Index to this Description
Index to this Description
Introduction
Description of Layout
Hand built Track
Buildings
Bridges
Locos
Rollingstock
Electrics
The Sandstone & Termite is a 45 mm gauge railway situated in my backyard in Loftus, Sydney, Australia. It is electrically operated with power through the rails, but I mainly use battery powered trains. Track power is provided for visitors. The area occupied by the layout is about shape 20 x 25 metres. The sandstone ledge and my fight with termites in some of the timber trestles, resulted in the name of Sandstone & Termite Railway. There are about 200 metres of track.
I make no attempt to model fine details. If it looks like a carriage at first glance then that is good enough for most of the people who see it. I'm more of a copier of the general ideas of a vehicle, not an exact modeller. I'm in the hobby for the fun of driving trains around the back yard, standing back and listening to the sounds and talking to the neighbours as they come to look.
I have been able to get into G at minimum cost by making my own track and trains. A hundred metres of track, 13 turnouts, 3 locos and 14 vehicles for around $AU1500, spread over 4 years (1993-1997. More has been spent since!).
I have enjoyed playing track surveyor, bridge builder and track layer as well as train driver and electronics designer. When the neighbours see me out with the spirit level and string they know there's an extension being planned. One of the great things about G is that you can get most of your materials at the local hardwarestore instead of specialist model shops, and you can use your normal power tools. I hope this convinces others to give it a go.
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The "Layout"
view Large plan of the line or the smaller versions below.
The layout can be operated as two separate continuous runs, allowing 2 independent operations (below right)...
or as a 200m long single track reversing-loop to reversing-loop (below left - the 4 colours show the 4 single-line sections. Black indicates 'station yards')
Let's take a ride along the line......
The rails start at Termite in a 'workshop' under the house where there are twin reversing loops and three sidings to store all the trains.
The track leaves Termite through a hole in the wall, at a level about 120cm above the backyard,
crosses the path on the level, passes the small platform at Ironbark overlooked by a Dutch style windmill,
and winds its way along the sandstone ridge, which is up to 3 metres high in places. A natural rock overhang forms a
'tunnel' and then we slow for the
semi-circle curve which changes the direction at the boundary. Originally,this was the sharpest radius on the line (80cm) but has now been replaced with a 100cm radius curve on a higher trestle. With the change of direction we head downhill at 1:25 on the new trestle bridge, with the old bridge preserved on our left, then over wood-truss bridge (tomato stakes!), through a solid rock cutting then a steel-arch to cross the path again.
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Track
I originally built my own track from aluminium bar because the commercial track was just too expensive. Rails are 3mm x 10 mm aluminium bar, bought in 2 metre lengths. By buying in bulk from an aluminium supplier these work out at about $1.25 per metre. I paint the bar brown and scrape the paint off the top surface. However, I now use brass rail nailed on timber sleepers (see here).
Making Aluminium 'bar' track
Making Brass track
Making turnouts Leaf screens Top of Page
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Loco No2 , the second Bachmann 4-6-0, has suffered a major kitbash to give it a bigger boiler and tender. It is loosely based on a NSW 36 class (ie a 1920s vintage). The boiler is 90 mm plastic pipe and the fittings are various pieces of wire, tops of glue tubes and garden irrigation fittings. This loco is battery powered. I used two, 12V, 2.3 amp-hour batteries in the boiler and a radio control from a 'toy' truck. The batteries completely fill the boiler and weigh 1.3 kg. (I got them from Oatley Electronics for $20 the pair - good value). The 12V batteries only provide about 11 volts at full charge to the motors after losses in the controller, which means the top speed is a bit slow - about 60 kph. The Bachmann sound unit is still used, until I get around to upgrading it.
