Salfords Light Railway

The Salfords Light Railway diary

May 2003

Had the work-gang around again to attack the garden. First cutting of the grass this year - well overdue due to the grass-seed planting. The grass still looks very patchy, but it'll be OK for the end of June. It probably needs some more rain.

Doris busy doing her "gardening thing" whilst the kids have a ride round. OK, so they had done a lot of work prior to this shot so I guess they deserved it.
Its not often David has a ride on the railway, he's normally too busy doing "manual" labour. I still have Paul's 2 loaner V-tippers.
	We also went to the local DIY store and bought a couple of new additions to go in the garden. Just after we got back and installed Freddy the Frog next to the pond we found we have a real one in there too.
I realised we'd not had a recent overall shot, so here's one as of 4th May 2003 - complete with my washing. I am getting there, slowly, but I am getting there.

Paul at Ride on Railways press-ganged me in to helping out on his stand at the National Model Engineering and Modelling Exhibition in Harrogate over the weekend of the 9th-11th May. It was a good show and I really enjoyed myself. I took my TROJAN No.1 to the show too.

I treated myself to my first piece of non-RoR rolling-stock too, though it is on 5-6 weeks delivery lead time so I can't run it yet. I also asked if it were possible for a few minor modifications to be made to it, so I won't give away much just yet.

Someone came up to me at the show and asked about the 10' radius "kink" by the birdbath. To clear up any confusion, there is nothing wrong with my 10' radius curves, it is just having a very short one between 2 straight sections doesn't look very good. It works, but I will take it out and replace it with a larger radius curve.

Incidentally, it was nice that several people came up to me at the show and mentioned that they were keeping track of my line through this website.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

...so the story goes. Anyway, when I was involved with the Merstham Valley Railway (at a very tender age), I started work on a petrol-hydraulic loco which never got much further than buying a Honda petrol engine and an Eaton hydrostatic transmission.

Whilst I was working on this I think I damaged the hydrostatic unit, so it and the petrol engine have been lurking in the back of my parent's shed for years - not wanting to admit damaging the expensive bit.

This is where it starts to get interesting. I was speaking to Andy Probyn of Maxitrak at the Harrogate show and he tells me he can get them repaired. The whirring noise you can hear is my mind working over-time. I am trying to figure out what I can build with them. Paul has offered to get the metal cut up for me for the chassis (or whatever), so perhaps I can have my armoured Simplex petrol powered. Now there's a thought.

First off, get the hydrostatic unit to Maxitrak for repair - which is likely as not to be expensive.

Did I mention that I have a clearance problem with my point-levers? Partly because I haven't fitted the footboards on my coaches yet I didn't notice it, but when the point-lever swings towards the track they are too close and will hit the footboards - when I fit them. I got 4 of the new Ride on Railways "parallel to the track" point-levers at Harrogate, and quite by co-incidence, I have found a buyer for 4 of my old "right angles to the track" levers - which is handy. I have just been out in the rain removing the 3 old ones as the purchaser is due to stop by on the way to the Merstham Steam Show. It must be Merstham this weekend, it is raining. This has to be one of the unluckiest shows around, it almost always rains.

Added a new Photo Gallery with views of the Merstham Valley Railway in operation at the May 2003 show.

Not done too much on the line - even though it is a long weekend. I have loads to do to the house, so the railway is having to take a back-seat for a few weeks. I fitted my four new Ride On Railways point levers - actually, I think I will get a fifth one. I have also been looking in to a derailment problem. The point on the main circuit adjacent to the fence keeps causing derailments. I have adjusted the check rails and other clearances and will have to monitor it to see if the problem has gone away.

31st May: Trojan Owners meeting, North London Society of Model Engineers. I had to cancel my attendance at this event due to other commitments.

[ author: - last updated 26th May 2003 ] [ HOME ]