# End of Year Report



## ralphbrades (Jan 3, 2008)

Saturday was the last of the four annual Get ToGether on the Cabbage Patch Railway. On the whole I think it was a good year with a range of visitors from all over the UK. Last year I started putting in the loops for contiuous running of steam engines and I am glad to say that I did have a few running.

Personally speaking I knew that this was going to be "The Year of Steam". I had always said that the chances of me owning a live steam loco were higher than infinity... But at the AGM in May I picked up my first steam loco an NOS Kingscale 80xxx MT tank loco. This, (for obvious reasons!), I have plated Aleph-ONE. The same dealer had an NOS Kingscale 14xx at The Birthday Bash and yes I grabbed it!!! This loco is plates Yocto (again for obvious reasons!!!)

These are both gas burners. There is some difficulty with gas at my latitudes and altitude... The burners are set for sea level and 70% Butane 30% Propane mix - which is a common shop mix. However I live in the Peak District and have had to tweek the air fuel mixture setting to stop choking. ( Not unexpected ).

The next steam loco is a "partment" kit from Barrett Steam Models. A deposit and 12 monthly installments will give me a spirit burner, an E22 loco. I did some experents with alcohol based fuels and ethanol methanol blende, such as SVI and IMS. I did find that a 25%Methanol and 75%Iso-Propanol gave the best thermal output. Pure Iso-Propanol proves to be unwilling to light and stay lit.

I will admit to being deeply envious of a coal fired loco are from the Venture parts kit. It orbits the loops like a dream and the smell of steam coal!!!

This was the first year I have gone to full power points switching and 4 aspect light signalling
Naturally everything was expected to go wrong and on the first testing we were very nearly right!!! Squirrels found the cables...

Next year we know what we are doing...

The table growned from cakes, and my pointer to how good a day it has been is how much of the Bakewell tart is left. If things have not gone well then slices of Bakewell are not eaten watching the trains.

Regards

Ralph
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## ralphbrades (Jan 3, 2008)

After having looked at my "mainline station" which is a standard Midland Counties Railway ridge and furrow I decided that I did not have enough coaches! Yes I had the classic MCR three coach platforms. This I had made three ERA3 third class suburban coaches. Eventually I had two sets of two coaches and a brake coach one for each platform or a commuter tranch of six coaches.

The previous six were made from ply and cardboard on steel angle frames. Very classical Gauge '3' !!! The new tranch of coaches will be two BR Mk1 scenic and a brake coach. These are kits made by Kippo Models near Edinburgh and cast in polymer resin. Assembly is glue and screw. It is best done by two peopleas it is nearly a metre long, thus requiring a person at each end...

Regards

Ralph


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## ralphbrades (Jan 3, 2008)

Well after two weeks of "sourcing parts" and some help from a friend with better eyes than mine... (He doesn't need BiFocals). The first coach off the assembly jig now awaits primer and paint before the roof being fitted. The pictures showing the progress can be found here



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The three kits arrived in two very well wrapped boxes which took nearly an houyr to unwrap. The combined weights of the kits of resin parts is about 3Kg per coach.Despite this the are relatively flimsy unti l assembly has advanced beyond fitting the internal spacer walls and fitting the longitudinal Aluminium bars through their slots. The first shot shows the collection of parts in their zip lock bags. The second shot shows the underside of the coach base plate in the assembly jig. The third shot shows the spacer plates (carriage compartment walls) glued to the base plate and the Aluminium strip epoxied into the slots. Everything is left two days to cure and fully harden. The wall casting are stuck to curved sheets of polycarbonate and then these in turn epoxied to the Aluminium strip and the resin base plate. Another two days of waiting... The seats are stuck together and this shows a quick test that there have been enough assembled. I find it amusing that the KIPPO have even modelled the steam heating pipes to the seats even though it will be VERY hard to even see them! The final shot shows the "combination" brake gear. The "Big Four" each decided on either pressurised air or vacuum braking cylinders. For safeties sake the system power diaphram was always pumped out, thus it did not matter if compressed air was added to brake the coaches.

regards

ralph


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