First Steam Loco on Springdale Miniature Railway

Another Denmark resident, Rob Otway, brought over his 0-4-0 steam loco for a run.  The loco, 7 1/4" gauge of course, is a scaled up version of a "Juliet" loco originally designed for 3 1/2" gauge.  Rob and two other members of the Northern Districts Model Engineering Society built three similar locos at the same time, with completion around 2016.

As the Springdale Miniature Railway doesn't have any specific unloading facilities, Rob brought an existing ramp to allow the loco to be gently rolled down from his trailer onto the track.

After an initial run light engine in the clockwise direction, Rob decided the railway's grades would be better running anti-clockwise, so we we turned the loco by running onto an old sheet metal sign laid on one of the level crossings and swivelling it around by hand.  The three available wagons owned by Springdale Miniature Railway provided a decent load especially on the grades of up to 3%.

The video tells the story...

To provide a method of safeworking with two operating locomotives, a token or staff system was implemented so that only one loco was permitted onto the main line at any time. 

Due to fire restrictions in the Denmark shire over the summer, a repeat of the steam run won't be possible for many months.  Even in October, the trains carried pressure sprayers filled with water to take care of any minor outbreaks, which luckily didn't eventuate.

Springdale Station Building

AI interpretation of original Station at Springdale (Chat GPT)

In April 2023, before any track arrived, I started building a one-third scale model of the small station building which once existed at the real Springdale, on the shore of Wilson Inlet.

The are very few photos of the original station.  A photo similar to that shown above turned up on Facebook, but it was of poor quality as it was a photo of an image on a computer screen taken at an angle and the perspective was distorted.  As an experiment, I used ChatGPT to correct the distortion and remove unwanted parts of the image, to produce the above photo.

The Springdale station building was a common design used by Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) known as a Portable Shelter Shed.  The shelters were made in flat-pack form so they could be easily moved by train to wherever they were needed.

I did most of the woodwork in Perth and, true to the prototype, transported the wall panels to Denmark for final assembly and installation.  I cut the wall frames and simulated weatherboards from treated pine to the scale dimensions based on an original WAGR plan.

Wall frames taking shape.

Preparations for the curved roof.

The curved corrugated iron roof was a stumbling block for a while.  Sheets of "mini-orb" find corrugated iron were readily available with the corrugations matching the one-third scale of the building.

Initial trials with rollers intended for curving flat metal weren't successful as they tended to flatten the corrugations.  Extensive enquiries failed to find a commercial supplier able to curve the small corrugated iron sheets.

Finally, I tried cutting the sheets into narrower strips, approximating the width of scale size sheets, and gently standing on the sheet while it was supported by two blocks of wood.  Moving the sheet along about 100 mm at a time and repeating the process produced the desired curve.  It was hard to get an even curve right to the ends, but the sheets were too long anyway so I trimmed the excess.

Curving a strip of Mini-Orb.

Starting to make some progress curving the roof.

Attaching the roof after the walls had been painted.

The finished station in position next to the railway.

Driving Truck to Open Wagon

The first wagon on the railway, the "interim" driving truck, worked fairly well but didn't look realistic. 

The "interim driving truck" in its original form.

Another problem was that the wood used to make the underframe had a slight twist which meant the whole underframe also had a twist, so that diagonally opposite corners were about 5 mm lower than the other corners.  When constructed, 3 mm packing was inserted at the bogie bearing points to compensate for the twist in the underframe so the wagon would track correctly and not derail.

One option was to build another steel underframe similar to the brake van and re-use the bogies, etc. to make a new open wagon.

In view of the still impending arrival of two open wagons from Mini Train Systems, it was decided to live with the existing underframe and make a new body loosely based on the WAGR GE open wagons.  Conveniently, there are a couple of GE's "preserved" (i.e. rotting away) near the old Denmark station site.

A visit to the local Mitre10 to investigate suitable plywood, resulted in the purchase of 290 x 19 mm pine boards which were a good size for the sides and ends, and easier to handle and cut compared to plywood.  The boards were flat and straight with no twist.

A V-shaped bit in the router quickly made grooves for simulated boards on the sides and ends.

The new wagon body quickly took shape with aluminium angles inside and outside to join the corners, sized to match the angle irons on the original GE wagons.  Packing under opposite corners ensured the body sat level, largely masking the inherent twist in the underframe.

The basic plywood seat can slide back and forth a bit to allow the wagon to be used in either direction.

