at the South Ambury Railway last sunday. Hauled along by a Roundhouse Fowler, this totally scratch built, all steel and brass model weighs over twenty pounds and is fully working, driven by a bunch of electric motors. Ed Bull, the craftsman who built it, got the idea looking at a junk box of bits with a large gear wheel from a kitchen mixer, and thought…‘hmmmm, I could build a railway crane around that…’ and did just that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plRbS0paSl8
He also had an incredible rod-driven gas-mechanical switcher with over 2000 rivets…also in 16mm scale [1/19th]. This loco, driven by a Land rover windshield-wiper motor, weighs an astonishing twelve pounds, and is build like one of Charlie Mynheer’s steamers.
See also - tacs trains - Youth Arbury RR #1 -3 - even have my tiny diesel pottering around - still going strong after almost 15 years in service.
The owner of the railway - Chris Moody - is the organiser of the UK 16mm Garratt Association [see website about Ttarrag Shed], and tells me that this layout has more than 2500 feet of 32mm track - none of it electrified - so it you don’t got batteries or steam, you don’t run. In fact, it’s so big that you can just set your train down on one of the steam-up sidings, wait for a space, and the npull out onto the main line - if you catch somebody up, you just slow down - that way around twenty or more trains can run at the same time.
More coming…
tac, ig & The Elk Island Boys