The Burnbake and Woodyhyde Railway

[gtmspyder]

Here's a method I use for the collecting of used flock which I previously posted in my Glen Ogle thread.

To clean up the excess green flock, I have made myself a purpose flock collector.



I have in the past, simply stuffed a piece of cloth up the vacuum cleaner hose end, and run the hose end over the flocked area to collect excess greenery, but I now use this paint brush cleaner bath, which I bought from Wickes.  This has two internal container sections for clean and dirty Turps/White Spirits, the lid has two slits in to be able to push a paint brush through and suspend them in the liquid to clean the brushes of oil paint.   I drilled a 12mm hole near the bottom of one of the internal container sections, to accept a piece of garden hose,  and stuck a piece of woman's tights' tops, across the top of the internal partition, to make a flock proff barrier between the two internal sections.




I blocked up one of of the lid holes with masking tape, the other accepts the hose end of the vacuum cleaner.



With the lid in place, the container now has two internal container sections, one open to the green hose, the other accepting the hose end of the vacuum cleaner, divided by material which will allow air to pass through it, but stop any of the greenery and depositi it in it's own contained section.

With the vac turned on, and the end of the green hose held near any loose material, the material quickly goes up the green pipe and is deposited into the internal container, to be recovered for reuse.



Voila, captured greenery, plus anything else that was lying around near the end of the green suction hose.




The collection container can be anything that has an air tight lid and can be divided between into two sections for the vacuum pipe section, and the flock collecting section.  The divider needs a hole in it somewhere that can be covered with a piece of fine mesh, Nylon tight material being an obvious choice, and in my case, the green garden hose has been replaced with a much more flexible piece of rubber hose, which makes it easier to manoeuvre around the layout. the vacuum section needs to be able to accept the hose end from your vacuum cleaner.

Found the Wickes supplied paint brush cleaner tank to have all of these attributes, but you pays your money and takes your choice.  Hope this has been of some help.

Kind regards,

BrianT.

[clayliner]

Thanks for the ideas, Brian - afraid I missed your original posting, but I had been thinking along similar lines - more specifically of something like a medical sucker bottle which is used to collect gunge / crud (think that's the correct terminology) aspirated from a wound / body cavity - i.e. just a vessel in the suction line where stuff can collect rather than disappearing down the drain...

You've given me the idea of using a large plastic bottle, and I'm sure tights need to feature somewhere - maybe just over the outlet tube would do the job? (maybe most of the fibres would just settle in the bottle before getting that far if it was a big enough volume). I also have a feeling that Dyson-type cyclone technology could be useful here but that is maybe taking things too far and the patents are probably all sewn up anyway!

Just need to do some trials - and source some tights... (no-one here wears them!)

David.

[DeadHorse]

Tights are available in an assortment of gauges too (denier) so it would be theoretically possible to arrange some sort of graded filter system all the way up from 'string vest' to 'satin sheer' :-)
It would be a simple matter to gather quite a large collection from your local washing lines on a Monday evening - or so I am told  :-[

[clayliner]

So - here's my Mk I collector, based on a 5l water bottle:


fibre collector Mk 1 by clayliner, on Flickr

It's quite simple and obvious, with the Hoover^TM nozzle covered with some 'narrow-gauge' (obviously) nylon mesh material (but not tights, after all) and loosely fitting into the neck of the bottle on the left, with the business end on the right. It seems to work okay - about half the fibres settle in the body of the bottle with the other half sucked against the mesh, from where they can just be shaken off once the suction is removed. The scavenger tube could perhaps be wider, but that was all I could lay my hands on for now. A baffle in the bottle might bring more of the fibres down there, I suppose, and there may be scope for playing with the draughting arrangements, i.e. varying the amount of suck by altering how much air is allowed to bleed into the system, but I think it'll do for now.

Thanks again, Brian for encouraging me to knock this up. (Oh, and I missed out yesterday - wash-day).

David.

[clayliner]

The transhipment shed is almost done. The photo shows the original mock-up and the stretched version for comparison:


transfer sheds 2 by clayliner, on Flickr

The new version is indeed a bit bigger all round and although I would have liked it more generous still both the immediate space and the overall context are limited and anything bigger would have dominated the setting. This is the almost (still need to add assorted details) finished structure in situ:


transfer shed 5a by clayliner, on Flickr

I've 'borrowed' the legs from the mock-up for the time being but am hoping that November 5th may yield something more substantial, otherwise I'll have to make some new ones up.

David.

[clayliner]

The Company are pleased to announce the recent return of the first locomotive for service on the Railway after its recent overhaul. It had originally been built for the Mogden Lane Sewerage Works of the Middlesex County Council but having become redundant there had been acquired for use on the Line, and the company are confident that after its time in the locomotive works it will prove a useful source of motive power on the Railway.


Creech 1 by clayliner, on Flickr

After unloading the engine was run down the gradient to the yard where the Engine Shed is situated, and in a short ceremony attended by some of the Directors it was named 'Creech' after one of the settlements close to which the Line passes. This photograph shows it after naming, with William Churchill, Esq., the Foreman and George Tubb, Esq.*, one of the Company's engine drivers, on the footplate:


Creech 5a by clayliner, on Flickr

It is hoped that trial running on the Line will commence in the very near future, to more fully ascertain the capabilities of the Engine in service.