The fourth loco is a Bachmann 0-4-0 Porter converted to a Sydney steam tram motor. This is battery powered by 7 AA NiCd cells, and a UHF 'car door remote' controller. It also has a home made sound unit
The fifth loco is based on a Bachmann 4-6-0 but converted to an 0-6-0 to look like a NSW 19 class . I decided that it was too hard to move the centre axle to give the characteristic 19 class unequal wheel spacings, but the discrepaancy is not too noticeable. I was able to get that other great look of the 19 class where you can see daylight beneath the boiler. I like the uncluttered look of the early 19s so I haven't put much detail on the boiler - not even a compressor. The boiler is 50mm ID plastic drain pipe (as used under the bathroom sink); the footplate is 3mm steel and the rest is styrene sheet. The dome is turned from wood and the funnel from electrical conduit. The tender is the Bachmann unit reduced in length and width (cut in half and re-melted together using a soldering iron), and the headlight is a shortened Bachmann. Handrails are steel wire, heated with a soldering iron and melted into the plastic. The whistle and turbo generator are the Bachmann ones, and the safety valve is from styrene and wire coil. It is painted with flat black.
Loco 6 is a 2-6-0+0-6-2 Garratt based on two Bachmann 4-6-0s. It's loosely based on the Victorian narrow gauge type, but with a 'curvy' front which I like. It is battery powered with a 7 Ah, 12V battery in the rear tank and the radio control and two sound systems in the boiler. Converting the 4-6-0 to a 2-6-0 means the cylinders had to be moved back and the drive rods shortened.
Loco 7 is an unmodified Bachmann Big Hauler that does not get much use and is intended for spare parts.
Loco 8 is the one and only diesel on the line. A kitbashed Aristo L'il Critter, is meant to look a little like a NSW X200 rail tractor. It is track powered, but has a simple home made sound system.
Loco 9 is a 2-8-2 tank loco based on an Aristocraft 0-8-0 motor block. The body is based on a South Maitland Railway 10 class. It is battery powered with 2.4 Ah, 12V NiMH batterries in the tanks and RC in the boiler. A 50mm speaker is in the bunker facing into the cab.
Loco 10 is an A class Climax. It's built of styrene on an Aristo diesel motor block and has RC and sound. 10V, 2.4 Ah Batteries are in the water tank, RC in the boiler and sound ccts in the firebox.
There are also two Railmotors.
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Lettering on the vehicles is printed on a computer, on plain paper and glued on the vehicles.
Couplings were a real problem. I tried 3 different methods with bars & pins but finally settled on the old hook and chain. It needs big, out of scale buffers but it works and is cheap. And since I'm not into lots of shunting it's not a problem. The chain comes from cheap jewellery you buy at bargain "two dollar" shops. You can also get finer chains for load lashings etc. from the same place.
The wheels are turned on a wood lathe from 6mm thick nylon sheet. Offcuts of this are available from plastics suppliers for around $5 for a 30 cm square (look in the Yellow pages). This makes 36 wheels. If you're lucky you can get it in black. I ground a 25mm chisel into the (half) wheel profile. Five cm squares of nylon are hot-glued to the lathe faceplate, drilled and the axle fitted. The chisel is then held against the axle and moved onto the nylon, so that it takes one simple operation to turn a wheel, takes only a few minutes, and they're all the same! Top of Page
Battery Locos
Aluminium rails are joined using nickel plated, 6G, self-tapping screws and 12x12x1mm aluminium angle 'fishplates' 25mm long. This allows the rails to be fastened down. The holes in the fishplates are oversize to allow rail movement. Smaller (10mm) angle pieces allow the rails to be bolted down every metre or so. Every rail joint is electrically bonded using two more self-tappers and copper cable.
The original sleepers were cut from maple about 8mm x 35 mm, but I cannot get this any more so I have used the slats of treated pine that are used to make lattice work. These are about 8mm x 38mm. This is cut into 100 mm lengths and each length has the two slots cut in it to hold the rails. I built a jig to give the correct gauge and glued 3 hacksaw blades together to cut the 3mm wide slots about 3-4mm deep. The 38mm wide piece is then cut into three lengthways to give
3 sleepers. So far I have cut over 3000 of the little devils.
The rails are a press (hammer tap) fit into the slots.
I can now purchase brass rail for about the same price as aluminium bar. Rail is obtained from the LGB and G-scale Model Railway Club of Australia (based in Sydney) in 3.5m lengths for about $A18. Plastic sleepers are also available (but I don't use them) -
click here for actual costs of joining the club and the rail and sleepers.
