David Grantham's railway

Pictures of the Gijon, Villaviciosa and Covadonga have been transferred to the GVC thread

lovely pictures David. you've put a lot of work into that.Not one sombrero in sight either!!

Mikey

SOME! Construction work there, and major engineering, is that air operated points I see?

Stunning shots David !

Love the trackbed and miniature civil engineering ! - very envious !

Marvellous railway.

More details please David.

Trackwork, make, how is it fastened down and more about this pneumatic system?
Trackplan?
FEVE locos?
What's inside the shed?

Carl,

the track is straight Peco with transition curves created with a GRS railbender. It is fastened down every 9 inches or so with a 1 inch brass bar with a slot in it through which a brass screw is plugged into the masonry. I have not got round to ballasting yet but I have about 0.2 ton of
3mm granite chippings from the local quarry. Cost is about £20/ton.
Originally I planned to remove the brass bars after ballasting but I am beginning to think that I might just loose ballast the station and leave the rest as is.

The pneumatic system is largely proprietory and is called EZ AIR and is manufactured and sold by the California and Oregon Coast Railway in the USA. You can buy some of the EZ range from Brandbright but if you want cheaper prices and the full range you can buy online direct from http://www.cocry.com/
The guy who runs the company, Stretch, is very customer oriented and is extremely helpful and efficient and will take on board any suggestions you make about his product. The air cylinders are designed to operate transversely to the track in line with the tiebar. I found this limited clearances and how far parallel tracks needed to be apart so I designed a brass baseplate/crank/actuator assembly that allows the air cylinder to by fixed parallel to the tracks. If you want more details I can send you a photo or two.

The trackplan is essentially a dumbell with Villaviciosa teminus accessed from a point off the east loop. The west loop has a junction prior to the loop point that goes to the extension. The extension track plan changes from day to day but is essentially another larger loop with another point up the incline to the stock shed. Maybe I should draw something in Powerpoint and send it to you to host.

The two BoBo diesels I have are produced by a friend trading under the name of Locomotion. They are extremely reliable and rugged and pretty inexpensive but, in comparison with injection moulded bodies, fairly crudely detailed. I help my friend build these locos on an occassional basis and one of these I have dismantled and rebuilt as a FEVE liveried version; therefore it is freelance but the livery is accurate. You can see the Locomotion website at www.locomotion.connectfree.co.uk/

The shed is for stock storage but because it is very small will probably be mainly used for locos and passenger stock.

Thanks again Carl for hosting these pictures and for all your committment to CGT. If you have any more questions please ask because I will be both flattered and pleased to answer them.

PS Maybe I should explain the lack of detailling on my railway so far. I intend to rectify this starting this winter when I hopefully will have finished all the heavy earthworks. Then we should see some station buildings, maybe Imagimonde, and other details like Spanish signage (stanby Patrick) and even the odd sombrero.

Stunned.....I off to the plant hire place today to rent a digger.
I'm going rip up my garden and start again.

Seriously.
I didn't know you were involved with Locomotion. they have been around a good few years and there's a chap near here, Jean Luc who is due for a visit who has a Locomotion steam railcar.
I can now see why you were considering a live diesel. I'm sure a Locomotion chassis could be a good basis for one....(....I feel a new project coming on.... )

I'm intrigued buy the point operation and I wouldn't mind trialling it especially as I use Peco track too.

A trackplan would be very enlightening if you can David.

I'm pleased too that we are getting this Spanish influence and flavour on the forum rather than just French.

Great pics Graham, and a very interesting collection of stock. Some of those scenes look very 'Spanish' to me. Love the scratch-built vans

Er who's Graham?

mikey

Graham is err, short for... David

duh... sorry David. Still nice pics though. I think I got that right?

Thanks Mikey!

Sorry Clive, you know you'd have done it to me!!

mikey

Carl, the point operation is pretty foolproof and you can get a starter pack from Brandbright at a reasonable price, containing air switch lever, tubing and air cylinder. I think that COCRY have recently introduced a 45mm equivalent of what I built for myself in brass. That is a plugin that allows the air cylinder to be located close to and parallel to the track. I think there are details for this up on their site.

