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Resurrection of my Large Scale Garden Railway


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... but before we return to that area, another area in dire need of some TLC - the Chipside Bank! This is the incline which takes the continuous loop from the ground level up to the raised bed at Chipside. This is the last area where the old original 'Sticks n Bricks' approach to track bed engineering survived since inception way back when. So, this is how it looked this morning:

 

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Up with the track:

 

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The flower pots and rotten wood were removed, and a start made on replacing these with celcons:

 

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These will be loose-laid, no cementing. More of the same:

 

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Then finally the last one was laid, and the track circuit reinstated:

 

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Another step closer to complete renovation! :thumbsup2:

 

Thanks for watching! :)

 

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Another big step forward: on Monday, I managed to dig out the last of the earth, weeds and grass around the Water's Edge branch line and get a rudimentary track bed down. This is how it looked before I started:

 

ymHTnoS.jpg

 

I had some concrete slabs that a neighbour was throwing out; they are an ideal track bed apart from being too big. Luckily I have an angle grinder on hand to take care of that issue:

 

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So about 3 hours' work to get all this done, and I was done in!

 

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Then this morning, I was able to dig out and re-lay the platform blocks, and then lay the track bed:

 

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The branch terminus track bed is now awaiting cementing.

 

Of course, it would be rude not to test the stability of the new bed:

 

 

Whilst watching the train pass over the curved metal bridge, I noticed the metallic echo of the wheels going over the rail joints, which was neat! So I filmed it:

 

 

 

Thanks for watching! :)

 

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Clive, It's looking and sounding great now. Let's hope the weather stays nice for you.

On Monday I'm off delivering beer in Chesterfield and then to Barrow hill to pick up the empties from this...

http://www.barrowhill.org/

 

I delivered there a couple of years ago. Wandering around at track height, it felt rather like I'd shrunk down to HO size!

Pete

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Nice transformation Clive.

 

Question if I may?  Are you using track power or are they battery locos, if so what control mechanism do you use?  Do you have to go around with a track rubber before each running session?

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2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Clive, It's looking and sounding great now. Let's hope the weather stays nice for you.

On Monday I'm off delivering beer in Chesterfield and then to Barrow hill to pick up the empties from this...

http://www.barrowhill.org/

 

I delivered there a couple of years ago. Wandering around at track height, it felt rather like I'd shrunk down to HO size!

Pete

Thanks Pete, another sunny one today but I only have until lunchtime before 'grandpersons' descend upon us for the weekend so I'll need to get a wriggle on if I am to get anything done out there today.

 

Thanks for that link, by the way, it looks a very interesting place to visit - bit of a trek from the south coast though!

2 hours ago, Grey Beema said:

Nice transformation Clive.

 

Question if I may?  Are you using track power or are they battery locos, if so what control mechanism do you use?  Do you have to go around with a track rubber before each running session?

Thanks Mr Beema. I used to use track power when I originally started the line, but I found it a pain to keep everything clean enough for the locos to run without constant stops. As part of the resurrection I am basically moving away from track power, and I will be converting my existing track-powered locos to battery power. I've only done the one so far (with only a bidirectional switch for forward/reverse), but I have recently looked into ordering a new wiring loom to convert my second. I will also be taking some tentative steps towards remote control of this newly converted loco, so watch this space! :thumbsup2:

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22 minutes ago, clive_t said:

Thanks Mr Beema. I used to use track power when I originally started the line, but I found it a pain to keep everything clean enough for the locos to run without constant stops. As part of the resurrection I am basically moving away from track power, and I will be converting my existing track-powered locos to battery power. I've only done the one so far (with only a bidirectional switch for forward/reverse), but I have recently looked into ordering a new wiring loom to convert my second. I will also be taking some tentative steps towards remote control of this newly converted loco, so watch this space! :thumbsup2:

I've just been catching up & was going to ask the same question but GB beat me to it, I was wondering how you would control the engines,  looking forward to your answer & progress.

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3 hours ago, spaddad said:

I've just been catching up & was going to ask the same question but GB beat me to it, I was wondering how you would control the engines,  looking forward to your answer & progress.

