D&RGW narrow gauge: Back to scenics.

[rockershovel]

I was following this thread with interest until I got to the part about it "accidentally" expanding from a portable exhibition layout, to a 20' x 10' fully scenic layout with trestle bridges and waterfalls.

 

Now I'm just sulking from jealousy. 

[JZ]

We all have that one friend who can't handle their drink.

 

Probably the last modelling I do until December. Still some packing to do, check all the camera and drone batteries are charged up, then a few drinks with the neighbours. Not forgetting to put up November's picture of the month before I depart these shores. How many chancellors, foreign secretaries and prime ministers before I return on December 1st?

 

PS. Aware PM should be in capitals and will do so when we have one worthy of the job.

Edited October 19, 2022 by JZ

[JZ]

November's picture of the month.

493 at Chama, September 12 1967. At this time, I believe, the Rio Grande was the only Class 1 railroad operating steam.

[JZ]

Quick project before I go on holiday.

Tichy Trains milk loading platform. Will build some support once I know where I'll site it.

[JZ]

Some of you may have noticed that another hobby of mine is astronomy. While in NSW, I will be visiting Sidings Spring Observatory and doing the virtual solar system drive. This is some I came across on my last visit, but didn't have the time to do it all. This time it is planned in. While out in the more remote areas, I am hoping to get some shots of the night sky, given the lack of light pollution. Also on the cards is a visit to Outback Astronomy, near Broken Hill. Anyway, as I while away the last twenty minutes until I can check in, here is a shot of the Pillars of Creation in the Serpens Constellation from the James Webb Space Telescope and an earlier one from the Hubble telescope.

To give some idea of the scale, the left hand pillar, from it's top, to where it joins the main cloud, is about 4 light years. About the same distance as our nearest galactic neighbour, Proxima Centauri. More information here.

[JZ]

December picture of the month. 488 and 484 at Alamosa in December 1964. Note the dual gauge track in the foreground. 

Edited December 1, 2022 by JZ

[JZ]

Something i had in my eBay watch list for a few months. Original asking price was £259. Made a few inquiries and a couple of people have converted them and there is an article in the next Narrow gauge & Shortline Gazette. While I was away, the seller made me an offer at £169, so I had to grab it. DCC sound fitted.

 Wuiske Models Queensland Rail class 1550. It will need regauging to HOn3 from it's present HOn3½. Repainting and coupling box lowered.

[rockershovel]

HOn3 1/2 ? 12mm gauge?

[pH]

On 23/10/2022 at 13:08, JZ said:

While in NSW, I will be visiting Sidings Spring Observatory and doing the virtual solar system drive.

I see this is billed as the “world's largest Virtual Solar System Drive”. I wonder how many others there are?

 

I do know of one other. It was along 41st Avenue in Vancouver. I drove it many times late on Sunday evenings on my way home after taking kids back to UBC after they had been home for a weekend. It was taken down, when and why I don’t know.

 

[JZ]

6 hours ago, rockershovel said:

HOn3 1/2 ? 12mm gauge?

Yes.

 

[JZ]

3 hours ago, pH said:

I see this is billed as the “world's largest Virtual Solar System Drive”. I wonder how many others there are?

 

I do know of one other. It was along 41st Avenue in Vancouver. I drove it many times late on Sunday evenings on my way home after taking kids back to UBC after they had been home for a weekend. It was taken down, when and why I don’t know.

 

From Siding spring to Coonabarabran you have Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. From then on it spreads out in fiver directions.

The Anglo-Australian Telescope. 3.9metre Cassegrain reflector.

The telescope building acts as the sun on the drive.

 

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, JZ said:

Yes.

 

How is that done? Pushing the wheels in on their axles? Swapping wheel sets? 

[JZ]

51 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

How is that done? Pushing the wheels in on their axles? 

I believe so. There is an article in the latest Narrow gauge & Shortline Gazette, but I am still waiting for mine.

