Garden and railway complete re-hash

Hi Larry ,heres a good picture of a G scale turntable I built a few years ago. Long since demolished . Shows the turning mechanism. Also a couple of pics of an experimental power supply mech. The turntable was a one road on and off .The wires from the on road were soldered onto the rails and bedded into the cement bottom of the well .Then they cam up and were soldered on to the switch mech. When the point lever was switched it pushed the metal blocks + and - onto the turntable's rails .Simple power supply method. Albeit wouldn't be practical for a multi on /off road turntable. (Rebuilt Aristo B&O pacific on the bridge.) 

heres another pic Larry, At this time I had 4 G scale track circuits ,a 3 track mainline with an upper level single track line. Was quite impressive but, the place was like a model railway with a garden in it somewhere rather than a garden with a model railway in it ...  . This is the area where the new O gauge line is now taking shape. 

Very IMPRESSIVE Davy! I know the rehash is going to be just as impressive if not better!

P.S. Davy your up really late or up really early, isn't it like 2:30 AM?

I agree with Mike!  Great looking!!!

come to think of it, I always agree with Mike!  LOL

Mark Boyce posted:

I agree with Mike!  Great looking!!!

come to think of it, I always agree with Mike!  LOL

LOL Only if I am not agreeing with you first! LOL

mike g. posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

I agree with Mike!  Great looking!!!

come to think of it, I always agree with Mike!  LOL

LOL Only if I am not agreeing with you first! LOL

LOL

Hi Davy

Thanks for the  extra information and really would appreciate any other pictures. I can follow that idea of the parts hunt. Even that information helps explain the concept.

It's for my outside  garden layout I started last spring. Not as complicated as yours but a lot of fun. Getting back on it currently with buildings.

But the TT project is going to be inside a building but for G scale train outside layout.

I have a additional track plan that goes from this existing area to one  of my out buildings and it run the G trains in and out from the building hopefully with the assistance of a TT .

I really like the way you did those TT. Especially cost.

Boy the price for a factory made one over here is astronomical!!!! so I'm going to make one.   with some luck

Larry

Larry

Nice  Davy

Thanks for the extra pictures and I have a much better idea of a plan.   My wife says thats scary lol

Larry

Well Larry, if ask most of the wife's there right in there minds! LOL But then again some of the stuff we do is scary! LOL

Hi Guys, Larry ..If your TT is inside it should should be even easier. Inside in the dry you can do it in timber. I've seen some pretty good home made turntables online. The very first garden turntable I made was in timber .   I built everything onto  a board (external quality plywood) Mounted the pivot and the turning mechanism (which was an old car steering column with steering wheel) It worked well and was sound in principle but the weather got to it in time. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it on this PC ,nor do I know if I have any pictures of it at all ?  Was back in the days before I had a digital camera.

Larry, found a picture online where the old car steering column TT turner can just be made out behind and just left of the 2 box cars. The steering wheel isn't even on it!. Unfortunately the rest of the turntable can't be seen very well but theres a wee black Aristocraft 0-4-0 sittin on the TT bridge . This was way back many years ago. Incidentally the wee boy at the front,Grant Macnamara ) is now an airline pilot !   This photo will be of absolutely no use to you building your TT  but pure nostalgia for me. Have rebuilt the garden umpteen times since then ,but this current re-vamp is most definately the last !  Incidentally the red mess on the tracks wasn't the spilled blood of some terrible rail crash's victims it was an attempt by me to get a rust effect on the rails , however the oxide paint I used turned out oxide and nowhere near rust in appearance...ach well you lives and learns.... 

PRICELESS PHOTO !!!!!!!!!  Davy.

Thanks for sharing your memories Davy! Looks like a fun time was being had by all!

Hi Guys, Mike, you asked for some general garden pics,heres some I just took a few minutes ago.  

PS check the crow in some of the pics. He/she ? and her partner think they own my garden. My wife feeds them and they've become almost tame.  They turn up and land about 6 feet away and look at you as much as say...."OK...so where's the food ? " I;ve even see them fighting with squirrels over  food. Last week I saw him take a lump of fur out of a squirrels butt when its back was turned.   

WOW Davy, I think you have a great place to relax! I was thinking I would show my wife, but I don't know it could mean a lot more outside work for me and less time for trains! But I do love the way it looks! I could spend hours on hours just sitting there watching trains go around! Great Job!

Absolutely fantastic!

EscapeRocks posted:

Absolutely fantastic!

Thanks David !

Your back yard garden is beautiful, Davy.

It is a super backyard and garden.

