Ringbalin Light Railway G Division

Weathered the steam cane loco

This is the effect I was after;


This is the result

 

I have updated my blog pages for the stainz conversion
Ringbalin Light Railway G Division: Sugar Cane Tank Engine from an LGB Stainz (ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com)
and the whole stick wagons.
Ringbalin Light Railway G Division: Sugar Cane "Whole Stick" Wagons (ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com)

I am calling these finished

 

It has been a while since my last post.
I have begun installing servo controlled points on the layout to overcome some issues with my LGB and Aristocraft points plus I now do not have to run up and down changing points I can do it from the one spot (same as my HO layout).
The servos are powered by a Sealed Acid Battery which is trickle charged by a solar panel (similar to what caravan owners use but on a smaller scale).
I have published a page on my blog which shows the whole install of the servo controlled points, it contains links to the original article and the components used.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/servo-controlled-points.html
Hope you like it.

 

As well as working on the servo points, I modified an LGB US outline side rod diesel to look more Australian Sugar Cane loco.
It involved a repaint a relocation of some of the air cleaners, a new exhaust pipe and some "air con units" made from cut down headlights and some fly wire.
I have since weathered it to make it a little grubbier.

 

I have been working on the Garden layout throughout 2021 and into 2022.
A new feature is the "Cane Line" which came about after I built a sugar mill then found I had no room to fit it on the layout.
My solution was to build another layout inside the other one and make it a sugar cane themed line.
Not quite complete but when done it will add some shunting options to make running a bit more interesting.

I used galvanised cable tray as my base with the track laid on shade cloth to hold the ballast and allow water drainage.

Blog shows progress so far (under Cane Line Construction Logs and Latest Posts).
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

I have started ballasting and putting in artificial turf either side of the track.
Ballast is 7MM blue metal held in place by a 50:50 mix of exterior PVA and water with a few drops of dishwashing liquid (HO technique taken outdoors).
I did a trial piece and it survived well over 6 months with no sign of deterioration.

Trial piece


Ballast and turf

 

After a stint last year where I joined the "zipper club" aka open heart surgery I am now back to working on my layout.

The latest project was to create some embankments to overcome track sag where the baseboard supports sunk.
Blog posts describe the work done.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/2023/02/20-january-08-february-2023.html

I also added a backdrop to hide the ugly back fence and to give something to view the trains against, used some my HO skills outside in Large Scale.
This is still a Work In Progress (WIP) having been put on hold to do the embankments.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/2022/12/1-january-2023-backdrop-scenery-across.html

 

I had an issue with subsidence where a tree had been removed and a layout section had sunk, this left 2 high points at either end of a very noticeable dip in the line that caused the trains to "rear up" and look silly.
I was faced with having to dig up the posts that had sunk to re level the baseboard or come up with an idea to level the the track.
As I am allergic to digging I decided to build some low bridges to level up the track.
This is what I came up with.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/2023/02/20-january-08-february-2023.html

Looking at it now I have a germ of an idea of making a gravel pit siding that will justify my "gravel train"

 

The HO division of the Ringbalin Light Railway has been demolished (https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/ringbalin-light-railway-ho-division.4520/) for 2 main reasons;
1. Little to no traffic had run for a year.
2. It had to make way for a real estate grab made by the G Division that will allow shunting and storage sidings to be built.
This will be the long awaited Stage 6 that was put on hold because a minor medical issue that needed solving, which involve open heart surgery and a bit of a lengthy recovery.
A lot of preparatory work is being undertaken to clear the real estate for the expansion which included the dismantling of my work nook in the small shed and moving it into the large adjoining shed.
This is ongoing and pictures will be forthcoming if I survive the 35+C temps and the 70%+ humidity.

 

Latest developments on the railway
Stage 6 has begun here is a description of what is planned at the moment, subject to change of course.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/build-stage-1.html

New workshop area completed and an area of 5.3M x 4M cleared for expansion.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/search/label/Latest Posts

This is happening in this part of the shed

 

Blog has been updated showing progress so far on expansion.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/search/label/Latest Posts

 

Latest post to the blog showing a minor setback which resulted in a change to my well laid plans.
The changes involved the local council engineering department.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/2024/03/3-stage-6-02-march-2024-dismantling.html