[Northroader]

Two model solar systems I’ve come across, but walks, not drives:

on the canal towpath between Bridgwater and Taunton

on the old ECML Route, now a cyclepath from Selby to York, between Naburn and Bishopthorpe.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Northroader

[John ks]

On 04/12/2022 at 16:58, JZ said:

I believe so. There is an article in the latest Narrow gauge & Shortline Gazette, but I am still waiting for mine.

As a Queenslander I only started getting interested in QR models when Wuiske Models produced RTR models

My next problem was that while i had a decent length of narrow gauge it was all HOn3 (& a loop of HOn2½ /OO9)

I looked at my layout & decided that to add some HOn3½ track to the layout would be too difficult.

 

For what it is worth I may have been the first person to do this conversion.

At the same time there was a gentleman in the US (possibly from Soundtrax )who had a couple of  Wuiske's locos & was looking to convert one loco to 3ft gauge. I got this information from my local hobby shop who relayed my efforts to him.

 

First i got a pack of wagons & regauged them to see if it was possible & it worked fine

Next & scariest was to purchase a loco

If i remember correctly it may be possible to do the conversion with the bogies still in the body but a lot easier with the bogies out of the body

There is a cover that holds the 3 axles in place, unclip it & the 3 axles should come out '

twist the half axles from the gear

push the wheel along the half axle 0.75mm. a wheel puller or a vice can be used

Assemble the half axles into the gears, replace the wheel sets into the bogie. there is almost 0 side play with the regauged wheelsets.

Now for the fun part, the plate that holds the wheels in place needs to be trimmed so that the wheels don't foul it

In the pictures, the yellow line shows before trimming & the red lines show where I trimmed it to 

 

 

 

After the conversion the locos run almost as good as before.

I currently have 3 locos & 20ish wagons all running next D&RG Steam

 

 Wuiske Models make two versions of their models, one with narrow gauge bogies 3'6" (12mm) or the other with standard gauge bogies which is completely wrong but if you want QR models & already got a standard gauge layout then it is a compromise that some people are happy to make.

My compromise is a bit like OO scale where the track gauge is a bit narrower than it should be, but we'll keep that our secret

Hope this helps

John

 

 

[JZ]

Thanks for the info John.

1 hour ago, John ks said:

As a Queenslander I only started getting interested in QR models when Wuiske Models produced RTR models

My next problem was that while i had a decent length of narrow gauge it was all HOn3 (& a loop of HOn2½ /OO9)

I looked at my layout & decided that to add some HOn3½ track to the layout would be too difficult.

 

For what it is worth I may have been the first person to do this conversion.

At the same time there was a gentleman in the US (possibly from Soundtrax )who had a couple of  Wuiske's locos & was looking to convert one loco to 3ft gauge. I got this information from my local hobby shop who relayed my efforts to him.

 

First i got a pack of wagons & regauged them to see if it was possible & it worked fine

Next & scariest was to purchase a loco

If i remember correctly it may be possible to do the conversion with the bogies still in the body but a lot easier with the bogies out of the body

There is a cover that holds the 3 axles in place, unclip it & the 3 axles should come out '

twist the half axles from the gear

push the wheel along the half axle 0.75mm. a wheel puller or a vice can be used

Assemble the half axles into the gears, replace the wheel sets into the bogie. there is almost 0 side play with the regauged wheelsets.

Now for the fun part, the plate that holds the wheels in place needs to be trimmed so that the wheels don't foul it

In the pictures, the yellow line shows before trimming & the red lines show where I trimmed it to 

 

 

 

After the conversion the locos run almost as good as before.

I currently have 3 locos & 20ish wagons all running next D&RG Steam

 

 Wuiske Models make two versions of their models, one with narrow gauge bogies 3'6" (12mm) or the other with standard gauge bogies which is completely wrong but if you want QR models & already got a standard gauge layout then it is a compromise that some people are happy to make.

My compromise is a bit like OO scale where the track gauge is a bit narrower than it should be, but we'll keep that our secret

Hope this helps

John

 

 

There is an article in the current NG&SL Gazette about converting them, but I am still waiting for mine to turn up. Once the conversion is done, I can get it properly on the rolling road, at present it falls off unsless held in place. Then I can see what decoder is fitted and see if there is a bell I can add to the sounds.

