I stumbled across a great deal on an unrun and unfired 01 production Roundhouse Billy locomotive. I grab it up while I had the chance. Now this will change my plans a bit for our garden line. I am going to switch the gauge to 32mm instead of 45mm. I have always wanted to build the quaint little English slate quarry railway. While the Billy being a Koppel design, there is enough UK look to it that with a proper lantern on the buffer beam she will do just fine. The plan is for a point to point operation with a small shunting yard at on end with a station and reload dock for the slate. The other end will be the qarry siding. My Billy is manual control, so I will endover to not have any grades to deal with. Look for more details in my other post. Cheers Mike
Mike Toney said:Mike - welcome to the burnt finger brigade!! You could not have made a better chice for a first loco than a RH anything. They are bombproof and haul like mad things. I'm not sure how much you already know about NG here in yUK, but there are no slate quarries in England. They are all in Wales, and only really in the northern part there, too.
I stumbled across a great deal on an unrun and unfired 01 production Roundhouse Billy locomotive. I grab it up while I had the chance. Now this will change my plans a bit for our garden line. I am going to switch the gauge to 32mm instead of 45mm. I have always wanted to build the quaint little English slate quarry railway. While the Billy being a Koppel design, there is enough UK look to it that with a proper lantern on the buffer beam she will do just fine. The plan is for a point to point operation with a small shunting yard at on end with a station and reload dock for the slate. The other end will be the qarry siding. My Billy is manual control, so I will endover to not have any grades to deal with. Look for more details in my other post. Cheers Mike
Howsomeever, notwithstanding that, you should know that a bunch of us over here will be going over to the BIG show at Llanfair in mid-Wales at the end of the month, where there will be a stand from every maker and modder of live-steam NG in the UK, as well as a few from overseas - that’s about 80, by the way. If there is anything you need that is hard to find in the US - regarding British NG steam accessories and so on - please let me know. We are frequent visitors to US and CN, with good friends and many relatives in both places and as we are both ex-military we travel very lightly and can always ballast our baggage with bits and pieces.
Give me a toot on a pm with your address and I’ll send you a copy of the Briths ‘Garden Rail’ magazine to whet your burgeoning appetite!
Graders
tac
Thanks Tac, I acutaly have 4 issues including the latest issue thanks to a buddy over on the mad forum. I will be in need of a few RH pieces, namely the Darjeeling headlight assmbly that sell seperatly, and the combination lever/crosshead upgrade like the higher up models have. The last thing I need are etched name plates with the name “Oliver” for my new steamer. The next one will be the Artfull Dodger, I was going to name this one that, but dont think the side tanks are long enough for that name plate. The next one will be a toss up, either find a William, or a Lady Anne. If you do see some second hand Peco SM32 track at a keen price, please think of me. All I have is a few ratty pieces of Mamod track. Everything I like about UK garden railways is just murder on my wallet. I love the welshpool pottery’s buildings, as well as Tuxcraft. But shipping them across the pond will be expensive. Also on my list of second hand items are 3-4 small slate wagons or tipper skips. I am already planing the rebuild of the current layout with the 32mm gauge track and how to achieve the look I want. Thanks Mike
Mike - you wrote - 'Thanks Tac, I acutaly have 4 issues including the latest issue thanks to a buddy over on the mad forum. ’
Good bunch there.
‘I will be in need of a few RH pieces, namely the Darjeeling headlight assmbly that sell seperatly, and the combination lever/crosshead upgrade like the higher up models have.’
Roger and the team will have no problem sorting that out for you, I have no doubt.
‘The last thing I need are etched name plates with the name “Oliver” for my new steamer.’
If you have a bunch of copies of GR then you will easily find plate makers - all who post in the mags are good to deal with.
‘If you do see some second hand Peco SM32 track at a keen price, please think of me. All I have is a few ratty pieces of Mamod track.’
Hmmmm, rarely seen - it lasts such a long time, and has spent its life out in the open, most s/h track is not worth the bother. But I’ll keep my eye-trumpets open for you anyhow.
