More Exciting Adventures From The Goaty Works!

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Probably the closest section on this site is to list it as art? I may as well share a few things via a few pictures that I have put up on another site I am on.

I will start with passenger carriages (Often called coaches) of various stages of completion. All are 7mm scale narrow gauge.



From left to right.

1. "Glyn Valley" clerestory coach I built from a Smallbrook Studio resin kit. Is awaiting drop loops for its couplings.

2. Gnomy tram (Yellow) with its pantograph removed awaiting conversion into a railway carriage.

3. Faller 0 gauge coach reduced in length, width and height with 0 gauge chassis removed, and converted for narrow gauge use. Awaiting central buffers and drop loop couplings. Has three promenant passengers inside.

4. Peco coach built as a 4 wheel saloon, repainted in my preferred colours with interiors made up and fitted, and the odd passenger placed inside.



Scratchbuilt carriage based on te theory that it is an early horsedrawn tramcar converted for ordinary narrow gauge railway use. It has been made from pieces of wooden dowel, lollypop (Popsicle) sticks, coffee sturers, match sticks and uses a pair of Romford 10.5mm wheels with axleboxes made from tiny offcuts of Peco code 100 track, drilled and rreamed to form a V shape to hold the ends of the pinpoint wheel axles. Buffers are made and losely fitted but it is awaiting droplinks to complete. Metal gates are made from wire mesh offcuts and has a straightened paperclip for the safety bar across the open windows.
Is a relitively simple build which seems floppy at first but soon firms up as more parts of it are assembled. The good bit is that wood used which is usually free or cheaply available does add just the right amount of weight to the build. Many modellers use balsa but apart from the high cost of buying it, balsa is way too light weight to be considered for such use.

I like the aesthetics of those.

Some day I'd like to try scratch building a Can-Am style car at roughly 1:60. I assume sheet styrene would be the most suitable material.

These are absolutely art.

Lovely Pikkies of those various Coaches...Those might be idea if I was hoing run a smaller narrow guage Model RR
layout with several tight turns . The Right size for very tight turns, I think .Small area Layout (Diorama .)

I do use different materials. Resin castings are good and I both build up kits of make my own cast resin parts if needed. Resin is an easy material to work with and easy to correct mistakes.
Sheets of plasticard is an old modellers favourite. I sometimes combine this with resin as needed. Am wondering if this is what you call styrene?
I enjoy cheap and simple materials such as wood or old tin cans, which one can scratch the surfaces and add salt to make them rust for added effect. Is important to cut or fold sharp edges in the design but apart from that they are good to use!
Example of old tin can left outside to rust is this...





Things used to rust fast where I was living so it did not take long. The salt was washed off after to prevent it going too far.
Tin cans are free so one may as well use them! This guy demonstrates how useful tin is as a material to work with.




https://youtu.be/NPqPpRJEkOA?si=y3x6XCEqvYVprk9U

He solders as he is making more complex items. I just folded my waggon body and glued it onto an old cast metal Triang bogie which had been suitably adapted, so no soldering was needed. (I do solder when I need to for making track etc.).

To ammend this, I also find that 7mm scale does tend to be easier. Is 1:43 or 1:48 depending on where one is in the world. My models are narrow gauge so run on 16.5mm track gauge width. (Same gauge width as H0 or 00, except I am modelling in a larger scale which is knkwn as 0-16.5, 0e or 0n30 depending where one is, and Bachmann now call 0-16.5 "NG7" just to make their new models seem trendy! Is basically the narrow gauge of 0 scale.

Couplings.

In order to make my own things, I seek to keep the costs down, and the two most costly items are the wheels and the couplings.
Couplings are usually the same price or in some cases even more expensive than the wheels, so in order to keep costs of construction low, a solution was needed to be made.
I had used tension lock couplings which are found on 00 gauge models in the UK, but these are limited to how sharply I can take them round curves. I also have ended up with a mix of different coupling types on my models so a solution needs to be made that looks good, is reliable and easy to use and is cheap and easy to make, and of course, will go round sharp curves. (I want my models turn on 2ft (60cm) wide boards). I also wanted the couplings to be the same at both ends so if I turned something around, it would not make a difference.
So I went about thinking and trying things and around two and a half years later, I came up with what I call my Mk 2 couplings as Mk1 was not so much of a success.

These couplings consist of a central buffer part with a pointy bit at the top, and a part to couple over the buffers pointy part which I call "Drop loops".
These couplings are cheap and easy to make and fit. While they are semi-manual couplings, they do have advantages in that the coupling and buffer height does not need to be too accurate. As long as the drop loops clear the track and clear the buffers themselves when swung upwards, all is fine! If they need an extra bit of space between vehicles to prevent the vehicles bodies colliding on sharp curves, it is simple to extend the bufferbeam outwards to accomodate this. The buffer part does not actually need to be a buffer at all, as for some waggons where their frames form part of the "Buffer", all one needs is a raised spike or similar to act as a hook.





