Custom track from brass rail and home made sleepers will form the bulk of stage 2 track.

(click for more...)

A second set of points, this time with brass rail, will allow the stage 1 loop to link through to stage 2 track.

(click for more...)

Another trial loco chassis. This one is intended for the junior engineer. It will have a Thomas body attached over the top when the running and battery power issues are sorted out.
So far its has been a good test of my ongoing skills in making components more accurately and designing things which actually work! Test run on the loop with 4 AA batteries it raced around freely! A speed controller, or fewer batteries will be called for.
The motor, worm and gear are from Dick Smith. The wheels from Breasley G scale wheels. The rest is stock brass with a couple of stainless and brass fastnings from the hardware shop.

(click for more...)

Early stages of building a ballast hopper, based on a local prototype, the axle boxes are attached to a simple box chassis.

(click for more...)

The LGB loco number 3 in early stages of its modification to an Australian prototype Baldwin style, cane railway loco.

(click for more...)

The "lil critter" loco undergoes some major reconstruction surgery. The aim is to produce more industrial and Australian motive power for the railway based vaguely on diesel locos running on QLD cane railways and similar industrial settings.

(click for more...)

This point set has been an interesting project. I drew the plan at 100% in Adobe Illustrator and printed it out as a template. The rails are aluminium bar (10mmx3mm) cut and filed to size and shape. The sleepers are cut from 9mmx9mm Tasmanian Oak mouldings, with slots cut to fit the rail in at a depth of 3mm. This gives a rail height the same as the existing track.

The size of the point allows it to replace a curved section on the 5' dia. set track loop, something commercially available points don't do. The frog needed some filing to get it to work well and the pivoting rails required 3mm grinding off the bottom to match the rail height of the rest of the point. A switching mechanism is still being developed.

(click for more...)

First scratch built loco. This is a test bed for ideas and to refine my skills. It started life as a cardboard model, but is now progressing with some rudamentary engineering.

(click for more...)

The SC&MR paint shop is an open air affair. Good for OH&S reasons, bad for the washing on the line on a windy day! It too, overlooks the railways right of way.

My workshop is actually a corner of the sunroom. It overlooks the railway site and can be left in a mess without upsetting the family. I also use a crouch space under the house to store tools and do heavy stuff like grinding and drilling.

This latest pic demonstrates the way space fills up to a point where there is no more left. I'm currently looking for more space and more stuff to fill it up!