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Resurrection of my Large Scale Garden Railway


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On 9/4/2018 at 4:34 AM, JPuente54 said:

Loved it! It really reflects the work that you have put into so far. I can hardly wait to see how it will look when it is "finished(these things aren't finished so much as reach a state of completion)". I look forward to your next steps.

Joe

Thanks Joe, and yes it's true that a garden railway is never finished, there's always something that needs doing!

On 9/4/2018 at 9:38 AM, Kallisti said:

Great videos :)

Thanks Mr Kallisti, much appreciated.

 

It's been a while since my last progress update, mainly due to a holiday getting in the way. However, I have made some progress on the girder bridge - a base of Games Workshop silver was liberally applied, closely followed by a good old slosh of GW armour wash:

 

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Wow, I need to be careful as it seems I am straying back into the realms of actual modelling! 😮 Thankfully I spotted in time that the walkways are moulded with wood grain, so I will be picking those out in some suitable tones in due course.

 

My plan (such as it is) is to apply some areas of rust colour/texture and then do a salt-weathered painted finish, which will hopefully portray peeling paint and patches of rust and bare metal. That's the theory anyway!

 

Here, the pre-salting rust layer is most definitely in evidence, thanks to GW acrylics in a range of brown tones applied with a lump of sponge:

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Eagle-eyed individuals will no doubt have noticed that I have also made a start on weathering my jeans!

 

Still need to seal what I've done with Klear before moving on to the next stage.

 

Thanks for watching, and your comments :)

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

How do, everybody - sorry for the large pause between updates, real life has been playing havoc with my modelling time.

 

I did however manage to get a bit of work done here and there on the bridge walkways in an attempt to give them a 'bare wood' look:

 

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The previous burnt umber and burnt sienna was augmented with a light covering of yellow and white knocked back with a dry paper towel to leave mere traces behind here and there. Finally - yesterday - I managed to pick out the many securing bolts in a dark brown acrylic, deliberately smudged with a finger to suggest the leaching of rust along the wood grain. The whole thing was then coated with Klear.

 

Edging closer to the day of reckoning with the salt - real life notwithstanding, of course :)

 

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  • 3 months later...

just noticed this on your yearbook.  on heck of a project.  but one very cool one.  cant imagine you are doing much in the way of outdoor stuff ATM

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22 minutes ago, SA80A2AR said:

just noticed this on your yearbook.  on heck of a project.  but one very cool one.  cant imagine you are doing much in the way of outdoor stuff ATM

Thanks, yes maintenance and repairs tend to be limited to the warmer weather. Historically I've stayed away from running trains this time of year due to electrical continuity issues, but since converting to battery power it would be feasible. Not right now though! :D

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Been Great discovering this thread and project Clive,and here's me thinking of buying a Hornby train set and worrying about the base and scenery!

Look forward tothe spring and progress.

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/2/2019 at 9:41 AM, stevej60 said:

Been Great discovering this thread and project Clive,and here's me thinking of buying a Hornby train set and worrying about the base and scenery!

Look forward tothe spring and progress.

Thanks Steve, sorry I am so late in acknowledging your kind comment :oops:

1 hour ago, John D.C. Masters said:

I have to say that you are living my fantasy Clive with this outdoor railway.  Simply wonderful.

Thanks John, I am itching to get back out there once I can be more confident of a few hours of warm, dry weather!

1 hour ago, Boman said:

And the best is spring is getting closer. Few posts I eagerly await the next update on like this one 🍻

Thanks Mr Boman, you are most kind :)

 

Well, by way of easing myself back into the anticipated rigours of renovating the SCGR trackbed, I thought I might share with you a retrospective on one of the more complex PW structures I built back when we (the line and I) were a lot younger. Namely: the Scampington Viaduct, completed in 2004.

It's quite significant in the development of the line, for the principal reason that it was the first time I used Celcon blocks in a construction - the ability to cut them to the desired shape whilst still maintaining a modicum of structural integrity was an attribute that would lend them to other projects right up to and including the present day.

The basic premise was to cut the blocks to a manageable size:

 

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For each block, a simple cardboard template was employed to get the desired - and consistent - arch shape:

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Then the arch was cut out using an old saw:

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A bit of elbow grease was needed to smooth the arch to the required shape:


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The exercise was repeated (x5) to cover the whole span:

 

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They were then cemented in place:

 

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The whole structure was then clad with a mortar mix:

 

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Then I decided I wanted a sort of a Romanesque look, so I looked for some suitable cladding - and eventually found, in my local tile supplier, some Turkish limestone tiles which I cut into smaller blocks:

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I then stuck these on with tile adhesive:

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Finally, when all was complete, I tested it with an Engineer's train:

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... followed by the first passenger service!

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All in all, about a couple of months' work.
 

