Erskine Tramway

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Rob Gardner
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by Rob Gardner »

Mike,

You've got a gorgeous setting for your railroad. Always love seeing your progress and updates.

Rob Gardner
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Erskine Tramway
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by Erskine Tramway »

Rob Gardner wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:33 am Mike,

You've got a gorgeous setting for your railroad. Always love seeing your progress and updates.

Rob Gardner
Thanks, Rob, I'm plugging away at it.

We've sold our daughter's mobile home, since she and her family have moved to Custer. There was a little 'bridge' between the back door and the bank alongside the home. The movers are getting ready to move the home, and I was up there yesterday helping move out a wood stove that we sold separately. I notice that little platform, so I measured it. It is 39" wide and 91" long, with 'plastic' decking. The buyers don't need it, so it occurred to me that it would make a nice station platform out at Erskine Siding. So I loaded up a couple of my salvaged 4x4's, and took them out to Erskine to lay on the ground as temporary supports. They will do until spring, when I can put down some weed fabric and base course, and build a proper foundation.

Here's a couple pictures of the operation. I've also salvaged a section of deck railing that I'll install when the platform is finished. I'll have pictures of the deck in place, whenever I can haul it down.

Enjoy...

Mike
Attachments
1-26-20 platform skids loaded.jpg
1-26-20 skids placed.jpg
Former Locomotive Engineer and Designer, Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works, Inc. and Riverside & Great Northern Railway 1962-77
BN RR Locomotive Engineer 1977-2014, Retired
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by Erskine Tramway »

I happened to have some time lately, so I was playing with the video program on my computer. Last spring, I'd filmed a trip over the line, but the program I had wouldn't accept the output from my new camera. I discovered that the 'built in' Windows 10 program will. In the process, I discovered that my new camera doesn't automatically rotate the picture, so it's tall instead of wide. The next film will be better, I'll do that sometime this summer. So, here's the result, a trip over the line with a load of firewood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-79NivEzz4

Enjoy...

Mike
Former Locomotive Engineer and Designer, Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works, Inc. and Riverside & Great Northern Railway 1962-77
BN RR Locomotive Engineer 1977-2014, Retired
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NP317
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by NP317 »

Fun to see your run. Lots of work on your part.
Thanks.
RussN
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by Erskine Tramway »

Today was a nice day, so I tried out the new camera mount. Except for quite a bit of wind noise, I think it came out well.

Enjoy, https://youtu.be/JN1UPdOR37U

Mike
Former Locomotive Engineer and Designer, Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works, Inc. and Riverside & Great Northern Railway 1962-77
BN RR Locomotive Engineer 1977-2014, Retired
DBauer2250
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by DBauer2250 »

Good spring Mike,
I enjoyed the virtual ride on the Erskine Tramway. Now, you need to incorporate some videos of you and your wife riding the tram. This is a special request from those of us who knew you way back when and haven't seen you in all those years.

I am actually working on a small battery power loco. It is a 2" scale (narrow gauge) model of the GE 25 ton switcher. Little loco, easily transportable in the car. Hopefully it will function when I'm done. Still only have a couple of hundred feet of track down, with about one hundred more ready to lay. Hoping to get that down within the next month or so.

Happy Easter to you,
Don Bauer
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by Erskine Tramway »

DBauer2250 wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2020 11:13 am Good spring Mike,
I enjoyed the virtual ride on the Erskine Tramway. Now, you need to incorporate some videos of you and your wife riding the tram. This is a special request from those of us who knew you way back when and haven't seen you in all those years.

I am actually working on a small battery power loco. It is a 2" scale (narrow gauge) model of the GE 25 ton switcher. Little loco, easily transportable in the car. Hopefully it will function when I'm done. Still only have a couple of hundred feet of track down, with about one hundred more ready to lay. Hoping to get that down within the next month or so.

Happy Easter to you,
Don Bauer
Hi Don...

It has been a long time. How've you been? You still out in Arizona?

Both of us won't fit on the motor at once, even the granddaughter is getting too big for both of us to ride. Here's an old picture, before I put the roof on it, for size reference.
10-1-14 The Driver.jpg
I do have a partly finished passenger car though. Maybe I'll get the body on it this year :D
10-15-15 seats.jpg
A couple hundred feet is a good start, I started with less. The Erskine Tramway is 845 feet over the ends now, that's probably as long as it will get. Let's see your engine when you get it done.

