Sand is what the big railways use but I would be nervous that it would get into all those little bearings and slide bars so close to the ground on my engine.
Hi Seth, problem is the loco can't be too heavy so that I can't pick it up. I have a movable chunk of brass I put in the bunker to help weigh the back down more and I only put that in once I've moved the engine. More weight would help and a cleaner rail too. The tractive effort of the engine is about 84 lbs which is a lot but I've never got close to using it without slipping.
That helps to answer my question. It looks like I won't be able to go shallower than 1:40 in my garden (without ridiculous earth works) and I was worrying it might be too steep. Seems not!
Gandy Dancer Films Thanks for the tip - I was planning ally after weighing up different advantages/disadvantages but perhaps I'll reconsider. Main reasons for ally were 1) it doesn't rust and 2) it is easier on loco wheels. But steel is more rigid of course and isn't so dependent on ballast fettling, and if grip is better then steel may win...
I am not sure where you live Dan but steel strip like the rail I use is very cheap and easy to build, just press into slotting in the wooden sleepers. I have very curvy track, ridden many miles on it and not found the wear excess at all. If you look through some other videos of mine i show the loco wheels and trolley wheels.
Gandy Dancer Productions Thanks again. I live in the UK (Herefordshire) which is quite wet! Doesn't sound like steel would be too much of a problem, though. I was almost settled on a company called P2P - www.pnp-railways.co.uk/introduction-to-pnp-railways-track-work-products/#gauge These products are not cheap but seemed to be a good system with clever gauge widening via plastic chairs and standardised plastic sleepers. However, your comments have made me rethink - perhaps I've been over thinking it! I'd be very interested to see closer details of your arrangement.
Hi, it would probably need an extra 100 lbs to make a difference and that would be very difficult to hide on the loco. I've tried a 50 lb bag of coal on top of the boiler once but it was difficult to balance. I do press down on the roof of the cab probably adding about 20 lbs.
Hi, I've had no experience driving either of these locos but seen the 0-4-0 pull five people on level track so I would think the 2-6-0 could pull more.
If you can afford distilled water for your engine, OK. It will use a lot if you steam for a few hours and rain water is a good substitute. I use distilled water in my smaller engines just because of their size, they're more vulnerable to dissolved and undissolved solids.
Hi Harold, you are right the locos fitted with cast iron wheels. Steel tires do grip be best and I'll fit them when these wear out. I did replace the cast wheel on my gas mechanical loco and the improvement was noticeable.
I just use the local water it's very soft here. In the UK where I'm moving to it's hard so I'll use filtered rain water collected from a water butt and filtered through an old pair of tights to get the leaves out.
With an ordinary pump oiler that has a long spout like this one on Amazon: Goldenrod 707 Industrial Pump Oiler with Flex Spout - 12 oz. Capacity. Just make sure you oil all the moving parts well.
To my uneducated eye, Joan seems as if she must weigh a fair bit more than 110 lbs, i would figure somewhere closer to 200, is there specifically any weight savings design built into her construction?
I didn't do any weight saving when I built the engine, I actually added a bit of weight to the back to balance it up. So with that and the water added to the 110 lbs empty it's probably upto 125/130 in working order certainly not 200 lbs. It's a balance between an engines that liftable by one person or it's too heavy and I need a mechanical lift.
@@GandyDancerProductions Definitely can appreciate its "Liftability". Just seemed as if she would be a bit heavier than that. What a precious treasure she is. Is she your favorite scale steamer?
Yes, as long as you lay it on something soft so it doesn't bend or scrape something. Put some cling film over the top of the mechanical lubricator so the oil doesn't run out.
@@mattseymour8637 Hi Matt, could be lots of things: The coal, the tubes not being cleaned regularly, not enough air to the bottom of the firebox, not enough blast from the exhaust and/or the blower or both being miss aligned with the chimney. Getting good coal is a bit hit and miss here in the UK. Chat to the guys at your club. I've found a smokeless hard coal used for domestic gravity feed boilers to be excellent coal. I now use charcoal soaked in paraffin as the best start fuel. If you have decent coal and everything else is okay but it still won't pick up, with the blower full on, from 40lb I'd say the blower jet is miss aligned or the jet is too small. Hope this helps.