So that was then... this is now:

 

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As you can see, quite a few of the blocks have fallen down in the few months since I last cleaned up in that area. I had previously managed to collect up most of the ones that had  already fallen off, with a view to maybe re-cladding the structure when I get a chance. The more I look at it, though, the more I am inclined to just let it be - it's taking on a new character, but not necessarily in a bad way!

 

So, here's to the renewal of the resurrection!

 

Thanks for watching :thumbsup2:

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hi folks, a break in the cold windy weather plus a bit of sunshine, and work can resume - tentatively of course, as the next batch of bad weather is due tomorrow we are reliably informed :(

Prime target for me this weekend was to steal a march on the jungle of dandelions and other assorted interlopers and get them evicted before they have a chance to set seed and thereby compound the issue! I would imagine that not doing so last year is the main reason I have this amount of work this year:

 

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Yesterday I thought I would tackle the lower part, and rescue the lavender plants still in their pots from last year:

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Then today I turned my attention to the top part - those tap roots can go deep! Thankfully the soil is quite damp (no surprises there!) so getting a hand fork in there and dislodging them was not too difficult. A couple of hours and one large bag of evicted weeds later:

 

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Still a fair bit to do, but we are back under way!

 

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2 hours ago, colin said:

Very nice, shame about the tiles as it was looking good, what adhesive did you use.

Cheers, Colin, yes I used what I believed to be exterior grade tile adhesive, but I guess the small tiles gave the elements too many avenues to attack. Still, after some 15 years I can't complain too much.

24 minutes ago, JPuente54 said:

Wonderful to return here and see improvements and the like. Thanks!

Joe

Thanks Joe, I just need a decent spell of dry (preferably warm!) weather and hopefully I can get back out there and press on.

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If you refix them try Mapei tile adhesive, the rapid set cement based one you mix up.You shouldn't have any come off using that, just don't mix too much up in one go as the working time before it sets up is quite quick

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/11/2019 at 10:39 PM, colin said:

If you refix them try Mapei tile adhesive, the rapid set cement based one you mix up.You shouldn't have any come off using that, just don't mix too much up in one go as the working time before it sets up is quite quick

Colin, thanks for the pointer, I will keep that in mind.

 

Well, the weekend spell of fine, sunny weather (during Easter in the UK... what sorcery is this???) allowed me to take stock of what I needed to continue with upgrading the track bed to something a lot less weed-prone. On Friday, I took the opportunity to use up the last of last year's consignment of sand and cement on making a start here at Dewey's End:

 

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Of course, it's Easter so real life has to intervene does it not. No matter, today I managed another good session having obtained another 3 bags of sand and 1 bag of cement:

 

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I had to raise the blocks that form the platform a little as they had sunk over the past 6 months or so. But now they're not going anywhere:

 

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Then with the remainder of my batch of mortar mix I managed to get further along the track bed:

 

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So, we're off and running again - until the rain returns as expected on Wednesday!

 

Thanks as ever for watching, and your comments :)

 

 

 

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A bit more progress from earlier this week:

 

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I always think getting the track back down really shows the progress! Not much left to do in this area I think.

 

Thanks as ever for watching! :)

 

 

 

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Thanks Mr Boman, glad you are enjoying the ride!

 

Construction continued again today after a week or so of foiling my MiG-15 as well as other real life impediments.

 

A broadly similar tale to my last post, really. First, fill as much of the gap as possible with lumps of Celcon:

 

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... followed by copious quantities of mortar:

 

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... and another stretch of track is returned to its normal position:

 

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Probably another day's work to finish this section, I think.

 

 

 

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Another pleasant - well, dry anyway - bank holiday here allowed me to make more progress, and hence another update. I am pleased to report the Dewey's End upper line track bed rejuvenation is now complete!

 

The last bit was something of a struggle - this was the point I had reached 2 and a half years ago when a shortage of plastic bags to hold the spoil caused me to curtail the operation:

 

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The soil here was rock hard, a nightmare to dig out. It took me the best part of an hour just to do that. But I got there, and the last of the Celcon blocks needed were dropped into place:

 

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Followed of course by the filling in with mortar:

 

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I then turned my attention to a bit of the private siding that has long been a thorn in my side. The storage siding for the narrow gauge line was for many years supported on just a strip of wood, which has long since rotted away leaving the line dangling in mid air. Well, enough was enough - that had to change! I chopped a couple of pieces of paving slab to roughly the desired size and stuck it in place:

 

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I then used the rest of the mortar to secure it and to bed in the track the same as the rest of that area:

 

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All that was then needed was to relocate the track:

 

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So this section is now complete, however the Permanent Way roadshow will return to the Water's Edge Branch and the main line that runs adjacent to it. Lots to do there too!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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