Hi Mr Spaddad, the hope is that I can obtain a digital wireless transmitter/speed controller, and a wireless receiver for each loco that I want to control. The transmitter that I am after will hopefully allow me to pair up with up to 12 locos. Not that I have any intention of attempting to control 12 locos simultaneously, that way madness lies! When I get the stuff I will post it on here.

 

So, a bit more progress today, but I am all out of sand so I need to buy another couple of bags next week. The branch terminus is all done:

 

85jFIKa.jpg

 

ErNJtQe.jpg

 

Hopefully more progress next week :)

 

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Indeed, more progress this morning; the branch track bed is all but fully secure now - just a tiny bit still to do where it runs onto the bridge over the pond:

 

P2V55Kr.jpg

 

Weather permitting tomorrow, I should be finishing off this section of track bed!

 

Thanks for watching :)

 

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OK it took me 2 days in the end to finish - but... this section is now done!

 

On Wednesday I unearthed a pile of old hearth bricks from behind my shed, and dug these in to widen the track bed leading up to the curved metal bridge:

 

zoi28vE.jpg

 

Real life then intervened, which meant I had to curtail my efforts for the day. Yesterday however, I knew I had all day ahead of me! In truth, I only needed a couple of hours in the morning to get this all wrapped up and cemented in:

 

ixiie5W.jpg

 

Then back on with the track, and we are done with this section!

 

XppZPHa.jpg

 

Thanks for watching :)

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

That looks nice. And it's a bank holiday weekend so you can close the line and work around the clock for a big re-opening early Tuesday.

Or not. 😜

Or I can just close the line and leave it completely alone for the weekend, thus achieving prototypical operation at a stroke!

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Bank Holiday over with, so back to work - in the Chipside area I've fixed the track down to its bed in preparation for ballasting:

 

ges8L0H.jpg

 

The whole of the track in this area is now secured, so I was able to make a start on ballasting the goods sidings:

 

taz3mhL.jpg

 

I used a mixture of 3 parts horticultural grit and one part sand/cement mortar mix. No particular reason for using that, other than it was given to me by a neighbour de-cluttering their garage! Slightly different to when I did the Chipside bay track, which was just a dry cement/grit mixture sprayed after brushing in, with a plant mister. I will leave it a day or so to see how it fairs with the weather and the squadrons of sparrows and starlings which daily visit my garden!

 

The last bit of mixture I left for the buffer areas, into which I mixed a handful of potting compost before applying; the hope is that at some point these areas will become a bit 'greener' than the rest of the ballast.

 

Here's a slightly moody shot of the results with my first batch of mix:

 

tRh34ao.jpg

 

Tons more to do obviously, but it's starting to look the part now I think :)

 

Thanks for watching :thumbsup2:

 

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More progress since last Thursday - I ballasted the pointwork in the same manner. A bit tedious, especially cleaning out between the point blades to ensure they still operated at their maximum throw, but it looked the part afterwards:

 

xPTOHPr.jpg

 

But then, the following day, I was somewhat disturbed to find that the 'mortar' had not set at all. It had dried out, but instead of being solid it was back to its powdered form! A subsequent search of the interweb showed that these sand/cement dry mixes have a shelf life of not much beyond 6 months for an unopened bag, and considerably less for an opened one! :(

 

I decided to leave what I'd already done in situ, and instead move on to another area - this time, however, I would use fresh cement and sand as well as the horticultural grit used before. Here's how the first batch went:

 

hVHsW0A.jpg

 

In doing this, I learned that it's not a good idea to mix any more than one can lay in about 30 minutes, as beyond that time it's dry and unworkable. Still, it was an improvement on what went before, for sure! The only downside as far as I could see was that the tops of the sleepers were coated in just cement, which isn't quite the look I was after. I was going to use a watering can with a rose to try and disperse it, but I didn't want to risk washing the cement out of the mix completely.

