Garden Railway Forum

For the time-being anyhow.
For a couple of years, I've been trying to patch-up some of the rotting boards under the station. It reached the point where I decided enough was enough! My own fault. Although I used pressure-treated fence rails for most of the baseboard, I did some patchwork with old recycled fence rails and even some untreated timber from pallets. A false economy.

However, on closer inspection, some of the ex-pallet wood is fine and some of the treated fence rails have rotted at the ends. Next stage is to rip everything out and start again - this time with nothing but treated fence rails.

Rik

The Copper Mine is receiving the same treatment for the same reasons.
Rik

Thats a shame Rik, but perfectly understandable. Fingers crossed for the future.

That does look a mess Rik, and a real shame after all your work. However, I know it will recover and be much improved before too long. It will be interesting to watch progress and comparison between the old and new. No doubt you have plans for greater operational interest.

Well I thought I was on the right track and made the base out of concrete blocks. Well, they keep sagging and I finally broke up the railway. If only I had made it from wood from the start, much less work than I have put into it so far. And then replace it once every 10 years.

My next railway will be on marine ply supported by some stainless steel bolts for quick and easy levelling.

Palmerston wrote: Sun Feb 23, 2025 4:30 pm Well I thought I was on the right track and made the base out of concrete blocks. Well, they keep sagging and I finally broke up the railway. If only I had made it from wood from the start, much less work than I have put into it so far. And then replace it once every 10 years.

My next railway will be on marine ply supported by some stainless steel bolts for quick and easy levelling.

I would avoid the use of ply outdoors. So called marine ply isn't what it once was.

You beat me to it Phil, I was going to say exactly the same thing - never use any sort of ply for a track base, it ALWAYS delaminates.

ge_rik wrote: Sun Feb 23, 2025 12:51 pm The Copper Mine is receiving the same treatment for the same reasons.

IMG_3973.JPG

IMG_3977.JPG

Rik

Hopefully it'll look better once it's all repaired. If you need any help I'm up for it, gets me outdoors and gives experience for when my own friend builds his garden railway.

instead of wood hybrid plastic & wood composite decking board

the normal hss sawblade will get blunt very fast so carbide is needed

Palmerston wrote: Mon Feb 24, 2025 6:54 pm instead of wood hybrid plastic & wood composite decking board
the normal hss sawblade will get blunt very fast so carbide is needed

Just costed it and it's 3.5x more expensive than my usual treated fence rails (unless you know of a cheaper source)

The last lot of treated boards have lasted 17 years, so I reckon if I get the same lifespan out of the next set of boards, I'll be over 90 years old and either won't be around or nimble enough to run trains in the garden.

Rik

Now cleared out all the old timber. A few of the fence rails are still very sound but I will probably use those as support trusses rather than decking. Pleased to find only one post has rotted at the base while, curiously, a couple have rotted at the top. I might put a few extra posts in as I have to stand on the boards to cut the hedge behind.

Rik

Good luck Rik.

It was clearly unavoidable. I'm sure I'm not on my own in looking forward to the phoenix rising from the ashes.

SVLR Andrew

The silver lining of the cloud? Best wishes Rik and hope the work goes well. Will it still be 'Beeston Market' or will it get a new name?

Petersfield wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2025 8:04 pm The silver lining of the cloud? Best wishes Rik and hope the work goes well. Will it still be 'Beeston Market' or will it get a new name?

Oh no. It'll have to remain as Beeston Market. Though the mainline station (adjacent to my (hypothetical) narrow gauge line) was variously called Beeston, Beeston Castle and latterly Beeston Castle and Tarporley. I decided that it should be called Beeston Market because there was a large livestock market adjacent to the station (closed in 2020) and my Beeston Castle station would have been sited adjacent to the castle itself. The mainline station was closed in 1966, but there are plans to re-open it - though this has been mooted several times over the years - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... e-67274902

Rik

ge_rik wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2025 12:44 pm Oh no. It'll have to remain as Beeston Market. ...
The mainline station was closed in 1966, but there are plans to re-open it - though this has been mooted several times over the years ...

Rik

Fingers crossed. I've seen a few stations reopened and doing enough traffic to justify that.

I wondered if there would be significant changes. Possibly warranting calling it something else or possibly 'Newmarket' - cue jokes re racing? One of the small rural stations I modelled (albeit in 4mm scale indoors) I wrote a back story for which included three name changes over the 80 or so years it was open. I included the comment that local tap-room gossip had it that the cost of renaming the station (halt) exceeded passenger revenue from it.

Never imagined seeing your line torn up, but here we are.

Huge job, nothing like getting stuck in and knocking it out.

Old Man Aaron wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 2:29 pm Never imagined seeing your line torn up, but here we are.
Huge job, nothing like getting stuck in and knocking it out.

I knew I had a few saggy, soft spots but it wasn't until I lifted the track and saw what was underneath that I realised how rotten some of the planks were.

I've now taken all the rotten timbers to the tip in my trailer. Some good came from it. I used some of the more intact boards to strengthen the floor of the trailer which was originally delaminating plywood.

Rik

I knew I had a few saggy, soft spots

Rik

Not just me then!

Peter Butler wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 9:12 pm

I knew I had a few saggy, soft spots
Rik

Not just me then!

Occupational hazard for those of us of a certain age ......

Rik

Replaced rotten posts and added a couple of extras - then fixed in place a few cross members. I've decided the copper mine will be an inch higher than the adjacent main line
The lumber pile in the foreground is where I store my 'useful' offcuts from various sources. Normally, it's under the cover of the baseboard.

Rik