As can be seen, the drop loop part simply swings up on its simple hinge, and hooks over the buffer of the other waggon.

Buffers are made from drawing pins (Thumb tacks), and drop loops are made from the wire used on paper clips, but any thin stiff wire will do. The hinges themselves are just wire loops to hold the drop loops in place.

I mentioned that these couplings are "Semi manual" as opposed to manual, automatic or semi-automatic in their operation. Well. One can lift a drop loop vertically on the end of a propelled vehicle and bash it into another vehicle and the drop loop will fall over the buffer of the vehicle one has bashed into and thereby coupling up without the need for me to manually swing them over.
I can also uncouple and push uncouples waggons into sidings and then drive off leaving them uncoupled, which is something one can't do on some designs of automatic coupling.
7mm scale is about the smallest one can get the "Hands on" prototype feel, and when rough shunted, one can hear the buffers chashing together! Somehing one misses if one has ever tried some larger scales!

Corrigated Iron Sheets.

For curved sheets like this, tin cans can be used if one is careful to remove the sharp edges.



For ordinary corrigated sheets, this tool comes in handy.

This is brilliant work, and methods to create ans design these wagoons..and antiguing methods to age them ..
calculations involved in setting these rolling stock to fit the RR tracks thst are designed for this guage tracks..
Various associated stuff.. great hobby .

if i had more space and $$$$$ i'd have me a giant train town going on. i saw one at the west edmonton mall in alberta canada back in 1991, it was the size of a small warehouse. very fancy. took pikkies of it with a pentax k1000 35mm camera, lord knows where the prints went.

It need not cost much as one can make things for very little cash.
Take a look at this.



The only real indirect cost to me was a few rail offcuts and a pair of wheels. The body is made from folding tin can. The structure is made from rail offcuts soldered in place. I do have two trackpins in there but that is basically it. Two tiny pieces of wire... Hardly any cost to it. Just time and enthusiasm to make it. (Oh. And a little paint).

Or this:



A pair of wooden dowels and a third little piece to make a basic "H" frame chassis. Coffee sturers for the deck and the sides. Bicycle spokes and drinks straw used for spacers on the uprights. A pair of wheels. (I have since abandoned this type of coupling to save costs and make my own drop loop couplings for pennies, as the couplings in the pic cost the same price as the wheels which is more than I wanted to spend).
Two holes drilled which I messed up the angles, so I enlarged the holes and drilled a small hole in the centre of the H part of the chassis lengthways, and found a thin strand of bicycle gear cable and inserted it through the holes to fit above the wheel axles and the waggon now has a form of light suspension. I prefer to drill the holes square to begin with though!

But price wize, the bigest outlay was to buy the wheels now that ai make my own couplings instead of using these.

Track?

One can make ones own track from rejects and offcuts of other peoples track. As long as the height of the rails used are similar and one has the gauge correct (I match up the gauge to a piece of ready made track as I have no gauge setting tools though I could easily make some which would make a nice future project)...
Using sleepers made from strips of single sided PCB (Printed circuit board), I solder the rails onto the sleepers from the outer side of the rails first. I only then solder the inner sides in the areas where I don't need additional check rails as if a check rail is to be added, the solder onthe insides of the rail can be in the way so I do the outer sides first and then do any inner sides for extra hold.

The great thing about this is one can easily reheat to reposition the rails if one gets things wrong.
Railheight.I use code 100 rails as these are the most widely available in the UK. One can mix railheights by making track that will cater for this between one height and the other by soldering two rails of different height together ensuring that the top surface is kept flat where the two meet.



The photo shows the area where I have two boards meet. I slide in an additional piece of track at this point. I had previously brought the track to the board edge, but they are suseptable to potentially snagging when boards are carried about (Even though my sleepers were flush with the edge to eliminate this), but the real reason why I abandoned the edge of the board method was that between the hot and cold seasons the baseboards would slightly twist so I was often altering railheights, so a better solution was made which was to build separate track to bridge between the two boards with railjoiners which would slide into position. Issue solved!

I mentioned checkrails. This is an often neglected aspect on model railways. As can be seen in this view, the checkrails are found on the insides on sharp curves to help keep the wheels on the track. Wider radius curves don't need them.



The waggons in the photo are rusty tin can carefully folded to form their bodies (Yes, real rust!), and glued onto old modified Triang cast metal bogies which make ideal little waggon chassis. Small bits of wood were glued on to act as bufferbeams to drill into to hold the cental buffers and the hinges for the drop loop couplings.
The controller is an unfinished project. I wanted to make a controller to run from a little 12v leasure battery. Basically, a controller needs a means to change the speed and direction and have some kind of short circuit protection or a similar device so if something shorts across the track it will not short the battery or the power supply. (If using an AC power supply, a controller also needs a form of rectification to change the AC current into DC, and one needs a transformer to lower the mains voltage to a safe voltage for us to use.... But I can bypass the transformification and rectification of the current as I am running from a 12v battery so it is not needed. What I do still need is a means to protect my battery against short circuit).

