Ox Mountain Railway

[trammayo]

Last week, I sorted a long-standing problem of intermittent power on my high level line. It turned out that I'd forgotten to drill and tap a rail end to bolt the fish plate! So it had annoyed me for a number of years! Anyway, due to the warm weather, I gave testing the track (other than by meter) a miss.

Today's sunshine encouraged me to do something so, after lunch I got a tram out and some maintenance stock and there was continuous power. Great!

The tram is approaching the once deffective rail joint .....

Hauling the stock......

...... it wasn't powerful enough to haul the lot up the 1 in 30 so the stock was left in the depot....

..... and continuing solo ....

Also on the track today was the work in progress ....

 

[playmofire]

The "work in progress" looks the bees knees!

 

[trammayo]

Cheers Gordon. If I could devote some time to it I could move on to other things.

 

[trammayo]

Apart from loco (and train) testing yesterday, I've been slowly checking over my trailer layout for the coming season. Last year I'd had enough but, with the trailer locked away since last August. I've had time to reflect. I'm booked for the day at Mayo Ploughing Championships (21.4.13) so its going to be a tester for ME on that day.

Anyway, I dragged the trailer out of the barn last week and have been charging all the batteries. Knowing that there might be some rain tomorrow, I decided to open up the trailer fully to facillitate track cleaning and testing.

The first unit to run was the Reo Railbus. It didn't like the reverse curve (all four of them!) - there was loads of wheelslip! Weight was the answer, and some was added. Its a little noisy (more obvious in the trailer with the front shutters down) but at least it doesn't slip to a stop! ....

Then I got my Li'l Bash out and the four side tippers I've gradually acquired. The green cars must be early models (of which I knew nothing) as the later ones are far more detailed. They look the same, but the Spectrum ones are a totally different model. I'm going to alter the green ones. Anyway, the loco and trucks run fine without any problem .....

Before lunch I got out the USA Trains Mighty Moe. I'm glad I did because there was a slight problem at one of the points. I don't have many engines with skates otherwise I might have noticed the problem years ago! With that sorted, I put a few freight cars behind. The brown D&RGW car derailed. As this car had trundled around the trailer since 2008 I had to sort this new problem. It turned out that I had "borrowed" (for the railbus project) one of the metal wheelsets. I had replaced it with a plastic one and it was this that was causing the problem. A new (plastic) pair of Bachmann manufacture were inserted at that was the end of the problem!...

I've one more loco to test (an Aristo 0-4-0) and then I'll shut it up (its very cold and windy). Meanwhile, loco servicing will continue and so will testing in the garden.

 

[playmofire]

All looking good, Mick.

 

[trammayo]

All looking good, Mick.

Thanks - its all shut back up and secure now. Hope the weather warms up a little and it only rains at night!

 

[trammayo]

Well, it's been many a month since I ran trains other than for testing purposes. With much of the rolling stock boxed up in the trailer, I wondered what I was going to run.

I picked the little Aristo centre cab first. I hadn't much freight stock to hand but dug out a couple of Bachmann tankers and a caboose, plus an Aristo stake flat.

Having cured a long-standing continuity problem a week ago, the train ran round without any problems. Having switched it to the inner circle (via the high level line), I looked for something to run on the outer line. An old Big Hauler, with whining gears, was put on the track and a trio of disparate coaches coupled up. Again, no probs. I'll mess about after lunch so the trains are still on the track awaiting the off.

 

[playmofire]

All looking good, Mick!

 

[trammayo]

Thanks Gordon ? all is not what it seems however!

Despite wanting to continue running trains after lunch the other day, the climbing temperatures made that intention into a ?no go?!

I hadn?t used the extension line since trying to negotiate it with the Round Robin Boxcar in tow. There were obvious electrical continuity problems which needed sorting. My little analogue multimeter has succumbed to unknown gremlins (it refused to work) so I ordered another one from the UK ? Digital this time ? and expected it some time ago. Cheap and cheerful, the promised delivery time for my purchase arrived and passed.

Knowing the vagaries of Royal Mail and An Phost, I bit my tongue and waited a little longer! Not too long, mind you, before I sent a polite email. Still waiting!

I remembered that I had a 12volt testing probe (like the mains testing screwdriver) in the trailer. A little judicious wiggling (both of the trailer and me) brought forth the much coveted testing aid. By the time I wanted to use it yesterday it was too damn hot (9.30am at that).

So, this morning I set to at 6.30am and located the offending rail joiners. Normally, I would drill and tap the LGB connectors to work like Aristo ones but, in the absence of enough 2mm Hex-socket screws, I have taken to drilling downwards through the connector into the foot of the rail.
I have a supply of 2mm x 6mm stainless self-tappers (nearly an oxymoron there as they won't cut a thread through anything other than soft metals), so a 2mm diameter hole does the trick. The idea came from some track I purchased off a fellow Forumite!

Problem sorted ?.

