot this pm.

Carl,
good idea about the fold up tank, thanks.

Biggest issue at present is that it feels the priority ought to be to get the track extension and outside works completed now the weather is acceptable, whereas the live diesel is better suited as a winter workshop project. Lets see how the running trials go.