Railway Work - And Making A Sliding Tipping Hopper! 

Nice to see the railway back, it’s awesome to see a garden railway that has a use for more than just fun. Looking forward to seeing Tornado improved and getting some use.

Tim: I’m faced with a very confusing and seemingly incomprehensible conundrum. Thus: While I do enjoy all of your videos despite the fact they make me feel hopelessly unimaginative and stultifyingly lazy? In all honestly, I truly enjoy these videos. I find that my favorite of your videos is always the next one. Please keep up the fantastic work.

Nice to see "0-2-0 Sandra" running on the rails again

You and your helpers have the classic British Victorian innovators attitude, ‘We can do anything’! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

3:33 You were literally one step away from inventing the conveyor belt 😆😆😆

Great idea! Tippers are neat! Another option would be a simple bucket or drag conveyor that runs off the great wheel. It would load as you slice logs. Similar conveyors are used on saw mills for moving saw dust and for fire wood processors. You have plenty of horse power to run one.

I really enjoy working in this manner. Iterate, adjust, reiterate, finalise. It's so satisfying.

The King of Jerry-Rigging. Very fun to watch.

Wow, incredible work. You bring new meaning to the term “cottage industry!”

Brilliant! I love seeing the whole process as the design takes shape (including all the false starts and mistakes) So many RU-vidrs would just edit to the final design .

Love to see Tim work on his projects and his ancient machines that are older than himself.

Thank you very much Tim! As always, your way of picturing and designing solutions are superb for all of us backyard tinkerers. I could not have designed a hopper to save my life, but thanks to your video, I could easily build on now.

That is by far the most amazing part of the whole charcoal system.

its awsome seeing this all comming together, i guess i have a small suggestion tho. maybe add some small holes in the bottim crease in the hopper to be able to drain rain water from.. if that ever becomes a bigger issue

Ashley looks like an out-of-work rock star...lucky fellow. ☮

I can watch people work for hours but it is very nice to sea progress.😄

Just use the side of the hopper to tip the bucket back up. A single price of iron straight out from the lip would do this. Great job.

who would dislike your videos, they're so good and wholesome

Fantastic. Channeling the spirit of Heath Robinson.

You are one clever guy to work out and build all the things you do with such simplicity. Another great video.

Hey Tim, awesome progress! Maybe the process could be fine tuned to resolve the remaining snags: The upper stopper could be a tiny bit higher up, then the flip limiter be set to *more* than 90deg, so the hopper can fully empty on first flip without needing to shake it. Then move the bottom cross pipe all the way up so it flips the hopper back to horizontal _before_ the front lip touches the drying wagon's edge. Stay awesome!

You made a belted conveyor a year or so ago; that would be ideal for loading the railway box. the slabs fall on the conveyor, and fall off the belt into the box. If you can create a power take off, the engine can power both. Get your pillow blocks ready!

If you can put a spring from the carriage frame to the back of the hopper so the spring holds the hopper upright, you can get rid of the log frame. And some grease or something on the pipes to make it easier to pull up, if needed. Anyway I enjoy seeing how you figure things out, and you have helped spark some ideas for my life, thank you and I hope you keep up the good work.

Having watched you for a long while now, I love the way you presented the railway as "something I made earlier", as if you'd videoed your progress with the woodslicer, realised you needed to move all this wood, then between last video and today built the entire rail system and the cart. Good bit of blue Peter cooking going on there! While I'm sure you thought of it yourself, it seems like that bit of rail would benefit from having the earth under the hump being dug out of the way, to make a smoother rail path. Equally, I'd be very weary of that pulley rope being as it is, both from the risk of it being kidnapped by the slicer, and how it works your back. Adding a second pulley on a pole above your head, so that you could safely pull downwards to lift the elevator would eliminate both issues.

Quick tip for you, When using wood screws with posi bits.. Swap the screws for torx head screws... What a difference! You get virtually zero bit slippage as you drive it home.. T20/T30 bits. Try it, you didn't know it was a problem until you swap...

Question/suggestion - your hopper is getting caught on the side of the drying wagon. That’s almost doing the same thing as the hopper tipper upper (the metal arch piece.) Maybe a round pipe instead of the angle iron, or some curved guide bars on top of the wagon could tip the hopper back up again. Having the bin catch/reset in the side of the wagon also means that any shavings that might be stuck in the hopper wouldn’t fall out over the tracks, but would just ride back down in the bin.

Yet another heart-warming video of your neverending enthusiasm. Suggestion: a belt conveyor? With your ingenuity, you should be able to take off the rotary power needed from your main engine, which is running anyway. Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪.