 

So, over the weekend I decided to try yet another area - the Chipside engine shed siding. This was laid with a mix as previously, but dry. I figured the laying of the ballast would be easier in the pointwork, and more importantly easier to clean up around the blades. The idea then was I would spray the whole thing with a plant mister containing water and a small amount of washing up liquid. This of course is the technique which finds favour among railway modellers who model the smaller scales - albeit with PVA in lieu of washing up liquid. The only question in my mind was, would it set properly:

 

OLNuiTX.jpg

 

Well, I've just inspected this new area, and I am happy to report that it has set solid, and looking exactly how I wanted it! So there we go, that's the technique I shall use going forward!

 

Thanks for watching :)

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all, long time no update, and all that... Not that I have not been busy, it was merely that the progress I made was gradual which doesn't make for very interesting reading. Today, however, thanks in large measure to the big scorchio weather, I was able to complete the ballasting of the Chipside area - or as much of it as I can at the moment. So here's how it's looking right now:

 

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Flushed with the success of that, I then continued on the Dewey's End section:

 

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DIi90Te.jpg

 

apNuNKC.jpg

 

I would reckon I am more than half way through the ballasting of this section, so hopefully only another day's work will be required to finish it.

Thanks for watching :)

 

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I've run the loco non-stop for 3 hours before, and it was still running well at the end of that. I would guess that the total run time from a full charge would be around 10 hours, possibly more. With some nominal load being pulled that will obviously be less, but still pretty good.

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK, first bit of free time since coming back from hols, and I managed to get some more ballasting done. Plus, I managed to re-apply some where a fair bit of the last lot went missing - probably due to birds. I found that care in the application around point blades yielded dividends in that they still operated afterwards! Hence the presence of the tea-spoon in the tool kit:

 

6uEk4BL.jpg

 

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Probably about 4 hours work on this today. I had to call a halt though, as I need to decide what to do with this area:

 

cCmt6yH.jpg

 

I have in mind some kind of rock formation with an artificial retaining wall - but that could change!

 

Thanks for looking in :)

 

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks @Boman and @SafetyDad for your interest, much appreciated. It's taken something of a back seat for the time being as I turn my attention to hacking lumps out of bits of styrene, but I still have my eye on the vacant space at the back of the previous picture. I am definitely in favour of some kind of rock formation, but something that can eventually be softened with some green moss growth or similar.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Wow Clive I was wondering why I had not seen you round the figure forum,Blimey what a fantastic job you have done with this project,A true credit to you.My wife and I put a front fence on our property(nothing in your scale) and we found that there was muscles in our bodies we did not know we had,Really shows your talent in this and you fine model building.

Cheers Jim.

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  • 3 months later...
On 11/21/2019 at 6:59 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

I'm hoping for a snowplough train. :poke:

Ha, no snow here this time round, but there is something very spectacular about snow-ploughs, and snow-blowers in particular. There are clips on You-Tube of such beasts operating, and even in the smaller scale they look awesome!

On 12/5/2019 at 8:37 PM, Jim Wasley said:

Wow Clive I was wondering why I had not seen you round the figure forum,Blimey what a fantastic job you have done with this project,A true credit to you.My wife and I put a front fence on our property(nothing in your scale) and we found that there was muscles in our bodies we did not know we had,Really shows your talent in this and you fine model building.

Cheers Jim.

Thanks Jim, hope all is well with you and yours sir.

On 11/21/2019 at 2:57 PM, OutcastJoel said:

This looks great. 

I fully understand giving it a rest at this time of year, definately indoor modelling season! By the same token it seems a darn site more apealling in good weather than plastic modelling.

Thanks, you're right it's really a fair-weather pursuit - as witnessed by today, having had some nice sunny weather already this week, and with being confined indoors for the foreseeable, today found me in a good enough mood to make a start on getting everything back in order, ready for a resumption in operations. Today was just about cutting back some over-keen vegetation that was obstructing part of the line. Some encouraging news - the girder bridge I fashioned from a plastic bridge and an off-cut of uPVC appears to have successfully weathered the ravages of the winter just passed:

 

LGJP4PP.jpg

 

Still a fair bit to do though, even in this small corner of the line:

 

PCvb9Fr.jpg

 

You can see the extent to which the lower track at the back has been all but completely swamped by a combination of ground cover planting, with a liberal sprinkling of weeds.

 

Still, the Great Unfinished Railway is taking its first faltering steps to resurrection for 2020!

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