To provide a means of short circuit protection, the two main ways are to use fuses or to to use a thermal resetting cut out device. Fuses are impractical for this side of the controller as one would be replacing the things too often.Though in the UK all our three pin plugs have fuses and it is important for us to use the right ones (For train controllers that are powered from the UK mains via a transformer, a 3Amp fuse or if using modern DCC, a 5Amp fuse is required in the mains plugs).
Now as all I need to do if have a basic form of protecting my controller and batttery, and I don't have a thermal resetting device, I turned to the old fashion method of using a bulb of the right wattage.. I bought two bulbs of different wattage. Too powerful and the bulbs won't light so won't be able to "Take up the slack" if we have a short circuit, but not powerful enough, and the bulb will illuminate and our trains won't run. I found car indicator bulbs (Blinker bulbs) to be just about right during testing... As different motors draw different currents, I will have a switch option for higher current motors and low current motor types via using two different amperage bulbs. The bulbs are wired in series, so if there is a short circuit, the bulb will light.
Here I am experimenting with bulbs.

Short circuit across the tracks. Bulb illuminated.



It is important to note that I am experimenting with 12V current and NOT mains current. I still need to be careful as I don't want to have a short direct to the litrle leasure battery.
There is a loco on the track to test which wattage of bulb works best and as seen, when I short the track the bulb illuminates giving me visual indication and temporarily absorbing the current so the short circuit itself is less of a problem. (That is the theory). All it means is I am protecting my battery. A bulb does not switch off the current.

No short circuit. Train running as intended.



The controller part itself is basically resistance wire and a means to reverse the current. The simpliest way to control trains!
Rather than add a switch to reverse tne current and make my own variable resistance via a series of screws each having a different length or resistance wite and a wiper that touches a screw (Or bolthead) at a time, I did have a ready made resistance wire device from the remains of an old controller which was somewhat battered so I transferred what was salvagable and made my own PCB panel to mount it on.











The wiper(s) simply touches the resistance wire which alters the resistance compares to where it touches. It also has a built in centre-off position and reverses the current depending on if one turns the control knob to the left or to the right. It is a very simple device which works. The only reason why I decided to build this (Yet to be finished) controller is I wanted my railway to be portable and I may have need to set it up in areas that have no mains electricity, or wires could pose a trip hazard risk. I reasoned that a little leasure battery could in theory run trains for a few hoirs so I gave it a go to build one. I did have a ready made panel controller which needed a separate mains transformer, but it was designed for an 18vAC input, so when I tried it on 12vDC instead, the trains ran way too slow, as the rectification process and all the other electric components take up some of the current. This is why I needed to see if I could make my own instead, hence why I was experimenting. I do have mains powered controllers I can use and I was considering having some sort of means to run either the one or the other via a switch so only one or the other is in use at any one time.

Part of the fun of 7mm scale narrow gauge modelling is to find interesting things to convert.

Take a look at this. It is a childs push along toy which has potential for converting to use with my little railway.



I had previously come across a carriage and was given it by a secondhand dealer who sold antiques. It was slightly battered but perfect for use. The conversion was to remove the chassis and mount it on a new chassis, and drill out door openings and build them up so I now had openings on both sides. It was quite a task but I got there in the end with this:



I have not yet altered its couplings to my preferred choice but it gives an idea what the end result looks like.

Since then I have been experimenting with thoughts towards building two little coaches from the one long coach...



I could make doors on the sides, or I could build end balconies to these little coaches? I have not decided which directiln to go.

Add doors ....maybe? extra details on the coaches.....You are extr3mely creative with your RR company...
That first one in the above posts Looked just like a Ore hauler .For. a mining operation diorama ....
You make great things outta nothing old tin cans ,, and make it look good in the process, metal treating ,to antigue your. RR wagoons ..Even building RR models from scratch...

Thank you Jakki.

I can add another photo.

Thank you very much for the Pikkies....you do nice work...
Keep up the Good work please

I remember when I worked on the railways and was sitting in the depots mess room reading the Railway Modeller magazine, and one of the train drivers said "Why can't you be normal like us and look read something with pictures of naked models in it?"
I said this has naked models in it, and I turned to a picture of a model loco chassis and motor without its body on it. For some rreason he walked off shaking his head.

Well here is a naked model I was working on several years ago where I decided to build a kit up and jse a motorized chassis the kit was not designed to use. It was a challenge and an extremely tight squeeze!



Work progressed and the body had to be slightly raised and a fair amount of careful milling took place... First part to mill out was the front of the radiator as the new chassis with the motor reversed needed space right at the front to accomodate it, so I seriously milled out the hole in the radiator grill and my Mum wondered why there was a square hole in one of the dusters...



"Shhhh!"