Anyway, with continuity assured (in my mind at least), I thought I?d run a train whilst it was still relatively cool. I pulled out one of my Big Haulers ? a S.P.C. Annie (again, another purchase via a fellow Forumite from Bill?s railway), and put it on the shed road.

Whilst trying to find a suitable angle to take a pic, I noticed the insulators on the telegraph pole somewhat askew. This was obviously the work of Tomas, our cat ? he has chewed quite a few on my trailer layout!

Not cat proof ?..

Anyway, - the selected ?on shed? photo ?..

The loco pulls off the shed road to collect its rake of coaches ??

Then reverses and back up to the waiting rake of four Sierra coaches ?..

The leading coach has missing steps on one side ? a case of two close encounters with an immovable object ?..

Off she goes with the ?Sunrise Special? ?.

?. and across the Moy Bridge

These are my stepping stones to enable me to cross the line instead of going the long way round to the shed ?.

[font="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"]A large ?through? stone from the old cottage ruins ?.[/font]
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And a smaller one I previously used as an anvil! ?.

 

[trammayo]

Along the straight (ish) bit ??

?. and an unhindered return having negotiated the R2 loop (Deadwood Central) - sorry I meant Tombstone (two family pets buried there!)?..

A pause on the bridge (dirty track) ?.

And across onto the main line with a derailment on an R1 segment of track ?.

The reason for the derailment was that I had shortened the couplings (when changing from Aristo knuckles) to bring the coaches closed together ? OK for R2s and greater but not always great for R1s ?.

The offending R1s ? only short sections but enough to cause the coach rooves to lock and derail one truck ?.

Funnily enough (not that I?m laughing), the loco is running over an R1 in this shot and the train doesn?t derail. Murphy?s Law?

Now I think I will alter the couplings again - maybe one standard length and one short? I'll give it try anyway.

 

[trammayo]

Well sorted out the couplings on the coaches. If my memory worked all the time, I would have known that I started off with rake of three on which I altered the couplings. The fourth coach messed things up really. After lengthening one knuckle on the fourth coach and rearranging the other three, I ended up with the right spacing.

So here's the last of my efforts today ....

Sometime, I'm going to alter the R1's to R2 or 3. Need a new crossover for R3 and the points are in stock. This will leave just two R1's at the depot. Sometime! It made a nice change to be able to sort things out when I wanted to rather than "must do that for the next show" etc.

 

[playmofire]

So all looking good and running good now. Well done. (I guess the smaller text confirms that!)

 

[trammayo]

So all looking good and running good now. Well done. (I guess the smaller text confirms that!)

Ha - the larger text was a result of copy and paste! I normally post pics in chronological order but, occassionaly, I forget to take the picture that illustrates my point. Going back to take the photo means the time frame is all awry and I sometimes forget to put them in the correct sequence when editing them.

So I sometimes do it all in Word (forgetting the format on the Forum), put the photo file number in the text where it should and copy the lot over. All I need to do then after uploading the correct photos is just to highlight the number in the text and click on the appropriate photo number.

I just needed to work out my frustrations, with the weather being too hot, having no car at the moment, missing my own vintage club's hosting of the All-Ireland show, and other things.

But, I'll get over it Life's too short isn't it?

 

[beavercreek]

Good to see it fully operational Mick.Looks mighty fine in the sun.
I also use the 'one long one short' coupling arrangement for some rolling stock hook-ups.

 

[trammayo]

Good to see it fully operational Mick.Looks mighty fine in the sun.
I also use the 'one long one short' coupling arrangement for some rolling stock hook-ups.

Hi Mike - I should have gone for R3 all round when I first built the line (blank canvas) but then it wasn't built as a railway, more of a tramway. Then I bought a Big Hauler set .........

 

[trammayo]

Sunday, 28th July, was only the third time I have been able to take the trailer out this year - having missed two shows this month alone. The venue was Mountbellew in Galway and we (me and the wife) arrived early.

Sited on a fairly level plot it didn't take too long to set up. This was the first time I had used the lightweight outriggers (supporting a rope) as a means of delineating a "no go" area for visitors. Some cheap bunting made the line more obvious and there were no real problems with people touching things.

The three pics are all I managed to take as I needed to get the rolling stock either on the track or on the shelves ready for use. By the time I had got stuff out, I was too busy to see or photograph anything else.

I'm quite pleased that the alterations have worked out quite and saved a lot of time (and hard work) setting up and taking down. Maybe I'll make some more substantial outriggers, as peope pushing on the rope tends to bend the stay brackets.

And finally, this is how I have to park it in the yard if I want to work on the layout or don't want the trouble of putting it in the barn...

Now all I need now is to sort out what else is wrong with the car!

 

[playmofire]

Looks very impressive, Mick. Your time and effort have been well spent.

 

[trammayo]

Thank you Gordon. Its certainly a big lump now - although it is very easy to handle with the car (or by hand if on level ground) - I cannot keep it in the yard where I used to before I lengthened it.

 

[beavercreek]

The line is looking great Mick!
And so is the trailer layout...wow!

 

[Shawn]

Great shot. Layout looks great. The trailer idea is great. Love it.