I use treated pine sleepers (from lattice manufacturers - 38mm x 8mm). This is cut into 3 lengthways to give sleepers about 11mm wide by 8mm deep and 95-100mm long. 15mm steel brads (small nails) are used, 4 per sleeper to attach the rail. I built a jig for marking the nail positions, then I hammer them in with 3mm protruding on top - this means about 4mm is sticking out the bottom. These are bent over with pliers to stop them pulling up. The nails are then put in place and a pair of pincers used to bend the nail heads over the rail foot. It's easier than it sounds but a bit time consuming. It's good calming therapy! Pic of finished track
I developed my own design of
'swivelling' turnout. There is no frog but the whole thing rotates. This way it only takes an hour to make one and there is no problem with the electrics that you get with non-insulated frogs. I have even made a 'three-way' turnout.
The biggest problem with a garden railway is keeping leaves and gumnuts off the track and the heat in summer. I have covered all the station areas with 'leaf screens' which are made from shade cloth and are really effective and easily lifted off. They keep the leaves off, allow the rain to run through, the track to dry out and provide a bit of shade to keep the rails a bit cooler in summer.
Buildings
There are only a few buildings yet. Materials used include fibro (hard to work with) and 3mm styrene sheet. My wife is an accomplished potter and has produced a number of buildings including signal box, signal hut, waiting room, windmill, an old style house and an Aussie country pub . She also produces the people for the layout from pottery.
There is a single track engine shed which is made from balsa. The window frames were printed on a computer and copied onto clear plastic overhead transparencies. The corrugated iron roof is brown corduroy material which is much cheaper than using metal for a roof 90cm long and 40cm wide.
There is a goods shed at Ti-tree. It's made from a cardboard box about 300mm x 200mm and covered with corrugated cardboard bought from Lincraft, and painted silver.
Bridges
Because of the big rock shelf and the sloping backyard, over 25% of the track is on bridges ! Tomato stakes are the predominant material for trestles and trusses
On the smaller trestles, I turned the stakes to a rough round profile to be more realistic, but my lathe is not big enough to do 120cm lengths so they are square. The trestles are painted with clear lacquer after leaving for a year to weather. ( No need for artificial weathering on an outdoor layout !)
The truss bridges
use the tomato stakes in compression and 4mm threaded rod as the tension pieces. These really are in tension and have to be tightened up correctly to put the wood in compression and hold the whole thing together. These trusses have been painted with Silverfrost.
The steel arch bridge has a 2.5 metre span and the arch is made from pieces from the top of an old above ground swimming pool. The whole thing is pop-riveted together.
The stone viaduct is made from Hebel concrete blocks (CSR product). These are lightweight concrete blocks which can be cut with a normal wood saw (although it does blunt it after a while). You can scribe 'bricks' or 'stones' on it with a screwdriver or a hacksaw blade. You can drill into it with normal drills. And you can drive nails into it, although they don't hold all that well. It is coloured using cement oxides. For more info go to my Hebel pages
(Thanks to my mate Graham Morphett for introducing me to this stuff. I'm sure he'll be happy if more people use it.)
Locos
Here is a picture of most of the loco stable.
There are 6 locos, 1 tram and a railmotor at present.
Loco No 1 No longer exists. [It was a Bachmann 4-6-0 with minor changes to "Australianise" it and repainted blue. I have fitted a sound system of my own design. This gives not only steam sound but whistles when starting and at random times when running, and simulates the compressed air sound of the brakes when coming to a stop.]
The chassis was used in the 2nd Garratt - number 6.
The third loco is a Garratt articulated type. I used the chassis of two Bachmann Spectrum 2-4-2 locos to create a 2-4-2 + 2-4-2 Garratt of my own design but based vaguely on some of the various narrow gauge Garratts which have run in Australia.
These Spectrum locos draw a lot more current than the 4-6-0s ..... over an amp at 12V. To avoid overloading my controller, and since they appear to be 12V motors, the two chassis are wired in series. This limits the top speed to a very realistic value, with the maximum 20V which my controller puts out.
