K&NWLR: A rack railway extension line seemed like a good idea at the time ...

Back again after a long absence. In the meantime, I´ve been doing any number of things on the K&WNR, most of them probably in the category of "random improvements". But I have started to design a rack railway section to the railway. I´ll try to upload a photo of the mock-up. Now if I could only find a prototype to justify this rash decision ...

k&nwlr wrote:

Now if I could only find a prototype to justify this rash decision ...

I'm guessing there's plenty in your neck of the woods!

Post some photos. If there's a prototype out there, we'll help you find it!

And now the "take your mind off things by planting some more trees" ...bit

Or simply take photographs of work that hasn´t yet been done ... oh yes, and plant another tree.

Where is I.K. Brunel when you need him? ..... no prizes for spotting the authentically continental support structure

It's bad enough building a Rack Railway but using "Beaune" boxes as supports....

Given that your railway is entirely live steam and British, it would seem reasonable to tempt you with a spot of wooden bodied french electric

However if you must have steam, Langres looks interesting, especially as the train terminated not far past the viaduct as far as I can tell

Given that the only Britsh steam option is basically Swiss, then I'm afraid you may have to bail out and build a funicular instead. Personally, given the Portmeirion theme, I'd go for a Great Orme car.

dtsteam wrote:

Given that your railway is entirely live steam and British, it would seem reasonable to tempt you with a spot of wooden bodied french electric

I´ve been thinking hard about the wooden bodied coaches - and have looked at a number of prototypes. The engine that I have on order is - however - a Rigi No. 7 (Swiss) from Regner.

Arrrgghh... fell for that one
Seriously, I hope you enjoy the regner. Yours will hopefully be one of the few that ever gets run. How long will the track be and whose rack will you use ? Oh and what sort of reversing has it got ?

Thanks. I´m thinking seriously about radio control for the obvious reasons related to the fact that what goes up does not necessarily automatically come down. I think that the Regner loco is designed to work with the LGB rack railway system - although I suppose one could build one´s own ....

Thought about sending the rack railway up here, but there´s not really enough space.

looks beautifull as it is to me

Quote :

Now if I could only find a prototype to justify this rash decision ...

Could the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales be a good prototype? Some interesting locomotives as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowdon_Mountain_Railway
http://www.snowdonrailway.co.uk/gallery.php
http://www.narrow-gauge-pleasure.co.uk/railways/rlysnowdon.aspx

Paulus wrote:

Quote :

Now if I could only find a prototype to justify this rash decision ...

Could the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales be a good prototype? Some interesting locomotives as well.

http://www.snowdonrailway.co.uk/gallery.php
http://www.narrow-gauge-pleasure.co.uk/railways/rlysnowdon.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowdon_Mountain_Railway

Of course, you´re right. Snowdon is the only British prototype, and if I remember the locomotives were made by SLM in Winterthur, but I stand to be corrected.

Having failed to find a way to build a staircase from the top loop to the bottom loop to allow visitors to Portmeirion to climb down to the proposed rack railway, I have decided on a building in the style of one of the Portmeirion gatehouses. Really it´s a staircase, not a building, and it has a door on the rear side on the upper floor which currently leads to oblivion. I´ll build a bridge using parts of a GRS GWR footbridge from the building to the upper level track (or possible even to the level of Portmeirion), to prevent too many injuries amongst the patrons. The mock-up of the viaduct for the rack railway is there to show that the platform might even be at the right level ....

K&NWLR: Rack railway station by kandnwlr, on Flickr


K&NWLR: Rack railway station by kandnwlr, on Flickr

K&NWLR: Rack railway station by kandnwlr, on Flickr

K&NWLR: Rack railway station by kandnwlr, on Flickr

Absolutely spot-on. If he'd have built a staircase to a rack railway, that's exactly how it would have looked. Where are the pantiles on the roof from ?

dtsteam wrote:

Absolutely spot-on. If he'd have built a staircase to a rack railway, that's exactly how it would have looked. Where are the pantiles on the roof from ?

Many thanks. The pantiles are sourced from back2bay6.net (Steve) who imports stuff from the USA. Since he tends to order in large quantities, sometimes you´re lucky and he´s got the stuff, sometimes it´s still in transit. I also used his plastic sheet pavement on the platform of the company warehouse as well, where - with a little paint - it does very well as slate.

K&NWLR: First section of rackrail viaduct by kandnwlr, on Flickr
One section of the rack railway viaduct temporarily in place.

I couldn´t resist trying to fit this into place, even though I need to get the rack railway lined up and nailed down before trying to be clever and attempting to stick this into the landscape on the upper loop.


K&NWLR: Rack railway "bridge of sighs" to Portmeirion by kandnwlr, on Flickr


K&NWLR: Rack railway "bridge of sighs" to Portmeirion by kandnwlr, on Flickr


K&NWLR: Rack railway "bridge of signs" to Portmeirion by kandnwlr, on Flickr