The railway is an estate railway to assist with gardening. Well its really to make gardening fun as a wheel barrow would have been cheaper and faster but I not so much fun - even though wheel barrows are good fun steam engines are better.
Tasks at hand is to replace the concrete block wall that is on two sides of the back garden with fence. The current wall is falling over.
Plant beech hedge to have grown up by time fence falls down.
Move concrete into front garden as hardcore for block paving drive. Move soil from front garden into back garden.
Use crushed concrete wall as ballast.
Things I have learned
It helps if the valve gear has not fallen off - I recommend nylock nuts
The valve timing is important - I need to find out how to set Hackworth on Pearl - really like the
simulator
but need a way of making accurate measurements allowing for the suspension
Pearl goes round 12 feet radius with ease - very well on the flat and I am getting better at rushing up the bank.
Where to connect a truck to an engine for a 12ft radius curve
The following picture shows the pivot points for the current connection between the engine and the truck.
Initially I connected the truck to the engine buffer beam with a 5" straight piece of metal, actually a flatten angle bracket.
This was disasterous around the sharp curves.
Talking to the Maxitrak stand at Harrogate 2005 (actually it was a person not the stand)
it was suggested that the pivot was as far to the driving wheels as possible.
Well I had an old set of pruners and the pivot bolt was just the right size for the trailing truch bolt.
A slight bend in the arm and there we have a fine coupling to the truck.
It goes around corners as if meant to, the engine does have to work but not excessively.
I will measure the radius properly but I think its about 12ft. The gauge is widened out by 1/8" which works fine.
Currently held in by a long bolt with a spring but need to be easier to couple up in the future.
Now the curves in the front track plan are tight, have a reverse curve and are on a gradient
- so its hard work for Pearl. I am experimenting with alternative pivot for connectors.
Intuitively a connector that is connected to the center of the truck will be better.
Any side force is spread between both axles and the body can rotate so that the force is equal on both axles.
Now I need somewhere for my feet, the side sirrups work well but make the truck very wide low down.
With the truck connected to the engine by a solid bar it should be possible for feet to rest on this bar.
This will be like having a well in the engine, increase weight on the engine which is good for traction
and keep the width down which makes it easier to go through the block paving etc. Pics to follow.