To make taking wagons up the steep gradient easy, you could try: getting a flatbed and mount some clamps on the undercarriage to mount to the rails & get an electric winch to mount on the bed. (It could probably be powered by an old car battery or something). Hope This Helps!

Looks like it will work. Maybe use the carts as the uptipper instead of a separate piece? Wrap a piece of tin around the top edge of the cart so that the basket can impact it at just the right point and tip it back up but not catch the angle iron. Changing the angle iron around a bit or even switching for tubing could work as well, I am thinking weld a small strip a couple places and turn it into a triangle where the rivets will be put in. This will allow you to raise the rail height at that point instead of making it lower and will allow the basket to tip over further rather than be limited and need to be shook. The thing I can see happening though is that it may not tip up as easily and need a little extra weight to build momentum or a spring or counterweight to help it along. And I know it's a bit of work but digging down even a few inches outside the shed and letting it drop down a bit further away will make the transition just a touch easier, basically make the whole thing a touch more gradual but that is more quality of life and lessening work later on, might be worth doing now when maybe at some point you will be less able to push the cart or do that work. The only other thing I can think of would be wheels of some sort instead of the slides but that is also something in the later quality of life since the slide will cause wear over time and need to be replaced along with the current rails. If you are thinking about automation wrapping the rope around a shaft a couple times would allow you to draw it up to the tip point. One continuous long piece of rope attached to the basket/slider then wrapped around the pipe enough till it grabs good and a heavy slide so that when you release a lever and disengage the power it returns to the start position ready to go. Always something for down the road but in the quality of life stuff later on category. It also depends on how many loads you are going to make and how many times you want to drag that thing up to tip by hand in a day/week/whatever other length of time.

I think it would be a good idea to put a roof or shelter over the slicer and the pulley. Due to these being moving parts that touch. (You don't want rust seizing it up!) Especially with the pulley, because you mentioned adding grease to it. I'm guessing that when it rains (as it does) you would have to "re-grease" it every time... But overall I'm loving these videos! It's also great to see the railway back!

*_"...tipper-uperer..."_* Precise technological jargon after my own heart...😉

Very cool! I love automation. We are very like minded.

0:55 Now you have me thinking of you in two years or so having one of those “Rotary Car Dumpers” lol, for when your operation gets to ludicrous scale!

Your ingenuity knows no bounds!

excellent tippy design.....pivots to you Tim.

It seems like you could use the upper lip of the wagon as a fulcrum to both tip and right the lifting hopper. Imagine a finger with a cam groove attached to the bottom of the hopper that meets the upper edge of the wagon first. This then pushes back on the hopper, forcing it to tip up and dump. As the hopper falls away again, the cam track forces the hopper up right. Thus you wouldn't need the stand alone log device to right the hopper and by interfacing with the wagon, which has to be there anyway, you hopefully save time. Hope that helps! Great video as always!

Very nice setup. An idea to think about: you could use the rim of the carts as a "hopperupperer". The rim made out of those steelpipes might be sturdy enough. Love your Workshop Stuff videos. It is amazing what one can build with some brillant ideas.

Like your problem solving. Inventing machines to make work easier. Most of us would probably just shovelled the bits into the wagon 😊. Great stuff 👍

Some springs might do the job of returning the tipper into position after it is emptied into the wagon. Moving the turning points a bit forward would make it easier too.

Now to power it, might i suggest a capstan winch running off a friction wheel on the side of the large timber wheel. Run a shaft inline with the centre of the big timber wheel to under the table. You would pick up the drive with a small pneumatic tyre on the side of the wheel. A few wraps around a capstan drum and zip up the slides she goes. With a controlled decent.

Another wonderful video! However, I think there's a simple solution to your problem- just bolt or weld a piece of pipe into the 'v' of the angle iron, so that instead of catching on the side of the wagon, it just tips back up when it bumps the edge.

*@Way Out West - Workshop Stuff* 14:52 Drill some drainage holes at the lowest points in that wood chipper lifter bucket thingy :D ( 15:55 I think some got stuck because of the wet surface of the hopper ) This is a genius construction :D

It's been a long time since I've seen a device that, in addition to its function, also delivers SO MUCH CHARM!! Unfortunately, I have now, greedily and immoderately as I am, consumed all your videos and now join the legions of eagerly waiting ones. TY for brightening up my day from time to time !

