Simplex on the Move!

[monkeyhero97]

Hello all
I have quite a few threads all about differents aspects of maintaning and trying to learn more about my simplex, but here is a video of yesterday at Swiss Vapeur Parc. My little Simplex ran her heart out, running 10km or 6 1/4 miles! I could have gne further, but all my rolling stock played up throughout the day!. My brakevan played up from the start, one axle was blocked and wasnt turning, but of course I didnt realise this until the end! I thought my little loco was working too hard, but she still sailed up the 1/4 mile long 1 in 80 bank with two people. So I am hoping on a flat track with working rolling stock, she can pull a full carriage, hopefully 5-6 kids plus myself. 
 Unfortunately, the chairman of the club is an abosolutely rude fellow. He didnt even say hello when I went to introduce myself, said he didn't have time for me  then complained we brought a loco straight away, which was not the case anyway! He wanted me to start as a volunteer cleaning rubbish!  I will not be becoming a membre there, which is sad as the infrastructure is just amazing! But I  will still spend a weekend overthere for the 10 day long international gala, in june. 
 My plan then for my simplex is this:

Re-paint smokebox and repair the broken hinche on the door.
Paint Buffer Beams Red
'Nationalise it', add yellow lining, BR numbers and BR logos. ( If anyone has experince please tell me the best supplier for transfers!)


All this is well and good, but I have nowhere to run my loco. One of my friends has a portable 80m loop , which he gets outs at local events, prorbably on a monthly basis. However, after talking to people in my village, there is also strong demand for  a portable railway on some sundays and village events, in my village.  So, I am currently ordering 18m of track from a friend, and I plan to add a few signs, maybe one signal, a station and a halt, all to make the ride more interesting. Then, as money from the tickets come in, more track will be made and then I will hopefully expand. 

Anyway here is the link to my day out yesterday:  
drive.google.com/file/d/0B347TLiQDISLQ2ZZczNWUUdEN1k/view?usp=sharing

Marc

[andyhigham]

What a stunning facility, I think you may need to swallow you pride and join that club.

[Roger]

What an amazing track! Your problem is that you're committing the crime of being young! I had exactly the same reaction from the club in Southampton where all they wanted was for me to collect money in the ticket office. I didn't have a locomotive and I never got to touch one in all the time I was there. Nobody spoke to me unless it was to get me to do something menial.
So take no notice of these people, be polite and just do your own thing. I'm afraid that some people are ignorant and pompous and they are a blight on our hobby. The result of my experience was that I gave up on the hobby and didn't return for 40 years. Strangely enough, people have time for me now..... now I'm not young any more.... funny that...

[smallbrother]

Duplicate

[smallbrother]

I don't think you could ask for more in any respect!

Is the maximum gauge 7.25? There are some pretty large wagons to haul.

Only just noticed the bit about the Chairman. What an arseh*le.

Pete.

[monkeyhero97]

That is all well, but it is a professional setup, with some members who just ride with their locos occasionally for fun. However they are 'experts' as he put it'. He said there are two ways of being a member, through the 'small door', where you volunteer there every weekend, clean the park then work yourself up or through the 'big door', where you know everything already and you are capable of running your own loco without disturbing the professional large trains. Basically, if you hold them up like I did yesterday, you get whipped mentally. Although maybe theoretically I have a decent amount of knowledge, I have no practical knowledge so when you have the pressure of the commercial trains just behind you, you cant really enjoy it because you have to make sure you have full water, full fire and full coal, which is really quite hard when you have a simplex and nearly 2kms of track until a short stop! I say short because its only until the signal goes green, then they force you to go , so I have a few seconds to fire, fill up with water and fire. If I were an expert in using my loco, then I would put up with the people, besides half of them are really nice fellows... and helpful. However, with that constant pressure and the fact its 2 hours away ( unfortunately it is my local track until I move to the UK in 2016), it really is quite stressful.