The cab is the only body part of the two Bachmann 2-4-2 locos which was reused. The front and rear tanks are 2mm styrene, covered with 0.25mm styrene which has been punched to resemble rivets. The boiler is 75mm plastic pipe. The boiler frame is 100mm x 6mm steel plate and the whole loco weighs in at 3 kg (6.5 lb.) Both the tender and front tank are fitted with steam sound units, 5 watt amplifiers and speakers.
The boiler is filled with 32xAA size NiCad batteries giving 9.6V and 2.8 Amp-hours (and weighing 670g). The loco weighs 1800g. The original Bachmann had about 1350g on the drivers, so adhesion should be better (if the bearings handle it). I didn't instal the smoke generator to reduce battery drain. R/C and sound gear is in the tender, with a 12 pin plug between (8 pins used). Two switches under the tender allow track power to be selected, or battery; and turn the battery off. At present I am using the Bachmann sound unit and extra wipers have been added to the cam which switches the steam sound to give 4 beats per revolution.
It is fitted with dual sound units of my own design, and the unsynchronised sounds from back and front motor units at low speed are very realistic. With plenty of battery capacity available, I can have good volume too.
The first is a scratchbuilt, old style railmotor RM2 loosely based on the original Queensland Gulflander. This is my only attempt at 'mechanics' and uses rubber band drive from a 6V motor. It is controlled by a magnet on a stick!
The second is a shortened NSWR CPH type railmotor RM3. It uses an Aristo diesel motor block and is RC and has my own Picaxe sound unit and recorded engine cranking sounds. 10V, 2.4Ah batteries.
Rollingstock
All the rollingstock (except the locos and one Bachmann tank wagon and a cpuple of Lehmann 4 wheelers) is scratch built from the wheels up. Either styrene sheet or balsa is used for the bodies. Balsa is used for the roofs, cut into strips and glued to shaped formers to form the curvature, then covered with ordinary typing paper using white glue.
The vehicle floors are 3mm ply on an underframe of 8 mm thick 'sleeper' timber. So far I've built five passenger carriages, 10 bogie goods and 22, four-wheelers, and this is scarcely enough to keep the locos busy.
The caboose does not really fit the Australian scene but my (then) 19 year old daughter insisted on having a 'little red caboose'.
Electrics
Track Power
Whilst I am tending to battery operation, I keep track power available for my few locos which remain track powered and for visiting locos.
I use a common return rail fed at numerous points around the layout. Wiring is installed underground in garden irrigation pipe.
There are 4 single line sections and there are 4 radio controllers for the track power of each section (or there will be 4 when I build the 4th one!) - coloured grey, red, yellow and purple. The controllers are home made, based on car door remote controllers. The supply to each section can be provided from any of the 4 controllers via the use of a 'patch box''. (I couldn't use switches for 4-way connections.) But in general I don't change these connections very often - a given controller usually stays connected to a given section. This means that as you drive a train along you have to change controllers as you enter each new section. It also means that the RC unit becomes the safeworking 'staff' for each section. So even if you have a battery loco you should still hold the staff to prevent others entering your section. I use small coloured Velcro tags to remind operators which controller is on which section. These have to be manually changed if I change the connections at the patch box.
Control panels are installed at each station to switch the track power to various sidings, and are installed in plastic lunchboxes. These are cheap, waterproof containers. A coat of acrylic paint 'sort of' protects them from UV.
The supply to each station yard can be obtained from any of the mainlines entering the station. For example if you are approaching a station using yellow controller/staff, you must clear with any other operator in the station and then connect the station to yellow. Then to depart onto red section, you select red for the yard, pick up the red controller/staff and drive on. While no mainline trains are entering or leaving a station, you can select the local controller for shunting.
All but 2 of my locos are radio controlled and all are home built. The early radio controllers are based on cheap R/C model cars RC units, but later ones use small 433 MHz 'car-lock' type RC units and Picaxe controllers.
Further information on my RC units is on the Tech Tips pages.
Last updated 20 Oct 2007