Tim Brunel done it again well done 👍❤️👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 now then with the engine and the wooden flywheel two slices wood surely there's another possible way that you can touch a dynamo generator to power and recharge some batteries for out door lighting and farm sheds and shelters such as the chicken hut 🤔 free energy

Great to see the railways still going! I'm sure you can use some pulleys, rope and quick release like a loop of bar and a climbing carabineer to make it easier to pull the waggon up the hill

I just can't get over how clever you are!! Nothing can't be solved by you. 👍😁 x

Amazing thing about all Tim's videos is: at the beginning, no, that is too much imagination, he will never make it work. At the end, what! he has done it again

I'll bet that you could raise the track up a smidge again, and add some sheet steel to the hopper to turn the angle iron lip into a smooth slope, allowing the cart itself to be used to tip the hopper back up again. You might need to take the tail of the rope back under the machine and tie it to the bottom of the hopper, so you could pull it back if it sticks rather than relying on gravity.

WOW, you really know how to adapt, improvise and overcome problems as they come up. Great job on the hopper.

This video was delightful ! I have some ergonomic/safety suggestions: 1.) Add some sort of pulley system / guarding to keep the pull rope away from the slicing machinery/the flywheel *At around **15:10** you can see the rope sort of dangling over the slicer, this *may* be fine, but “passive safety” / foolproofing is nice. *Most workplace injuries are caused by “Fell From, Struck By, or **Caught In**” so that, combined with the risk of shredded rope and broken machinery means this may be a good thing to do, at least in my book. 2.) Improvements to the Cart Pusing Process shown around 17:15 *Safety, but also just ergonomics here *Making a nice path (nothing overhead, maybe dirt or gravel etc on the side so you can walk easily, is an easy fix *Experimenting with using a rope pull uphill may be interesting. For one that means if something goes wrong the full cart doesn’t run you over!, and two, it could *maybe* make the work easier? That may not be worth the work though, i just thought I’d throw that idea out there. All in all, this was a great video to watch. It’s interesting seeing all the systems work together! Keep up the great work.

Your enginuty never ceases to amaze me, kinda sounds like tornado is going to have thier work cut out for them.

I love your solution. I have to admit I would have started thinking conveyor belt. Your solution is simple and effective. I like it. When I say simple, I am ignoring the amount of trial and error, lots of thinking and bucketloads of persistence. Well done............again.

It’s finally all coming together now! I do like this new system, it definitely seems to be a better solution than the conveyor belt I would’ve suggested at first. Also, where the wagon goes under that low roof beam, you’ve managed to make an impromptu railway ‘loading gauge’, which were common at the entrance of sidings to industries, much like your log slicer is.

Neato! One suggestion about it not fully emptying into the wagon: If you raise the high end of the rail the tipper slides on, you can allow it to tip further, emptying fully without needing shaken. You would need to adjust the SLARCH again, as well as the tip limiting screw, but I think it would make things a touch easier. Lovely getting to see your work on this system! Keep it up!

I can’t wait to see how you automate this process using your wheel as a power source.

Interesting way of doing it. With the track extended and maybe a cable pull on the top of the grade one can lower cars down maybe 2 or 3 at a time, and fill each one up as they reach the bottom. Then the hoist would drag them back up grade to flat ground so they can be moved to the drying shed.

Its always a treat, to see how you tackle the problems, yve encounter on the way, when doing things. However...in this case....and the " issue " with the roofbeam, i would fire the guy who placed it over there 😂😂 and Absolutely astonishing how you manage a low cost approach!!!

Where the beam is too low, replace it with another beam on the inside of the vertical posts and gain 4 inches. Job done!

Love the railway being back and used. If you had extra wide pully belt material could make a conveyor belt

You should make a funel that blocks the chips when the basket is going up so you can continue cutting while its unloading

If you put a wooden rail on the front underside of the hopper, in line with the rope, you could have the wagon side tip the hopper back up, and hopefully fully empty the hopper in the process.

Excellent :) I was thinking that you could intentionally have the hopper interact with the side of the cart, in order to reset it without needing that additional tube frame sitting below the rails. But in the end it works just fine :)

Fit a round bar to the edge of the drying wagon & it'll work for tipping the hopper back into its horizontal position.

Very cool!!! IMPROVEMENT you could do: put holes into the metal slide so water will get out bevor the railway car (you dont want water in the railway car for the wood to cry) - and maybe if you add some weight the metal box will turn back on release itself? 😊

Neat! I'll say the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the problem was a conveyor belt to take the slices up and over. Possibly even powered by the engine.

You can put a series of pullies at the top of the hill for the rail, attach a rope and a quick connect that attaches to the wagon, then pull it up with the pully. Look at a device called a snatch block, they will make pulling it far easier.

