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As many of you may have noticed, I am slowly
working through the website. It has been online for over 10 years
and there are many loose ends that need tying up. The formatt is
staying roughly the same but I am standardising pages to help
navigate the site. You should see the new banner appear on pages
as I trawl through them. As it is just me doing it on a shoe
string, it takes time.
In the next month or two I am hoping to combine
the price list and product index page. I personally like to know
prices before seeking further information.
Feed back is much appreciated, do keep it coming.
New Products
| Vacuum
Pump We have managed to
source a supply of 12v dc vacuum pumps which are ideal
for operating train brakes. They are not cheap but they
are quiet and very efficient.
My problem is the out lay to buy them.
I need to buy 10 at a time. I have 4 left and I may not
possibly re stock them.
So if you want one - be quick. £160
each
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| DC Digital
control |
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For 10 years
we have recommended 4QD's Pro 120 controller. While this
is a perfectly good controller, we felt our customers
were not getting the service they deserve. We are now supplying our locos with new digital
controllers. We have spent many months sorting out the
settings and after extensive testing on 5" and 7
1/4" locos, we feel this is a far better product.
At the moment we are supplying hand
controllers and fly leads built by ourselves. These have
8 pin plugs and sockets which leaves 3 pins spare for use
to operate horns. Unfortunately the coiled flex is only 6
core so we can only offer straight flex if you require
horn operation.
The fly lead (below left) comes with
two toggle switches. One for on/off and the other has
been set to turn on a speed govenor. We set this to 50%
so, when on, your hand controller will operate 0-50%
across the full swipe of the potentiometer - no dead
spot.
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| New Hercules |
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| With more and more
Hercules finding their way to club tracks the trip to the
club involves lifting the enigne in to a car. Not a
problem for most of us, but the bogies and chassis still
weigh in at 34kg. At this weight,
it really should be a two person lift.
If you do not have a second person we
have designed a Hercules where the bogies can be removed
for transportation. In doing so the chassis is the
heaviest part at 12kg.
Bogies are droppped off by removing the
nyloc nuts with a box spanner and unplugging the two
connectors mounted on the bogie from ends.
We have opted for use of two pairs of
Anderson connectors. While not cheap they are rated for
50amps continuous. Plenty for our loco.
Prices to follow.
In a bit of a shake up Hercules no.4
will be up for sale to be replaced by Hercules no. 85 on
the Middleton Garden Railway. As it is a private sale we
might put it on ebay.
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| New Bonnet Grills |
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You may have read in the
last news letter about making grills for the large scale
Captain Howey. This got me thinking about making some for
our smaller locos.
After a bit of development we are now
producing two new types of grill -
1 - 4 louvre slots to represent doors
2 - 8 louvre slot grills
These are made from 1mm steel as
against the previous aluminium gas grills. Prices to
follow.
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| Point Motors |
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| Not exactly new to our range, but new
model at a cheaper price. In previous years we had a
supplier of similar motors who modified them to a 20mm
throw. If I bought 10 they were £85 + vat each. Expensive but then top quality. We didn't re
order as the price went up to £145 + vat.
We now have a supplier who can supply
them at a cheaper price. Although they have a throw of
50mm they can be modified by moving the limit switch, but
a simple lever will also work equally well.
12v operation or if you want faster
throw they will work off 24v. Simply reverse the polarity
to reverse the throw.
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Merstham Model Steam Show
| Once again it
was a very enjoyable weekend show and it was nice meeting
so many people who follow our company on this website. Business was pretty good but mainly it was an
excuse for a weekend camping with lots to see and do.
The challenge for me was to build a 7
1/4" gauge engine to take along. We have always had
fun with the Merstham Valley Railway but after so many
years I couldn't keep using their lovely petrol tram.
I aready had a pair of our power
bogies, but with less than 10 days to go I sat down and
did the drawings for a tram engine. It only got one coat
of paint but the weekend gave us a lovely opportunity to
test out the power bogies being driven by our new digital
controller.
We managed to push 6 coaches and two
hydraulic locos for a few yards so I think it had enough
power.
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| I
must say a big thanks to all the organisers of the show.
We enjoyed ourselves which is the most important thing. |
We hope to start marketing the tram in the
coming months. As they say "watch this space".
Middleton Garden Railway
I haven't given an update to our railway for
years. Mainly because we are showing amazing restraint by not
expanding or embarking on any new structures. In fact now most of
the work is maintenance work.
| With Clark,
Jasper and Faith all growing up fast they all seem to
like railways (can't think why). After
a short break to the North East Clark (now 7) was
inspired by the drift mine at Beamish Open Air Museum. On
getting back to grandad's garden he cleared out the shed
siding to create "Clark's Drift Mine".
To him this is the latest attraction
and and he is now able to offer tours of the mine. There
are a couple of draw backs - it is tight and if you don't
keep your head down you will end up with a major
headache.
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So if you are attending
our open day on June 18th - please don't ask him for a
tour of the mine - especially if you are of the larger
build. |
All the best for now
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