A timely purchase of a new 3D printer allowed printing of larger parts including cosmetic ribs for the ends of the wagon, based on the dimensions of the prototype's pressed metal ribs.

The handrails and vacuum brake hoses are also 3D-printed.  Further work is still required to design and print ribs and simulated door details for the wagon sides.

 

Building a Brake Van

The design for a brake van was loosely based on the proportions of the WAGR ZF 4-wheel brake van but adapted to suit the available DNC bogies.  The length of 1150 mm was dictated by the length of the storage track in the garage and the impending arrival of two bogie open wagons from Mini Train Systems.

The welded underframe is made up from 30x30 and 40x40 square steel sections.  The use of 30x30 for the side members matched the proportions of the ZF's 4-wheel underframe, but it complicated the design by requiring tapered ends on the 40x40 cross members.  All good practice at fabrication.

The bodywork at this stage is basically a mock-up made from leftover MDF board.  The eventual plan is to build a more detailed body resembling the WAGR brake van.

Testing the seating position

Handbrake lever connected via cable and pulleys to one bogie

It was decided to press the brake van into service with the temporary bodywork, so it received a couple of coats of Manor Red paint, as well as some metal and 3D-printed details to give some character, as well as working lights at both ends powered from a small LiPo battery.

The brake van has proved to be a useful addition to the railway.  It is quite comfortable to ride in and easy to get in and out of.  In the future, it might be possible to devise a sliding door to disguise the large opening in the side.

Learning to Weld - Building a Low-Floor Wagon

This project started life as a way to learn to weld, using 25 x 25 mm square steel tube salvaged from a pallet on which a ride-on mower was delivered.  After a few practice welds, I realised there was enough square tube to fabricate a low-floor wagon which would be useful for various duties.

The welder - gasless, flux core variety.

The first step was to fabricate one sideframe, and test the strength of the welds by supporting each end on a brick and standing on the middle.  It passed.

After the success with the first sideframe, I ordered a basic welding table which would greatly assist in aligning the overall frame straight and level.

The wagon frame taking shape on the welding table

Within a relatively short time-frame, a rolling wagon emerged from the workshop.  The low level floor is a piece of chipboard which rests on conveniently located lugs which were already attached to the side pieces.  

Short lengths of 25 x 50 mm rectangular tube, left behind by the previous owner of the house, provided attachment points for the bogie pivots and couplers.

I purchased flat bar from the local hardware store to fill in the end parts of the frame.

Welded areas received a good clean-up and a coat of anti-rust primer, followed by an all-over application of Colorbond Manor Red - the railway's standard wagon colour.

The low-floor wagon is routinely used to transport the lawnmower (normal size, not ride-on) and other garden tools to far flung parts of the garden, and also the carry the wheelie bin to the front gate. 

Tracklaying in the Passing Loop

Although it will still be a while before the right hand point to complete the passing loop will arrive, I thought it worthwhile to set out the final track alignment.  One reason was to make sure I don't need to order any additional track pieces.  Also, I wanted to tidy up the remaining ballast in the ballast pile, so it made sense to move some of the ballast to where it would be needed anyway.

I used some spare curved pieces laid on top of the existing track where the point will go, to set out the curve to link up with the existing straight portion of the passing loop, then removed the track pieces and laid weed mat along the alignment.

Weed mat down ready for an initial layer of ballast.

After mulling things over for a week or so, I decided to bite the bullet and remove the 3 m straight track where the right-hand point will go, and replace it with spare 10 m radius curves to mimic the geometry of the future point.  

Spare curved track now leading into the passing loop.

The straight portion of the passing loop has now been extended using the 3 m straight track removed from the future point location, but there is a gap of about 300 mm remaining to join up the passing loop track.

To fill the gap, I cut the end portion from another spare piece of curved track, and drilled new holes for the bolted track joiners.  The slight additional curvature, about 1.75°, pretty much corrected a slight angular misalignment where the curved and straight tracks meet.  

The buffer stop which was removed from the former end of track has been reinstalled just ahead of the loco in the photo below, on the main track. All that remains in the short term is to level and fully ballast the new track.

The plan now is for the passing loop track to remain as the through track until the new point arrives.  

Driver's Eye View

This first video was filmed with the camera mounted in the cab of the Planet 2 locomotive, to give a true "Driver's Eye" view.  The train was travelling in an anti-clockwise direction around the main line loop.

This video was filmed in the clockwise direction, with the camera mounted on the cab roof of the Planet 2 locomotive.