That's fantastic. I think the obvious answer would have been a conveyor belt that runs off the engine at the same time as the wheel, but I image getting the materials to make one that'd hold up in your climate would have been a bit out of budget. A few thoughts: It seem you could probably use the wagon itself as the tipper-upper-er if the track is raised and leveled just right, and perhaps a slight modification is made to the leading edge of the hopper. Also, a ratcheting crank might be a handy thing to have at the operator end to reduce fatigue from long operation periods. All in all, amazing job, Tim. I loved it!

Quality again Tim. Need to build yourself a capstan now to lift the hopper and pull the wagons up the hill. All the best. Cheers

it may be better to use a conveyer like in one of those siloes. love your stuff!

if you adjusted the bucket and waggon you might be able to use the edge of the waggon to right the hopper

This guys turning into Fred Dibnah, love it

T I M acronym for "The Incredible Machine". And amazingly that your given name Tim. Absolutely love your channel. Here in South Africa we have a saying "A Boer mak a plan" which translated means "A farmer makes a plan" Never give up. Thanks for your great content.

I think you could have added some support to the shed, so that you could remove some of the crossbar. That way you might not need to lower the rail, or at least make it less steep. Instead of a separate flipper-backer, I think it might work to make a rounded bar (removable) to place on top of the wagon itself when in position. Would free up some space as well.

Now you need a winch that is connected to the motor, so you can use its power to lift up the wood.

Awesome as always. Can't wait to make lill railroads all over the bush. :D

3:18 That reminds me of the “Rokenbok Power ROK-Lift” ! (Backround: In my childhood there were these toys called “RokNBlok” that were basically a model train / rc vehicle factory of sorts. You had to move/sort these little marble type things around, and to move them up they had a conveyor belt, and a think like this!)

The patient, stubborn determination of an ant.

Hi Tim, If you used a fixed peg on the pipes for the hopper to strike, you could have it rotate on the peg so that the hopper is completely emptied and then rotate back on the peg on the reverse direction.

Tim, I love the way your mind works...😊

A locomotive would help a lot there! Getting a steam loco to work is difficult, and tornado isn't the most practical I don't think, considering that you'll have to fill the tank. Maybe if you could find a brushed DC motor from some electric lawnmover or something, you could build a small electric locomotive that runs off a few old car batteries

This project looks very good. I've always been facinated by a flipper that flips loads off. It's kinda nostalgic. Great job.

Good job Tim! Another obstacle overcome!

very ingenious! A thought I had while watching, was that if you added a couple of vertical runners under the front lip of the bucket, it could get tipped back up by the side of the wagon instead of your log frame thing. The runners might need some sort of cam/scroll shape to them to get the right lift geometry, But I'm confident you could make it work.

So close to using the edge of the drying wagon to be the un-tipper upperer!

Splendid engineering! Loved every bit of it, especially the tipper-upperer of course 😍

Well done 👍👍👍. Thank you for sharing. Be safe 🇨🇦

Your factory will never be taken over by robots thats a good thing for job security Tim

That's a great little system you have arranged there. Perhaps the edge of the drying wagon could be an opportunity in disguise, as an edge to tip the hopper back over on?

I miss the railway videos. Though I do enjoy all of the videos...like this one. ☮

Very nice contraption. Perhaps a bit of weight on the back of the basket will shift the center of gravity past the axis of rotation and ensure the basket uprights when it hits the slarch frame.

Looks amazing ! Like a new barn 👍

I think maybe the top of the wagon could be the tipperupperer...with some mods to the basket...bars tubes...on the bottom...maybe. GREAT vids!!!

Moving right along! 👍😁👍

Brilliant Tim. A few tweaks here and there and it will be perfect! Great video as always.

Wonderful work, Tim! I believe an automated winch system, maybe powered by the main power shaft coming from the engine might help a lot. Sort of how they used to have at sawmills, back in the day. You would push levers which would engage and disengage clutches, which would do all sorts of work. Maybe you could automate the system where if you push a lever, the hopper goes up, and the action of the hopper being tipped resets the lever you pulled to start the lifting, which brings the whole thing down by gravity. Would be cool to try!

Always such a delight to watch your videos. I think before you did the last lowering of the rail - when the angle iron stiffener caught on the wagon top (at one end) - you were on to something. Maybe if if the full width of the angle iron caught the top edge of the wagon or maybe add two strips to the hopper that hand down a bit to trip and reset the hopper. A sort of hopper stripper tipper re setter.

With the slope, you could either use your air powered loco to pull the wagon back up. Or use a rope system, say for instance an electric capstan, which were used sometimes in dockyards

Nice to see part of a beehive used as packing.😂😂

exciting! I think you will find improvements as you use it. Keep up the great work!

Sounds for all the world like Oliver Postgate .. with delivery similar to his Noggin the Nog series 😊 Very soothing to listen to 👍😉 Keep it up 😊👍