Happy Easter to you too.
Mike
Former Locomotive Engineer and Designer, Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works, Inc. and Riverside & Great Northern Railway 1962-77
BN RR Locomotive Engineer 1977-2014, Retired
rkcarguy
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by rkcarguy »

"I ought to build one of those power tampers, it would save my back from all the bending. And, I need to figure out an efficient way to load the ballast car. Maybe a ramp to run the wheelbarrow up, and dump in the car. Even better, a ramp for the John Deere 8) The problem being that there ain't no hills out there in the pasture, the rock, track, and tractor are all at the same elevation, and Johnnie's bucket doesn't lift high enough to clear the top of the car :shock: I need to do some cyphering on that.
Mike"

Would it make sense to add a ballast spur that was ran subgrade into a pit of some sort, so that the JD's bucket would clear the top of a hopper?
My lower back doesn't like digging and shoveling/tamping either, I wonder if some kind of air powered "tamping attachment" could be made for a piece of rolling stock?
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by Erskine Tramway »

rkcarguy wrote: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:27 pm Would it make sense to add a ballast spur that was ran subgrade into a pit of some sort, so that the JD's bucket would clear the top of a hopper?
My lower back doesn't like digging and shoveling/tamping either, I wonder if some kind of air powered "tamping attachment" could be made for a piece of rolling stock?
If I dug a hole, it would fill up with water when it rains, the clay don't drain very well :shock: I could load off the top of the retaining wall, but that isn't where the ballast pile is. I'd still need some kind of chute, account the bucket is wider than the ballast car is long. This is still going to require some thinking. The car isn't in service yet, anyway.

The Ravenglass & Eskdale uses air hammers for tamping. The machine from Live Steam is still the simplest arrangement. Here's somebody's version that I snagged off the innertubes.
13325570_10209333963691039_60895906340562571_n.jpg
Mike
Former Locomotive Engineer and Designer, Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works, Inc. and Riverside & Great Northern Railway 1962-77
BN RR Locomotive Engineer 1977-2014, Retired
rkcarguy
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by rkcarguy »

Erskine Tramway wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2020 11:00 am
rkcarguy wrote: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:27 pm Would it make sense to add a ballast spur that was ran subgrade into a pit of some sort, so that the JD's bucket would clear the top of a hopper?
My lower back doesn't like digging and shoveling/tamping either, I wonder if some kind of air powered "tamping attachment" could be made for a piece of rolling stock?
If I dug a hole, it would fill up with water when it rains, the clay don't drain very well :shock: I could load off the top of the retaining wall, but that isn't where the ballast pile is. I'd still need some kind of chute, account the bucket is wider than the ballast car is long. This is still going to require some thinking. The car isn't in service yet, anyway.

The Ravenglass & Eskdale uses air hammers for tamping. The machine from Live Steam is still the simplest arrangement. Here's somebody's version that I snagged off the innertubes.

13325570_10209333963691039_60895906340562571_n.jpg

Mike
That's a neat tamping machine, I'll have to add one of those to the project list!
I have a similar issue on my land, the top soil is sandy loam that drains well, but underneath is clay. At one place I'm considering digging a pit but it's adjacent to a ditch that I could French drain the pit into so it wouldn't fill up with water. The little struck mini-dozer I'm working on right now is only going to be able to have around 18" of bucket lift so I'm kind of in the same situation. My RR build will get to the point where getting ballast and materials in to extend the line will only be able to be done by rail so it will become a necessity.
I had the same issue with the bucket being wider than an area I was filling when I was doing some landscape work years ago, so I fashioned a quick "plug" from some scrap wood and C-clamped it into the bucket so only 2/3rds of the bucket width would fill with dirt. :D
I've had a bad lower back for decades so I find work arounds to hand shoveling anyway I can.
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

We have a couple of those tamping machines down here, and they work pretty good if you use them correctly and let the machine do the work. A couple of guys from up in Kentucky came up with that quite a few years ago, I believe. At least, they were the first to introduce us to it and the first to build it in this style that I am aware of. They told me that the timing of the fingers is critical, in that they have to move against each other and not with each other or it won't work.
rkcarguy
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Re: Erskine Tramway

Post by rkcarguy »

I watched a video of one of the full size track maintenance machines running along, and it had these vibrating sprung "feet" that pressed down between the ties to compact the ballast on each side of the rails. Appears to be different than the way that tamping machine works?
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