By Stephen Howard (Hambleden Valley Railway)
STEPHEN HOWARD describes his scratchbuilt radio controlled locomotive.
Real coal in the bunker and a couple of repainted LGB drivers complete the details.
The loco was spayed in satin black obtained from a car accessory shop, with matt black for the smokebox, chimney and cab roof.
All the stock on my layout (Hambleden Valley Railway) is fiited with Tenmille chopper couplings, mostly of the compact type, sadly no longer available. The tail on the bootom of the hook allows for much easier uncoupling and a hook is only fiited at one end of the stock.
The slow running capabilities of this chassis are superb and the loco will creep the entire length of the layout (36ft) without hestitation and it’s a perfect loco for shunting wagons in the sidings.
The chassis is a standard LGB item I picked up at an exhibition sometime ago. I added steps, cylinder drain cocks and brake shoes etc.
The body of the locomotive is scratchbuilt from plastikard sheet to my own design. The boiler is a piece of 32mm waste pipe. Most of the fittings are Garden Railway Specialist parts such as the dome, safety vales Westinghouse pump, handrail knobs and so forth.
The loco is track powered, but the track is radio controlled. I use a Lococontrol 2.4Ghz radio system with their 3v 5 speed controller attached to the track. Power comes from a laptop type power supply rated at 15v, 5A. Dave Pritchard is really helpful and is currently making me a bespoke transmitter, but I currently use his standard DSM2 which works brilliantly and allows me to wander up and down the length of the layout without any trailing wires. See lococontrol.co.uk
Text and photos by Stephen Howard