A Waterwheel Test


The forecast was for 24 hours of continuous heavy rain! The perfect opportunity for a day in the workshop and what better project to be working on than a waterwheel!
The waterwheel will become part of a watermill that will disguise the outlet from the pond pump pipe for our emerging garden stream. The watermill building will be a modified Pendle Valley kit. The wheel comes from that kit but it was in a basic form and so it was adapted to create closed and larger “buckets” for the water from the leat to do its work. I didn’t know if it would actually work, but this morning the skies cleared a little and the chance arrived to test the wheel using a watering can. The position of the leat where it discharges water onto the wheel and, in particular, the amount of water flowing over both seem critical, but the test has revealed that it can be done! Some of the water from the stream will have to be split off to feed the leat, just as in the real, full sized world. A sluice gate of some sort with a fine adjustment will be needed to regulate the water flow …. and I may have just the thing in the scrap box.
More tests will follow in due course.

Mike Barton
North West Wales 16mm Group Coordinator
nwwales16mmgroup

Website: http://nwwales.16mm.org.uk

Lambak Railway

Hi all, a loco is waiting for some dry weather to run in, since the last post I have finished Phil Sharples loco with some extra detail and a couple of figures. 6 x Triang skips bought off of ebay for approximately £6 to £11 each. I have bought another of his locos to build and create a 18inch mining line to run with my 2foot line.
I have knocked up a master of a deep sleeper with chairs to cast a load, gauged at 24mm. The master is slightly larger to compensate for shrinkage. I am planning to just bury the line in grey river sand instead of fixing, will give me a bit of flexibility to chop and change.

Hope to see you all in the near future. Will try and connect tommorow on zoom.

Cain Howley

Passenger test completes loop!

After the passenger test train showed clearance issues in the north tunnel last time https://virtualmeetup.16mmgroup.org.uk/2020/08/30/passenger-stock-clearance-testing/ this weekend’s virtual meet up finally prompted me to get going with the lump hammer and today the a test train completed the loop for the first time.

Unmodified Newqida stock coupled with the Mk1 universal coupling:

The civil engineer crew needed to work on both the side of the eastern portal….

….and the roof of the western portal.

Clearances remain tight!

Simon (Moel Rhos)