@@GandyDancerProductions hi there thanks for the advice. Though my firing is not the best I know it's not that and used good quality Welsh steam and anthracite and bit of housecoal to get her going. She was sat a bit but the blower didn't seem too strong. How do you realign the blower? Could there be a blockage in it?
@@mattseymour8637 Poke a small drill or wire down the blower jet to clear it. Then fill the boiler with water and pump up some pressure before opening the blower and seeing if the water jet from the blower comes up the centre of the chimney. If not bend or adjust the blower till it does to align it.
Most of the between frame oil points are fed by oil boxes on the upper side of my loco. You can see them in one of my videos. There's just two spots I oil from underneath. The engine's too heavy to put on it's side.
I ran my engine on tap water in London where the waters very hard for a year. Blew the boiler down after every run and got a bucket load of lime scale out of it when I used a kettle cleaner to descale it. Didn't seem to worry the boiler as long as you descale in a hard water area.
Steepest you get on the mainline would be 1 in 35 and that would be unusual. Industrial railway had stiff grades around 1 in 20 for short lengths. Check out my Astley Green series they had some tough climbs and stalled a lot.
Thanks for that. Have bought a 500ml oil can with a metal spout from there but should be ok. Do you oil from under the boiler when engine stood in running position?
@@mattseymour8637 It depends on the size of the flue tubes. Measure them or get their size off the drawings and buy a brush that size. I'd recommend brushes with phosphor bronze bristles.
I have a simplex and i'm keen to know if you run with the blower all the time. Mine seems to need this. If no, would you mind tell me the diameter of your bast pipe orifice and the distance from the tip of the orifice to the top of your chimney? Cheers
Hi Gozarian, you shouldn't need the blower on if you are running with the regulator open. You can see the inside of my smoke box arrangement here at about 3 minutes in: ruclips.net/video/Oq4kGMQw4ng/видео.html The blast pipe orifice is 1/4" diameter, it's 6 1/4" below the top of the chimney and the chimney is 1 1/16" diameter. I have a petticoat pipe fitted . Make sure your smoke box door fits properly and there's sufficient gaps in the ash pan so lots of air can get through to the bottom of the fire. Hope this is helpful.
First rule of garden railway passenger service: never put a lady on the last car (wagon) of the consist. Any stringline derailment will end worse then it needed to, when the eventual explanation about _too much weight in the rear_ comes out. Of course, times change, and the explanation could be flattering, in some quarters. YMMV.
your railway looks wonderful, I really liked the POV shots of the tracks from the front of the engine. maybe instead of a sanding gear for traction, which could stick to your lube and wear down your coupling rods, you could work on counter balancing the whole engine so that all three wheels are applying the same amount of pressure to the rails. I guess what I would try first is more weight on the engine, seeing as you're not really stalling but breaking away and getting heavy wheelslip
Hi Johnny, it take a long time to wear out cast iron wheels out if they're made out of good quality material. Also the track has some contamination from the trees that's effectively lubricating the rail. If I was sanding the track it would wear a bit quicker. These wheels have done 1000 miles with out any re-profiling so I'm not too worried about slipping.
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Very well done, the engine was certainly working hard. Wish I had a railway like yours.
1 in 20, 1 in 18... I've had cars that struggled with those inclines. Joan is a lovely little engine - she does very well coping with those inclines.
I know Im kinda randomly asking but does anyone know a good website to stream new movies online ?
@Tripp Lorenzo I dunno I use Flixportal. Just search on google for it:) -anders
@Anders Kristian thank you, I went there and it seems like they got a lot of movies there =) I really appreciate it!
@Tripp Lorenzo No problem :)
Seems like you have a good reason to build a banking engine Jonathan!