Best of luck
tac
Thanks Tac. Just have to restock my wallet after buying the Billy. Even with the deal it was, it cleaned out my train fund for a bit. I am at the point where I might sell of my vintage Marklin HO bits to fund more 16mm trains. Just not into modeling in the smaller scales anymore. When I had one of my past steamers, a Pearse Countess that I got for about half the current price, I would set the gas real low and just let her simmer, with the safety lifing every once and awhile. I didnt have a full layout then, but a small plant box display in our window, small appartment back then. The sounds and smells of a steamer are priceless. I did learn from a tip in Steam in the Garden magazine to put a lump of coal in the smoke box of a gas fired steamer, the heat warms it up and it adds the slight smell of coal to the exhaust, it also absorbs some of the oil and gunk in the smokebox and helps a bit with visiable exhaust. Cheers Mike
Mike Toney said:That's a neat trick. How big a piece of coal do you use? I want to try this in my 2 Cyl. Shay :D
[i][/i] The sounds and smells of a steamer are priceless. I did learn from a tip in Steam in the Garden magazine to put a lump of coal in the smoke box of a gas fired steamer, the heat warms it up and it adds the slight smell of coal to the exhaust, it also absorbs some of the oil and gunk in the smokebox and helps a bit with visiable exhaust. Cheers Mike
I used used a small clump that I found along the railroad tracks a few years ago when out watching trains. A nice long coal train went thru with a leaking hopper. This was before the widespread use of the bathtub gons that dont have the bottom dumps on them. I still have a jar of that stuff somewhere. Just do go so large as to upstruck the burner flue or the exhaust from the cylinders. I just put in a piece that fit between the exhuast pipe and the smoke box door. I did this on my LGB Aster Frank S that had that dumb gunk tank removed and a chuff pipe fitted. I could smell a bit of an aroma, not like having a true coal burner though. See if it works for you. Mike
Thanks Mike - Ive got lots of coal around in all sizes, so I’ll give it a try.
Go for it, like all things, you milage may vary, LOL!!! I am ballesting track on my small loop after leveling out the grades. Track was just layed floating on the cyprus mulch in our garden. Laying some ballest rock to help it look a bit better. We will see how this holds up. I plan to extend it around the pond and back with a bridge, but thats next summer. Cheers Mike
Successfull first steaming of my new long dorman RH Billy just now. I did the first steam up on blocks, spent the better part of an hour cleaning all the cigarette smoke residue off the paintwork, he is nice and shiny once again. I reoiled all the bearings and motion. He had indeed never been steamed since he left Doncaster as the steam oil was sealed and the dust on the wheel treads. He had added to extra dummy buffers on the front pilot beam, which looked quite hidious. I removed them, but owing to the epoxy he used, it took some paint with it. I have the front buffer beam off right now as I resprayed it with some nice red paint I happen to have. Even after the years of inactivity, Billy runs like a roundhouse, smooth as glass with full pressure. The only real running issue is the pressure gauge does not work! I tapped it several times while running on blocks, nothing. I removed it and once cooled off, I will blow out the line coming to the gauge and see what happens, might have to get a replacement. I got all the paperwork, the packet with all the extras from Roundhouse and the orignal sales reciept when he was bought new. He came from one of my favorite, but now closed, live steam dealers down in Florida. Billy came new from Bob and Fran O. at Rio Pecos. Bob set me up with a payment plan on the first live steamer I bought, an Aster London Transport Pannier Tank kit. Took me a year to pay it off. For what it cost, I wish I had gotten a RH loco back then, but I enjoyed it anyway. Now I come full circle and have what I should have gotten from Bob. I hope to have some track running pics later this evening. Cheers Mike
Ok, pretty nice first run on the line. Only a couple of derailments as I find soft spots, biggest problem is that left curve right after the station, its a slight downgrade to the curve, but then back slightly upgrade thru the long curve ahead, Billy kept derailing at the first curve, I did a little shimming under the track and stopped that. I had a bit of negitive superelevation at the back side behind the wishing well. I shimmed that up, but need to reballest that now. I will probably break out my long carpenters level as soon as Billy cools enough to remove from the layout and do a bit more track leveling. Buying even the simplest 2 channel RC isnt in the budget right now, so he has to remain manual control. I did find the problem with the pressure gauge, the line going to it had some hardened sediment in the bottom of the elbow were it turns to go up to the gauge. I had to carefully straighten it, drive a straight pin thru it with some slight steam pressure in the boiler to blow it out. The gauge works now, but fogs up. I will purchase a new pressure gauge shortly. Cheers and enjoy the new pics! Mike
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