I recently provided Paul Elden with a copy of my Ruby construction notes. He is building a Ruby loco from just plans and is fabricating alot of the components himself.
I thought this would be interesting to follow. To get it started here is two pictures of Pauls workshop / shed.
Now this is stage 1, the chassis fabricated from sheet metal instead of the aluminum casting.
(pretty impressive in my book)
This is the unmachined castings for the cylinders and steam chests.
Paul is off to the big boys lathe at work to perform his magic on them.
Now We will have to wait until the next instalment.(no pressure Paul!)
Part 2
Paul has now finished the cylinders (as of july 2005) and has run the chassis up on air. Below is a video of this.
The chassis has now been dismantled and is under going painting.
Paul tells me that cheddar models who are building the boiler have ceased to trade, i believe they supply maxitrak as well. However on the positive side apparently the boiler builder will be continuing this side of things.
The video is 1.5mb.
Part 3
Paul has now got the boiler from Cheddar and has painted the chassis. He is also building a Trojan from Ride on Railways which can be seen below.
Work is also underway on Pauls Railway in the garden as the photos below show.
Pauls son James testing out the unfinished Trojan kit on phase 1 of the Railway.
Paul has now got a link in the Ride on Railways website under the Hobby section with more details of his Railway.
Paul has kindly sent me some pictures of his now finished Ruby copy, which he has named Alice after his Grandmother.That is a superb job having constructed his loco from plans.
Alice takes her first passenger on the Ellingham Light Railway.
Bob Barkers Railway in Victoria, Australia.
The internet certainly gets people talking. Here is a section on Bobs railway he is constructing.
Interestingly Bob has used sand as the medium to set his track on. He figures that if the track needs taking up then then the sand can be distributed around the garden to get rid of it.
The first picture is My favourite with Bobs inspection Trolley which is powered by a bicycle drive train,school seat.
This is Bobs trolley waiting for loco which means it can then be wheeled into the garage and does not have to be picked up.
Train now sitting on the trolley.
Bobs loco and passenger carriage, got to say the garden looks good. I bet the weather is to be envied.
Bob says he can provide some video so that will definitely be coming, so we can see the garden.
As promised some video from Bobs Railway, the video clip below is of Bob and his inspection trolley, starting with a close up and then a view of the trolley under way, with Bob getting an arm and shoulder workout. The trolley looks to be very efficient in motion. The railway is not finished, but he hopes to have completed it in a couple of months or so.
15th Sept 2005
Bob has taken some more shots of his inspection trolley, so I have included some more here.
The first picture is of his loco now fully painted.
The railway now goes around the entire garden but Bob still has sidings etc to do. Maybe some video of the track to follow.
7th November 2005
Bob has sent me some pictures of a guards van he is constructing.
The design makes the guards van automatically apply the brakes when left standing. The brake lever needs to be turned to allow it to run and can be taken away to keep it totally safe for the little ones.
Bob describes his design as "heath robinson" but I think it is a great bit of engineering.
The line completes the route around the house now and a video of the run will follow.
19th December 2005
As promised a trip around Bob Barkers line. Bob has still to create sidings etc.
The video below is 3.7mb so I would only attempt if you have broadband.
2nd January 2006
Bob has sent some more pictures of his railway and rolling stock. Here are just a few.
Inside Bobs Loco.
Self made Pointwork
Looks like phase two underway.
17th February 2006
Bob has kindly once again sent me an update to his Railway.
He has now completed the loop with the use of his own design pointwork featured earlier..this is now up and running.
He has also unselfishly shortened the length of the inspection trolley which makes it harder for grown ups to use, but now enables the kids to use it with ease. Pictures below.
Bob is now going to turn his hand to a Victorian Railways T class diesel which when finished will be a loco of about 3.5 ft in length. Dont hold your breath on this one as Bob has predicted a build period of two years.
Bob finishes off by saying the weather has turned a little and the temp has fallen from the 30s to somewhere in the 20 degrees c. Well ours is on the up from about 3 degrees to about 8 now, so there!!!
28th July 2007
Bob has very kindly sent me updates on his rail and rolling stock projects.
Bob has located another 5" gauge modeller a couple of hundred yards away. The thought was that Bobs mother lives next door and then if he and Rob can convince the next neighbour they could link up the gardens with rail joining their two railways together. Now that sounds good!
Bobs new found modeller has been building a Simplex steam loco.They came up with a good way of testing the loco on compressed air to check it out. They werent satisfied with running it up on a bench, so they mounted a compressor on a wagon and drove the loco around Bobs garden on air.
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