Amazing power considering the slope and the weight of the Loco.....Enjoyed your video, thanks :-)
Lovely engine you have there also thank you so much for letting me have a go hope to see you at ssme again!
Kind regards, Ollie
Hi Ollie, it was a pleasure and thanks for looking after us on our visit to Southampton.
Joan really is a lovely little loco Jonathan! And strong too!
beautiful. I love these kinds of videos
Love it! Really well put together, thanks for sharing
Perhaps a small towel wrapped bar on a stick to wipe the problem areas of the rails down is in order.
Might want to consider adding a gravity powered sanding gear? A little extra traction goes a long way.
Sand is what the big railways use but I would be nervous that it would get into all those little bearings and slide bars so close to the ground on my engine.
fair point.
Rubber grip tires? My old models form childhood used those just a wayyyyyyyy after thought lol
Hi Seth, problem is the loco can't be too heavy so that I can't pick it up. I have a movable chunk of brass I put in the bunker to help weigh the back down more and I only put that in once I've moved the engine. More weight would help and a cleaner rail too. The tractive effort of the engine is about 84 lbs which is a lot but I've never got close to using it without slipping.
That helps to answer my question. It looks like I won't be able to go shallower than 1:40 in my garden (without ridiculous earth works) and I was worrying it might be too steep. Seems not!
Hi Dan, you should be fine at 1:40. As you know mines 1:20 and a little steeper at the top. Use steel rail it's much better that ally for grip.
Gandy Dancer Films Thanks for the tip - I was planning ally after weighing up different advantages/disadvantages but perhaps I'll reconsider. Main reasons for ally were 1) it doesn't rust and 2) it is easier on loco wheels. But steel is more rigid of course and isn't so dependent on ballast fettling, and if grip is better then steel may win...
I am not sure where you live Dan but steel strip like the rail I use is very cheap and easy to build, just press into slotting in the wooden sleepers. I have very curvy track, ridden many miles on it and not found the wear excess at all. If you look through some other videos of mine i show the loco wheels and trolley wheels.
And rust isn't a problem. I've had mine down for 20 years and there only surface rust. It makes it look more real.
Gandy Dancer Productions Thanks again. I live in the UK (Herefordshire) which is quite wet! Doesn't sound like steel would be too much of a problem, though. I was almost settled on a company called P2P - www.pnp-railways.co.uk/introduction-to-pnp-railways-track-work-products/#gauge These products are not cheap but seemed to be a good system with clever gauge widening via plastic chairs and standardised plastic sleepers. However, your comments have made me rethink - perhaps I've been over thinking it! I'd be very interested to see closer details of your arrangement.
looks so good
Could you not add a couple little lead weights to it to help it?
Hi, it would probably need an extra 100 lbs to make a difference and that would be very difficult to hide on the loco. I've tried a 50 lb bag of coal on top of the boiler once but it was difficult to balance. I do press down on the roof of the cab probably adding about 20 lbs.
Heaven on earth
Love your videos! Question. How Manny people can a Polly 1 0-4-0 haul on even track? And how Manny people can a polly V 2-6-0 haul on even track?
Hi, I've had no experience driving either of these locos but seen the 0-4-0 pull five people on level track so I would think the 2-6-0 could pull more.
why no steam whistle tho
There is one just didn't use whilst filming this one.
OK haha so would it be best to use destilled water or tap water in the UK?
If you can afford distilled water for your engine, OK. It will use a lot if you steam for a few hours and rain water is a good substitute. I use distilled water in my smaller engines just because of their size, they're more vulnerable to dissolved and undissolved solids.
@@GandyDancerProductions thanks for that . As want to keep cost down would normal water be ok from the tap for occasional runs?
Will try that.
Is it good from Maidstone engineering?
@@GandyDancerProductions what coal do you use and where from?
Fair enough. So how do you oil the 2 points underneath without turning it on its side?