[*Note:  It was a later relative of George, Frank Tubb, who was to die suddenly at the controls of one of the locomotives on the nearby Fayle's Tramway system in 1955.]

[tedp]

Great story - I like this kind of story telling with faked old photographs! And nice modelling as well.

[clayliner]

Thanks, Ted - just a bit of imagineering...

As far as the historic photos go, I was a bit shocked at how unkind they are in monochrome. I think they are perhaps (marginally) better in colour - is this because there is more to distract the eye, I wonder? Here are the colour originals:


Creech 1 in colour by clayliner, on Flickr

and


Creech 5 in colour by clayliner, on Flickr

I wonder what folk feel about the chimney? I've always thought there is something rather workmanlike about a good, honest stovepipe chimney, as befits a humble working loco. (If I can ever find the original chimney I'll post a photo for comparison - and maybe 'Creech' can operate in alternative modes as the mood takes me.)

David.

[MickT]

David,

A confession - in order to reply to your question about the loco chimney, I went all the way back to page 1 and read your topic from start to finish, which I am ashamed to say is the first time I have done it, other than a quick skim through postings as they have been published on the thread.

I have to say that I am now captivated by your modelling and your illustrated writing style! I hope you keep it up as I will certainly be following future progress avidly. Your heathland scenes look excellent by the way and very easily relatable to the northen end of the Purbeck peninsula (I am just a dozen or so miles further north in Blandford).

In response to the chimney question however, my own opinion for what it is worth is that the loco looks better to my eyes with the original Roco flared cap chimney - it provides a bit of additional "character" to what is already a very atmospheric 009 loco. But if you prefer the stovepipe then it's your trainset so don't let me put you off!

Well done on all counts - I promise to pay more attention to the B&W Railway in future!

Mick

[clayliner]

I am sorry to report that the running trials didn't get off to a good start. The loco was fired up but refused to budge - not a flicker of life. Which was a bit odd as it was okay when it last ran (which admittedly was a while back). So I set about a good clean and general poke about, but eventually there was no alternative but to take the keeper plate off (oh joy! - all those gears) to have a good look at things. Eventually it came back to life but I'm none the wiser really as to what the problem was - there was enough scenic material inside the mechanism to keep me going for many weeks but nothing obviously fouling up the works.

Once that was sorted it needed a good run-in on my home-made 'rolling road'. I believe commercial versions are available but mine was made from a

[clayliner]

Just a few photos of 'Creech' as she's been out and about on the line.

Here she is - with her 'shunter's wagon', which I suspect will be a more or less permanent fixture as it's a way of carrying around all sorts of useful stuff when you don't have a tender - coming under the road bridge...


P1150008a by clayliner, on Flickr

and then emerging from behind the transfer shed:


P1150009a by clayliner, on Flickr

Another shot of her a bit further on where there's been a spot of track relaying:


P1150007 by clayliner, on Flickr

...and finally one of her climbing through the heather up the bank up to the overbridge with some assorted wagons behind:


P1150010a by clayliner, on Flickr

David.

[tedp]

Nice photos - the scenery looks very natural.

This is the first 009 railway I have seen with working buffers!

[clayliner]

I'm not sure about the working buffers, Ted - just for show, I assure you, and only the locos will have them. If the wagons have any at all they'll be dumb ones.

What's missing are couplings, and I'm not looking forward to that...

David.

[clayliner]

Despite outward appearances, progress on the railway has been continuing, if erratically.

The next major project is the overhaul of a second loco for the line, and here she is in her pre-refurbishment state:


'Arne' 2a by clayliner, on Flickr

Her origins are somewhat obscure. I bought her - I think! - some years ago from a (now closed) model shop in Pokesdown in Bournemouth. She is basically a whitemetal kit and I'm sure someone will tell me of what. However, I can see part of a plastic syringe in the boiler barrel and although I have used the same myself I don't remember re-boilering this loco.

I've always thought she was not very good looking, mainly on account of the rather long overhang at the rear which to my eye makes her look rather unbalanced. I suspect there were probably plenty of prototypes with a similar overhang but if I can get a trailing axle to work then this may improve her overall look.

Other items on the list are some more detail in the cab (there is some already which I seem to recall installing, yonks ago), safety valves, a whistle and other paraphernalia like sandboxes, a reversing lever and a boiler feed pipe. Although she runs okay the chassis will need some attention to try and improve her running qualities.

Watch this space...

David.

[MickT]

Hi David,

It looks like a much-bashed and shortened Chivers Beddgelert mounted on what looks to me like a Bachmann 0-6-0 or 2-6-2 American loco chassis (without the pony wheels obviously!). I had a similar problem with the rear overhang with a shortened Chivers C&MR Barclay that I mounted on one of these chassis and the solution I came up with (neither of which I have got around to tackling yet) was one of three choices:

1. Remove the rear bunker and the big overhang at the back will not look too unrealistic under a flat-backed cab.

2. Fit a pony truck, which I struggled with as there didn't seem to be anywhere I could fit a pivoting truck, so I came up with the concept of a non-swivelling truck with the axle under the cab door but mounted so that it had quite a lot of lateral movement to enable it to get around sharp curves. - This is my own preferred option.

3. Bin it and build something else with it!

I hope either options 1 or 2 may provide something to think about!

Mick