I got my screws in today! They are 0-80 screws (US sizes); which fit perfectly in the lever's adjustable screw as well as the hole in the point blade when I drill out the rivet. I also bought screws that will secure the ties to their styrene supports. Check out the photos below. I'll be putting together a full step-by-step of how I'm doing this.
The only change I may need to make is adding a washer to the screw connecting to the throw bar.
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Today I did a little more work on the Leeds Hill Railroad. Basically I installed a bunch of gravel between the shed and garage, where the track will run. Looking at it now, it might be a good place to put a yard or a few sidings. However, it will take a lot of leveling before track can be fully laid out. Also, you can see in the background of the second photo, I didn't even get all the way down the path.
Today after writing all the Intro blog posts and getting this site organized, I went outside for several hours and did a few different things:
One of the first projects I started after I decided I was going to build a garden railroad was building a few styrene skids for my box car. They are quite simple and I think they look very nice. All my styrene came from Evergreen Scale Models. I have to paint them still; which should reveal the wood grain that I etched into each piece before gluing them together. You can't see it in these photos because this was the first one I built, but I ran each styrene 'board' over sand paper before gluing together.
Once I bought my Forney I decided that I needed to have the proper rolling stock to go along with it. I did my research and found that LGB made a number of pieces to match, and USA Trains made a few more. So, I took to eBay to see what I could find. ... Long story short, after only a few months I've found almost every piece I need for a short-line passenger and freight train (sans caboose). I really like the coaches that LGB put out for this particular line. They are made to look like the proper time period the SR&RL ran and are detailed with interior seating, restrooms, and coal heaters. It would be quite easy to add lighting to them, which I may do at some other time.
For now, I've made two small changes to my coaches. They are so small that most observers probably won't even realize they are different. This post probably should have been first, but, sometimes I don't think things through as well as I should.
In any case... Leeds Hill Railroad is my new garden layout that I am starting this year in Western Massachusetts. I don't have a lot of freedom with my layout, as I live with a large number of family members (I am only in my 20's). So, in light of that, my trains will run in a around-the-edge fashion. You can see what I mean below. This is my Forney; my very first g-gauge locomotive purchase! It is an LGB loco lettered for the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad that ran in Maine, USA in the early- to mid- 1900's. It has working directional lighting as well as a lit cab and working smokestack. This particular model did not come installed with sound. But, that doesn't matter because I am converting this loco to battery power and remote control operation. I am only going to write a summary of the process I went through to figure out how to do this, otherwise this post will be very, very long. It took me a couple months and hours of work to determine how I wanted to modify my loco. There are a lot of options out there; but my restrictions included both space in the loco and funds for the project. Ultimately, I settled on
Phil, of RC Trains, a UK-based company specializing in large scale R/C components, has been very helpful to me in my conversion of my Forney. He has helped me to make sure my wiring will be safe for all the components as well as efficient. Here's a break-down of what I will be doing...
As of this post, I have ordered the battery, charger, and all my small components. I am waiting on Phil to stock the units I need from him and I will be ordered the MLS decoder soon. In the next post I will include a wiring diagram and more specifics on the electronic pieces and specifications needed for my loco.
If you are attempting to disassemble a Forney of this or similar model please see my page on how I did it! I am modifying some of my LGB points (switches) to use Tenmille Point Levers instead of the LGB drives that come standard with the track sections. These levers are more prototypical and are more reliable, especially when using second-hand track, as I am. I am basing my conversion off of Ric's from Large Scale Central. You can see his complete article here. This post will build off of his.
You can see another photo below of round two of my testing. After this photo was taken I ordered a bunch of teeny screws to include in the points that will be less obvious and work better for me. I placed that order yesterday; so hopefully next week I'll have the pieces I need to finish the project.
NOTE: This photo was taken before I incorporated the screw into the point blade. At this time I was using 20AWG silver wire to hold the rail and the throwbar in place. |
Hello!My name is John. This is my website dedicated to all things model railroading! I hope you enjoy! Archives
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