What is the minimum radius curve your simplex can take
Hi, my minimum radius was 25 feet which worked well but I think it would go round curves a little bit tighter if I needed to.
I assume you have cast iron wheels. My 5in has steel wheel rims that make a world of difference to the grip available!
Hi Harold, you are right the locos fitted with cast iron wheels. Steel tires do grip be best and I'll fit them when these wear out. I did replace the cast wheel on my gas mechanical loco and the improvement was noticeable.
Does the mechanical oil lubricator take care of oiling all the under side of the loco?
No just the cylinder and you have to use steam oil for that no other.
Thanks for the info. What water do you use in your loco?
I just use the local water it's very soft here. In the UK where I'm moving to it's hard so I'll use filtered rain water collected from a water butt and filtered through an old pair of tights to get the leaves out.
@@GandyDancerProductions thanks for the tips. As my water but is very clean could I use it without filtering it ?
Got both an Alan Rickman voice and look
Right ok. So how do you oil the internal motion then?
With an ordinary pump oiler that has a long spout like this one on Amazon: Goldenrod 707 Industrial Pump Oiler with Flex Spout - 12 oz. Capacity. Just make sure you oil all the moving parts well.
To my uneducated eye, Joan seems as if she must weigh a fair bit more than 110 lbs, i would figure somewhere closer to 200, is there specifically any weight savings design built into her construction?
I didn't do any weight saving when I built the engine, I actually added a bit of weight to the back to balance it up. So with that and the water added to the 110 lbs empty it's probably upto 125/130 in working order certainly not 200 lbs. It's a balance between an engines that liftable by one person or it's too heavy and I need a mechanical lift.
@@GandyDancerProductions Definitely can appreciate its "Liftability". Just seemed as if she would be a bit heavier than that. What a precious treasure she is. Is she your favorite scale steamer?
@@Beaula2 I have this one in 5'" and four others in SM32 scale and I enjoy them all in their different ways.
That's good then. Will try that then.
Is it safe to put on side so can oil from underneath?
Yes, as long as you lay it on something soft so it doesn't bend or scrape something. Put some cling film over the top of the mechanical lubricator so the oil doesn't run out.
@@GandyDancerProductions any tips for when loco isn't keeping up steam and can't get it above 40psi?
@@mattseymour8637 Hi Matt, could be lots of things: The coal, the tubes not being cleaned regularly, not enough air to the bottom of the firebox, not enough blast from the exhaust and/or the blower or both being miss aligned with the chimney. Getting good coal is a bit hit and miss here in the UK. Chat to the guys at your club. I've found a smokeless hard coal used for domestic gravity feed boilers to be excellent coal. I now use charcoal soaked in paraffin as the best start fuel. If you have decent coal and everything else is okay but it still won't pick up, with the blower full on, from 40lb I'd say the blower jet is miss aligned or the jet is too small. Hope this helps.
@@GandyDancerProductions hi there thanks for the advice. Though my firing is not the best I know it's not that and used good quality Welsh steam and anthracite and bit of housecoal to get her going.
She was sat a bit but the blower didn't seem too strong.
How do you realign the blower? Could there be a blockage in it?
@@mattseymour8637 Poke a small drill or wire down the blower jet to clear it. Then fill the boiler with water and pump up some pressure before opening the blower and seeing if the water jet from the blower comes up the centre of the chimney. If not bend or adjust the blower till it does to align it.
Will try that. I'm extra careful anyway as not going to damage something I've waited to get for years!
Do you put it on its side to oil?
Most of the between frame oil points are fed by oil boxes on the upper side of my loco. You can see them in one of my videos. There's just two spots I oil from underneath. The engine's too heavy to put on it's side.
Could I get away with tap water in my 3.5 inch?
I ran my engine on tap water in London where the waters very hard for a year. Blew the boiler down after every run and got a bucket load of lime scale out of it when I used a kettle cleaner to descale it. Didn't seem to worry the boiler as long as you descale in a hard water area.
