Murray's Railway Models
I have obtained a job lot of G Gauge railway gear. |
Here is a link to all of the Christchurch Garden Railway Society's newsletter the |
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A homebuilt tinplate battery powered loco. This model is approx 1/29 scale. The batteries and radio control gear are carried in the following goods wagon.
In both my engines I use a Tower Hobbies
2 Channel radio and RCS ESC (Electronic Speed Controller). This is part of the old track and will join up with the new extention. The "D" is towing a short train around the old section of the track by the deck. The guards van has an 8 pin PICAXE-08M microcontroller to flash the tail lights on either side. Picaxe Code Here I have found a neat Scale Calculator on the net and have created a link to it. |
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The "D" loco waits quietly at the coaling platform for the loading to be completed. The station master at "Hydrangea Halt" watches the train depart. |
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The new station area to be known as "Hydrangea Halt". There is a passing loop and one siding.
To loop around the shed I have to go under the Hydrangea shrub, hence the name.
The track heads down the fence line on its way to meet up with the older part of the railway.
Around the "ROCKS" and shrubs. I'm not allowed to take up too much lawn! A tunnel will be installed here in time for the summer. |
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Here the "D" is waiting for the other freight to enter the loop at Hereford Station before going out onto the main.
The two goods trains pass at the Hereford Station loop. This is part of the old railway and may get altered in the future. |
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The NZR "D" with a consist of goods wagons crossing the bridge and passing some rocky outcrops.
The yellow goods wagon has the batteries and radio control gear for the "D" on board. |
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I have a lot of trouble with the birds tossing bark all over the track, so have built a track sweeper to clear the track. See later on.
This is the last part of the new track to be completed. It passes behind the compost bin, and then follows the fence.
The track goes under the Lemon, Mandarin and Grapefruit trees.
These trees produce their fair share of dead leaves which need to be removed for running, so the track sweeper is normally the first model out on the track. |
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This is a new experimental model. It is a shortened version of an NZR Standard Railcar to get around my sharp radius curves. There were 6 of these built by NZR.
This one will have the number of the unbuilt seventh one. It is another tinplate model. Each Sunday night I do a bit more.
It uses a PICAXE-18X microcontroller on board to turn on and off the lights, speed up, slow down, go forward, reverse, and toot the horn all
controlled by the the microcontroller and magnet sensors under the car from magnets placed around the track.
Picaxe Code Here. The model can also be radio controlled. |
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This is another tinplate scratch built model, built to do a specific job; Sweep the track! The scale is approx 1:19 (16mm scale).
This model is articulated so it can negotiate my sharp curves.
There was an article in the Feb 2005 Garden Railway magazine by Ralf Muehlbichler from Germany, about a track sweeper he built.
This was what I needed. Construction began with a pair of toilet brushes, 2 gearboxs from discarded HP Deskjet printers and 2 x 18v motors.
The motor driving the brush is a 12v motor with 70:1 gearbox. A 12v 3.5AH lead acid battery hides under the bonnet.
This also gives the model some weight so it is not so easily tipped off the rails by the larger leaves and bark mulch.
I have used white LEDs for the Forward and Reverse lights. The Orange LED on the roof flashes while the brush is rotating. |
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His model is a Live Steam 2-6-2 model named Liberty Belle. It is radio controlled and gas fired. The radio gear is hidden in the tender with only the servos in the cab.
Here the model is steaming on the old part of the railway. It looks great with a wisp of steam and smoke from the funnel as it crosses my bridge.
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This model was built by a friend for my railway.
The plans were in a series from the Australian Model Engineering magazine.
It was built over a 12 month period and is also radio controlled.
I have designed and built an "Anti Glitch" interface, using another PICAXE microcontroller to go between the receiver and servos to stop the rusty nail effect.
The trailing 4 wheeled high sided wagon is to hide the Receiver, Anti-Glitch interface and Batteries. The code for this is coming soon.
The Forward / Reverse servo is inside the righthand water tank and the Throttle servo is under the cab floor. |
| Last Updated 29 May 2009 |