Technical

In truth, there's not much technology involved here. I once tried to submit a story about the railway to a hobby magazine that was soliciting entries. It was rejected, with thanks and I was disappointed.  In the story, I had actually admitted to the lack of technical stuff and even suggested that the whole thing was more of a love story than anything else. I guess that  they weren't into love stories so much.  

That aside, I am going to provide details on some of the slightly technical features that the railway exhibits: the first being the couplers. The rolling stock is made by Scientific Toys and they are modeled after European cars with four-wheel undercarriages. I wanted four-wheel bogies so I used trucks from New Bright. I wasn't happy with the long coupling distance so the couplers were modified and shortened as shown using the Scientific hooks. The traction tires on the Scientific locomotive wear out and replacements are impossible to obtain so a protracted search for a substitute has ended with the discovery that a couple of "O" rings seem to work.

Covering the rolling stock with coffee stirers adds a sense of realizism as does the weathering. The tender features real wood logs to the wonderment of our little visitors: "look Momey,  real wood". I also changed the electrical connectors between the tender, which carries the batteries, and the locomotive to a more robust design as well a swapping out the original headlight lamp for an LED.                                        

I think that about covers the tech stuff but if I think of anything else I'll come back and add it to the story. Thanks for listening.