Do you recommend welsh dry anthracite and Maidstone engineering coal?
Hi Matt, I’d go for the Welsh dry anthracite.
@@GandyDancerProductions thanks for that. Do you suggest the Welsh anthracite rather than just plain anthracite? What about mixing with housecoal?
Didn't think 1 in 20 would be realistic to full size! As you say 1 in 35 is rare on railways.
i have seen steam traction engines do 1 in 1 though
@@crestfallensunbro6001 that's some going
I've heard it's good. What brand Have you tried?
I guess you meaning coal. I'm in the US and buy it from a local hardware store, it's nothing special.
Good video! nice railway! you almost made it too! is the 1 in 20 realistic gradient to real life size?
Steepest you get on the mainline would be 1 in 35 and that would be unusual. Industrial railway had stiff grades around 1 in 20 for short lengths. Check out my Astley Green series they had some tough climbs and stalled a lot.
The Cromford and High peak railway had on one of its inclines a 1 in 14 gradient at the top, one of the steepest in the UK. Sadly it closed in 1966
Thanks for that. Have bought a 500ml oil can with a metal spout from there but should be ok.
Do you oil from under the boiler when engine stood in running position?
Doesn't matter. Which ever is the best way to get the oil to the parts and see that it's actually got there.
@@GandyDancerProductions thanks for the advice. Bought a decent position oil can and good for getting the places
@@GandyDancerProductions what size flue brush is ideal for a 3.5 inch loco? Is a 5/16 OK?
@@mattseymour8637 It depends on the size of the flue tubes. Measure them or get their size off the drawings and buy a brush that size. I'd recommend brushes with phosphor bronze bristles.
@@GandyDancerProductions thanks for the advice.
I find my brush gets tight inside the tubes and sometimes gets stuck.
Is It normal?
I have a simplex and i'm keen to know if you run with the blower all the time. Mine seems to need this. If no, would you mind tell me the diameter of your bast pipe orifice and the distance from the tip of the orifice to the top of your chimney? Cheers
Hi Gozarian, you shouldn't need the blower on if you are running with the regulator open. You can see the inside of my smoke box arrangement here at about 3 minutes in:
ruclips.net/video/Oq4kGMQw4ng/видео.html
The blast pipe orifice is 1/4" diameter, it's 6 1/4" below the top of the chimney and the chimney is 1 1/16" diameter. I have a petticoat pipe fitted . Make sure your smoke box door fits properly and there's sufficient gaps in the ash pan so lots of air can get through to the bottom of the fire. Hope this is helpful.
First rule of garden railway passenger service: never put a lady on the last car (wagon) of the consist.
Any stringline derailment will end worse then it needed to, when the eventual explanation about _too much weight in the rear_ comes out.
Of course, times change, and the explanation could be flattering, in some quarters. YMMV.
2 questions what's the cost of Maintenance per year and where do you find these. is it a kit.
Hi Adam, there is very little maintenance just some levelling and weeding of the track and oiling the preparing the loco for runs.
your railway looks wonderful, I really liked the POV shots of the tracks from the front of the engine.
maybe instead of a sanding gear for traction, which could stick to your lube and wear down your coupling rods, you could work on counter balancing the whole engine so that all three wheels are applying the same amount of pressure to the rails. I guess what I would try first is more weight on the engine, seeing as you're not really stalling but breaking away and getting heavy wheelslip
Why would you slip the drivers like that? I don't abuse my steamer that way because the gray iron wheels would be worn beyond use in no time.
Hi Johnny, it take a long time to wear out cast iron wheels out if they're made out of good quality material. Also the track has some contamination from the trees that's effectively lubricating the rail. If I was sanding the track it would wear a bit quicker. These wheels have done 1000 miles with out any re-profiling so I'm not too worried about slipping.
LOVE-IT 👍👌🖒🤘☝👉👏👏👏💭💭💭
Need a heavier loco.
I think your sons friend is a little more than a friend
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