There is 5 and 7.25, however I can't pull any of their stock because you need air braking. What I think I will do is get some experince on more relax setups, including hopefully mine then run their occasionally, especially for the gala. He said the door was wide open for me, I could come back a couple of times a year to run my loco, so long as I dont hold up the other commercial trains. And that probably what i'll do, but I dont want to be going there regulary , as it is 2 hours away!

[smallbrother]

Ah, so he did speak to you and explained the situation. I retract my comment.

I don't run at my local club these days as it is also commercially based and you are governed by the movements of the passenger train.

Pete.

[monkeyhero97]

No no.... he was an arseh*le..... apparantly he has a reputation which i didnt know about.
I really want to be pulling passengers, but I need to completely learn how to master my simplex.... and fix my rolling stock!
Marc

[Deleted]

Shame to have a chair like that... looks such a great track too.....i don't blame you for not wanting to join... you see a chair is chosen by the members, so in my eye they therefore endorse his bad attitude to newcomers. Such a shame....on a positive note...nice loco and video though....

Pete

[Rob]

If it was me, I too would try to get my foot in the door there - I don't think I've ever seen anything as detailed as that in the UK. Perhaps once you've mastered your simplex and can pull fee-paying passengers, they may be more willing for you to run frequently

I was fairly lucky with my local club when I was your age (or a bit younger as I was off playing with cars at your age), whilst I did notice a certain degree of 'young person phobia' and some were most definitely an expert to such an extent that only their way was the correct way, other members were very friendly and I did get the occasional drive!

Cheers,

Rob

[uuu]

You may need to ask if there's a day when it's quieter, so you can build up more experience. If you want to be really pointed, just ask the a***hole if there's a day when he won't be there.

Wilf

[monkeyhero97]

Hahaha, actually he said he wouldnt be there... in actual fact its just he didnt want to meet me. He did say come whenever you want, you can use our facilities whenever and run, but theres always the pressure of me messing up and him screaming like a girl! Unfortunately that was a calm day, it is the largest local toursit attraction, open almost everyday from march to november. Even if all went well, I would still prefer a track closer to me, i.e my own or the local portable track of a friend because driving 2 hours there and back is long... There are two chairs though, the commercial one and the club one. The commercial is a kind fellow; showed be around and was very nice. The club chair however... well its a different story
Marc

[steamcoal]

Marc.

Unfortunately you are experiencing the confusion of mixing a hobby with a facility that wants to be a commercial tourist railway.

Grand that the facility is, no one can doubt this judging by the video, it makes it very difficult to establish the experience of firing an engine when you have commercial pressures placed on you. Maybe to ease your standing in the club and with the "big chief" you need to team up with a member you have a good repour with and spend some time as an apprentice and when times are quiet fire up your engine. Even though you want to run your own Simplex you may just have to pick your time.

I know when I started my friend only would allow me to go forward and back on a straight piece of track until I knew how the boiler behaved and that I could operate the bypass and injector systems, before he let me out of sight on the full track.

Maybe you can find a short length of siding and do your own thing. It just takes time and only hours will bring satisfaction.

One other item you may find helpful is a rolling road. Maybe you have one already but I found it of great help to run the engine for some hours at home under steam and just running the boiler and observing the characteristics of firing and water level, working injectors and axel pumps. Also you can check the mechanical workings and have a good look around the motion gear in operation. Also there is great pleasure in just seeing those wheels going around without any pasangers or public looking over your shoulder. I will send you a video of my rolling road trials for my Railmotor.

Best of luck.

Hayden

[Rex Hanman]

Oct 26, 2014 9:36:28 GMT monkeyhero97 said:

( unfortunately it is my local track until I move to the UK in 2016)

Come to the Andover club....you won't get treated like that! We don't have those sort of facilities (yet) though.

