Our scrapbook - Barchester Towers Railway

Started in February 2006, this page is where we can put a few of the photos and stories that don't belong elsewhere.
If you want to print these photos please ask for the original as these are compressed for display. Of course if you have any story or photos to add please send them to us! There are now some YouTube movies - these seem to show correctly in Firefox but in IE7 you might have to allow the browser to show this content.

Page 1: 2006. Page 3: 2008.

Easter 2007

Catalina learns to drive (1.6mb movie). Lesson 1 - how to use the brake!

Ready to go?

Junichi lends a hand.

Just a little more work on the bridge and we shall be able to run from the new track.

Going home (5.1mb movie).

There was not much work done on the line this Easter because it was time to build a new pump shed at our dam. Of course all that was really needed was a new hinge, a sheet to patch the wall etc. However the specification crept up to include a small wharf and a new tin shed.

Goanna came for a drink and then went for walk, uniting all the birds in a chorus of alarm

We later decided that this fellow is a gree tree snake rather than a juvenile brown snake

Here it is:

Someone just sent me this link to another human-powered railway, this time in Taiwan.
May 07, for the first time in a few years it rained enough for the water to run. The pump won't have far to suck the water this year.

Next Engine We are slowly putting together a small engine that should be resonably child resitant, having no dangerous sprockets or liquid fuel. So far Benjemin, Georgia and Michael have learnt to drive it. The main skill is starting gently to avoid spinning the wheels on the steep grade at Barchester Towers.

The engne frame has just been put on the rails for the first time and the batteries connected. It is pushing the first available car up the hill. The squeaks you can hear are not from faulty bearings or brakes, just bell-birds.

At this stage the engine lacks a roof but, as you can see, it goes both down and up the line, much to everyone's delight.

More progress: We now have a roof and solar panels. We had hoped for the first outing to be to the December running day at the club track at Narara but we had to drop someone very important at the airport. However the next day was open day at Penwood so off we went, two and half hours in the opposite direction. The photos and movies in this pink section are from the Penwood trip, not from Barchester Towers.

Les Irwin was kind enough to let us borrow a train of three cars and after a test run with a local engine to learn the signals we were on our own. Then we took turns to gradually exercise our new machine. You can see how how we keep the batteries charged. Here Benjemin is driving.

Passing the station we were hailed by some other visitors who wanted to ride. Little did they know that they were our first public passengers! The engine managed to haul three adults and three fairly big children as well as the three borrowed passenger cars. Most of the time was at full speed except that the speed dropped to a crawl on a long upgrade, probably due to the electronics getting hot. Fortunately the train never stopped completely so the passengers did not have to walk home.

Here the engine, christened "flying shed" by the locals, passes a model of Mountaineer, a 2' gauge WW1 Alco modified to fit through the tunnels on the Festiniog Railway. Michael driving our train.

Now back to Barchester Towers to clear the fallen sticks and leaves, redeck a bridge and adjust two rail joints that the new engine does not like (outside rail on a 10M radius curve, luckily both at the far end of the line). Also to make the new engine controls more predictable for children.

The work train going up to the site.

More than half way with the new decking, thanks again to Bensim for the wood.

Going home across the bridge.

For anyone interested in building a similar railway, our last item for the year is this sleeper found during track repairs. It has been in the ground since at least 1985. Since then we have changed from using old hardwood soaked in sump oil to using offcuts from new treated pine fence rails. Also the length of the aluminium clips has since doubled from 20mm as shown to 40mm and again to 80mm (with two screws) before settling back to 75mm to match the width of the sleepers.

Back to the main page: BTR. Page 1: 2006. Page 3: 2008.

This page is: http://dazed.org/btr/scrpbk07.htm.

This line last edited: 2 January 2008.