A place to indulge your passion for models and machines
For 10 years, Robin Wilson has held the position of loco foreman at Christchurch’s miniature railway, which is run by the Canterbury Society of Model and Experimental Engineers.
The loco foreman has responsibility for the certifying of model locomotives, the issuing of locomotive driving licences to club members — all of whom are volunteers — the assigning of club locomotives to drivers on running days, and the general organisation of the large locomotive shed that the CSMEE operates on its site in the Christchurch City Council–owned Halswell Domain, alongside football fields, a skate park, and a children’s playground.
As well as being the kingpin of the loco shed, Rob is also a life member of the CSMEE and club secretary.
The current project
Rob is an experienced and very prolific model engineer who was at work on his 19th model locomotive when The Shed visited him in his workshop. The loco he is currently constructing, based on a South African GS7-07C two-axle shunting engine built by Grindrod, will be battery powered. It will use two 12-volt deep-cycle lead-acid car batteries powering two electric bike motors, which, in his experience, will give adequate performance.
The lead-acid battery is often criticised because of its limited storage capacity and its great weight. In the model railway world these are not problems. The weight is useful in a loco because it increases traction — the friction between the steel wheels of the loco and the steel rails of the track. There are only two ways to increase the locomotive’s traction: more force downwards and a different material for the track. Added weight increases the first; putting sand on the track changes the second. Full-sized locomotives have sandboxes,