[monkeyhero97]

Rex, hopefully I will be going to newcastle uni, so the tyneside society seems the logical choice.
Hayden, that is exactly my problem, but the track is two hours away. My friend who is a member there but lives very near to me and helped me, said he would help me join, but then the chair said he isnt a good person to follow; again not very kind. He did just reply to me now however, saying I am still welcom to come whenever to use my loco, so long as I dont bother their traffic. To be honest, the loco ran really well yesterday, and running 4 sucessful laps is already brillant. It was more my rolling stock which was the problem, which I will look at and make sure they are right for next time. The only mistake I really did yesterday was raking the fire after the 4th lap, but unfortunately I didnt have time to let the new coal burn, and replenish my fire, so I found myself with low pressure ( 30psi) and no water, at the bottom of a 400m 1 in 80 gradient. This of course is disasterous, and I quickly had to follow on foot, and then the couplings on my rollng stock went.... the 5th lap was a disaster. Maybe I should have called it a day at 4 laps and 8kms.

[Roger]

I'd stick at it and go from time to time, who knows, this man might actually end up changing his opinion of you. You're only going to get better at driving and you'll resolve the rolling stock issues. It's such a fabulous track, it seems a shame not to go there from time to time.

[monkeyhero97]

Yah, I will go there from time to time, maybe three times a year, but hopefully I should be able to run of my friend's portable track once a month, and my own as well

[steamcoal]

Marc,

Even at our club on Saturday we were annoyed that the petrol passenger haulers kept stopping after two laps to change passengers and our locos lost there way. In the end we abandoned the day and decided to go when they are not there.

It is so much more peaceful too running steam.

All good things take time.

Good that you are on the rails now so it can only get better from here on.

Hayden

[Midland]

Oct 26, 2014 9:20:54 GMT Roger said:

What an amazing track! Your problem is that you're committing the crime of being young! I had exactly the same reaction from the club in Southampton where all they wanted was for me to collect money in the ticket office. I didn't have a locomotive and I never got to touch one in all the time I was there. Nobody spoke to me unless it was to get me to do something menial.
So take no notice of these people, be polite and just do your own thing. I'm afraid that some people are ignorant and pompous and they are a blight on our hobby. The result of my experience was that I gave up on the hobby and didn't return for 40 years. Strangely enough, people have time for me now..... now I'm not young any more.... funny that...

Roger
Your comments about Southampton have touched a nerve with me as you may not be aware that we had a palace revolt last spring and the chairman and secretary no longer participate. We are now very friendly and welcoming and have worked hard to purge these reputation damaging incidents from the past. Of course we hear these bits of history from time to time but the bottom line here is that we have many members who previously stayed away returning to us an saying nice things about us. If you were to return to us I would welcome you and have you driving my engine rather than picking litter.

This transformation has been the work of about 20 or so members who wanted change and it was merely a coincidence that I got joe'd off to be the chairman. So why not test the weaters, come to our 11 November meeting and hear all about the Woolston floating bridge from inception to retirement. You can find us from the website www.southamptonsme.org, something else we have done to improve communciation.

And just to tempt you here is my Princess drven by one of our members!!
Cheers david+

PS PM me Roger if you would be so kind!

[pondok]

Don't claim to know all the ins and outs there, but ironically a few years back the previous chair decided that the place was being run by a bunch of old farts and pushed for a constitution that puts a 25 yr old age limit on any committee members, so they are all relatively young. Even so, with my visits there, I've also found a very "cliquey" ambiance, if anything more from the youngest members, who seem to love feeling part of an exclusive club. Human nature I guess, but what a pity, because with the pressure they put on smooth operation, you'd assume visitors pay per ride - this is not the case, you pay to get in so no revenue is lost unless the queues are consistently long to put people off coming back, which is never the case anyway.
Ah well, moving back to the UK shortly so I really hope I can find a friendly club, am a bit tired of the Swiss mentality now, not to mention the Swiss-German language barrier (ie, mine is non existent, and my German isn't good enough to chat in depth technically, something I enjoyed back in the UK, together with the social side of the club - previously Harlington/ Guildford/ Reading).