AGHRMatt posted:

Your back yard garden is beautiful, Davy.

Thanks Matt.

Hi Guys ,well another beautifull mornin here in Scotland so was up and at the railway early AM. Now working on the track fixing timbers on the curve at the other end of the layout next to the wee shed and also further along behind the flowerbox fence where the loco servicing sidings and the first of the two on/off roads to the turntable will be .  Long may this weather last !   

Hi Guys ,well after another lovely day I managed to get on quite well. Got the fixing timbers cemented in down that long run. ,and went to the river for more stone, etc.,etc., with the inside track timbering complete it begins to look like a railway line ...oh well tomorrow is another day .....and with a good weather forecast ...beer time!  

Hi Guys, started to get to grips with the track laying down the back of the flowerbox fence. No matter how I tried to wangle the pointwork and sidings there was no way I could get a satisfactory set up for the steam locomotive servicing area so part of the 1:1 scale footpath is being  ripped out and re-hashed so I can get another road in.  Bit of a nuisance but hey-ho needs must !   

Looks great Davy, I am sure you will figure out the steam siding, Look what you have done already! Just another great day in the garden!

Looks like you are well on your way figuring out the service facility!  Looks like sunny weather!

Weather is scorching here  25C .Weathers been great for weeks now. Was piping at a wedding this afternoon,unusual day for it being a Thursday,funny enough had one last Thursday too.  Anyway will get a full day at the garden tomorrow as I have no gigs again till Saturday.  I know that in the states some coaling plants straddled main running lines and locomotives would take coal and water without unhitching from their trains,however I wanted the coal dock off the mainline so an extra service road was required. 

I had to do the conversion and see that is 77 degrees F.  That's a little warmer than we have been having.  That sounds like a good idea on the coal dock and service road.

Hi Mark. , I know it gets a lot hotter in many countries but 77F is well hot enough for me,in fact I;m quite happy at 17/18C (whatever that converts to ?)  Well came home from the gig was goin to head for the big chair and the telly then decided to get the workin togs on and go back out to the railway. Laid a bit of track and ran a test train. Couple of issues with the point blades but they're just needing cleaned after lying out doors for too long.Will fix it in the mornin ,but the train ran!  SNCF (French) diesel and a couple of euro-wagons in trail ... hopin to have a lot more done by close of play tomorrow. 

Hi guys, busy laying more track this mornin.However stopped for a wee bit lunch. Heres a wee short movie of the fish in the pond havin their lunch.... crushed dried mealworms... they're like pirhanna ...but are just humble river minnows or as wee call them in Scotland..."baggies" or "baggy minnons".... hope you can view the vid. 

Morning Davy, nice looking pond, but nothing but black screen when I try to watch the video.

mike g. posted:

Morning Davy, nice looking pond, but nothing but black screen when I try to watch the video.

Hi Mike, had this problem before,  plays OK here but needs converted and I can't remember how to go about it.  

Hi Guys 4.30PM here now . Been a long day in the heat laying track and track fixing timbers etc., some of the work will need overnight for the cement to cure before I can finish the track laying.However the required extra road is in situ and the footpath mostly repaired to suit. Doing no more tonight. Dinner beer and feet up for the rest of the night !  

Mike, it played for me here. Maybe Davy fixed it? If not, I am using Windows 10 Home and Chrome browser, FWIW.

OTOH, I just looked and it's an .MOV file which I think is Apple exclusive. I have iTunes and some other stuff installed on my PC which might be the reason it worked here, but can't say that for certain it's was the reason for it playing here?

Davy, also FWIW, I use a free program to convert .MOV to .AVI, it's called 'Pazera Free MOV to AVI Converter'. I have had it for years and it does a good job. I think .AVI is a more Windows friendly format, my photo/video database program doesn't like the .MOV files either and my camera only records .MOVs.

Wouldn't play for me.  I have a desk top Apple.

Sounds great but must have been shot on a pitch black night.

Hi Guys, my apologies to those of you for whom the video doesn't work. I will get round to sortin out this problem and get to grips with converting the videos to a suitable format. Working today so not a lot of time for the railway.However got all the track laid around the locomotive servicing area plus the siding off to the turntable if not on to the turntable itself as yet. Track has still to be tweaked and ballasted but I couldn't resist a couple of steam-era photos . Classic lines of the USRA light pacific by the coaling plant. Superb. Ah well better scoot, busy day today.  

Wow Davy, it's really coming together now. 

Looks great Davy! thank for taking the time to do the pictures before work! I hope you have a good time piping today!

That is really looking great, Davy!