The main issue with this pneumatic system is that you really need a renewable supply of air under pressure (40psi). Originally I tried using an old car tyre and whilst this worked for an hour or more it slowly deflated as there is bound to be a small loss through actuation and leakage. So for the system to be effective you need a compressor.

You can if you wish buy an additional slow release valve that will actuate the points more slowly and more prototypicaly though I have not tried these. Additionally you may link the actuators hierarchically so that there is a degree of interlocking between points and also signals which can be actuated in the same way. Simplest example of this is a crossover whereby two points will always need to be worked in unison and never independently so that both air cylinders are driven by one air switch/tube.

The whole system is pretty much foolproof and maintenence free and I can recommend it without reservation.

I think I will order a 2 cyl. kit from the USA at 57$.

That'll give me something to experiment with at my dodgy junction.

Interesting that pneumatic system, give idea

Carl, what is the best/easiest way to draw a track plan of my railway on the computer.

Do it by hand on a piece of paper and scan it. Seriously, then save it as a .jpg (image file).

You could do that and then if you want open it in 'paint' and add simple text, limited graphics and colour.


Unless you're a wiz (GWhizz...) with drawing programs.

Brian has produced some good digital plans.

It is a pity that these pictures no longer seem to be showing. Having just read of your 2-8-0 loco build, David I came in search of information on your line. I hope you are able to put some new images up at some point. Thanks.

Hi David

I use Microsoft Powerpoint to draw the plans you see on the CFHC and the one I did for Peter (French Chuffed). If you haven't a copy yourself and want to PM me a rough sketch, I'll see if I can do one for you!

Hi Brian,

thanks for the kind offer. I will pm you in the next few days with a sketch.

Dont know what happened to the photos, they were there last night when I looked.

I will resubmit in the next few days.


Tx David.

I have had a look for your pics and it looks like Carls site (www.sncfg.com) has disappeared - that is where the pics were hosted, I have pm'd Carl - hopefully he can get it up again.

Patrick,

dont worry I will resubmit them all shortly. Carl was only helping me out till I got to be self sufficient.


tx
David

Had another short read of "Rails through the Cordillera" today. Some interesting stuff from Dr Bent - where did he get it all from, there was no internet (much) in those days ?

Well I think thats how he got his PhD. Those maps are something else but trying to join the ends up are a nightmare.

Couple of things Patrick, do you know

-when the Leon to Ovieda passenger service through the Pajares pass will be rerouted through the base tunnel. This just the most magnificent main line railway I have ever travelled on and must do it one more time before it closes. 50 miles of viaduct in the clouds with a 3,000ft shear drop over the side. Cercanias costs about £10 for the 80 miles.

- Do you know if there is any FEVE steam this summer on the line through Llanes or anywhere else for that matter outside of the museum at Azpeitia.


Tx David

David Grantham wrote:

-when the Leon to Ovieda passenger service through the Pajares pass will be rerouted through the base tunnel. This just the most magnificent main line railway I have ever travelled on and must do it one more time before it closes. 50 miles of viaduct in the clouds with a 3,000ft shear drop over the side. Cercanias costs about £10 for the 80 miles.

Is this northern Spain? It sounds magnificent, I should go see it before the trains are rerouted.

Yes Northern Spain and to say it is worth a visit is an understatement.

I usually take a railway based holiday here every couple of years and it is still reletaively inexpensive and has the worlds largest narrow gauge railway system in FEVE and ET.

Most holidays include arriving by Brittany Ferries in Santander and then by FEVE (ex SB) into Bilbao. Then the piece de resistence, 200 miles over the Cordillera Cantabrica on the narrow gauge ex FC La Robla, into the fabulous city of Leon and sometimes, when affordable, the San Marcos Parador.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Bilbao_FEVE_Concordia.jpg

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/media/inline_hero/1/h/Parador-Hotel-San-Marcos-Leon.jpg

Once in Leon a day trip over Pajares is fairly easily arranged despite the scarsity of the cheaper Cercanias services. I think there are about 3 per day.

Providing you dont stay at the San Marcos one could have an 8 day trip, Santander, Bilbao, Leon. Oviedo and back to Santander including ferry, hotels and rail travel for about £450 per person.

If anyone wants any further info or advice on railway touring in Norther Spain I would be pleased to help.

David