[JZ]

Not much happening with this at the moment, as I am doing a small Australian diorama and the winter project, Malmsmead. Besides, it is cold out in the shed. But I did pick this up on ebay.

A Bemo RhB Schneeräumer. It is also a track cleaner, the main reason for buying. It was an easy job to regauge and should be a simple job to modify a Kadee #705 to replace the present coupling. Now, should I repaint it MoW gray, or leave as is?

[JZ]

Well, my Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette finally arrived this morning. Had a gander at the article on regauging the Wuiske Models loco and it was a but short on that exercise. It was mostly about the cosmetic side of tuning it into a WP&Y loco. @John ks 's photo's further up this page are much more useful.

One more day at work this year and then I must start scanning this year's calendar for next year's 'picture of the month'.

And also this morning, I got my hands on a Banta Modelworks Chama depot kit at a very reasonable price.

A good sized building at some 18" long and one that I have visited in real life, though unfortunately I don't seem to have taken any pictures of it. Most likely, it will become the Lucyville depot, with the present building moving to Ava City and that replacing the Blair Line one at the other station. As for the roof, shingles only appeared from 2012, so my sanity can remain intact. However, earlier photo's show fishscale style tiles as can be seen in the 1970 shot prior to preservation. Still in the 1930s/40s colour scheme. later it had a tar paper roof in green, which is how I will model it.

Noted that it has shingles in the gable ends.

I will forego the patriotic bunting.

[JZ]

Since posting the above about Chama depot, I have come across, though I had it all the time, a photo of Chama in the gold and brown scheme in 1949. If you want to see it, you will have to wait until I post the August picture of the month.

[PaulRhB]

On 21/12/2022 at 14:12, JZ said:

Not much happening with this at the moment, as I am doing a small Australian diorama and the winter project, Malmsmead. Besides, it is cold out in the shed. But I did pick this up on ebay.

A Bemo RhB Schneeräumer. It is also a track cleaner, the main reason for buying. It was an easy job to regauge and should be a simple job to modify a Kadee #705 to replace the present coupling. Now, should I repaint it MoW gray, or leave as is?

Flangers etc appeared in boxcar brown as did at least one rotary so the colour is ok as it is unless you want to change it ;) 

[JZ]

13 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Flangers etc appeared in boxcar brown as did at least one rotary so the colour is ok as it is unless you want to change it ;) 

Yes. I think I'll leave as is. That way if I decide to sell it further down the line, it is easy to regauge and put on ebay. Rotary OY was in MoW gray when I photographed it in May 2019, but was back in boxcar red by the time it was used the following winter. Flanger OD was repainted to red in 1947, OE was always red,  OF ........... I could carry on, but there doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule regarding the colour. Photographic evidence shows that some went from gray to red in the mid 1940s and some the other way at about the same time. And those used on the RGS appear to have always been red.

Edited January 1, 2023 by JZ

[JZ]

Time for January picture of the month. These are all from last year's calendar. For this year's calendar pictures, you will have to wait until next year.

484 smoking up everything in Alamosa, with a westbound freight in June 1964.

  This picture gives some idea of the size of these loco's, unless the crew are only 5' tall. This K-36 has a tractive power of 36000lb. Roughly halfway between an 8F and a 9F.

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by JZ

[JZ]

Without giving too much away, here is part of the picture from 1949 which shows Chama depot in yellow and brown (or boxcar red)

For the rest of the picture, you will have to call back in August.

Edited January 1, 2023 by JZ

[JZ]

Referring to picture of the month, here is a size comparison of an 8F and K-36.

Of course, maybe the LMS chaps are only 5'.

Comparative figures    

8F                                                                      K-36  

Driver dia.               4 ft 8+1⁄2 in                    3'8"

Loco weight            72.10 long tons            84.9 

Boiler pressure      225lb                             195lb

Cylinders                 18½x28                         20x24

Tractive effort         32440                           36200

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by JZ

[pH]

I remember being quite surprised when I first saw that some of the narrow-gauge ‘Mikes’ had a higher tractive effort than an 8F.