Garden Railway Forum

That sure is some garden and the views are absolutely wonderful. Stick with your plans on running 16mm though. You would have a garden railway that most and myself would die for.....

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 9:15 am You have an amazing view from your 'garden' (more like a field!)

You could get a ride on railway round all that!

Thank you, I consider that I am extremely fortunate to live where I do. The field opposite is birthing calves at the present time, lovely to see them wobbling about.

A ride on railway would be good but it isn't for me. I like my 16mm scale toys and they are easy to stow away when the day is done.

idlemarvel wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:21 pm I agree. You could get some nice gentle curves for a 5" or 7 1/4" railway in there with great views and opportunities for embankments and cuttings. Go on, you know you want to...

No more encouragement please

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:36 pm That is a wonderfully scenic area you are fortunate enough to live in, I know, from my own experience, the setting makes such a difference to the way you tackle your project and makes it a more enjoyable task.

Thanks Peter, I am slowing catching up with your railway build thread, I watched it grow until around 2016 but now its just getting good.

FWLR wrote: ↑Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:53 am That sure is some garden and the views are absolutely wonderful. Stick with your plans on running 16mm though. You would have a garden railway that most and myself would die for.....

Thank you. I will stick with the 16mm plans, thats where my passion and interest lies and besides, I'm too deep in it now to get rid!

Update

I have to confess I am a little behind on the updates but they will all come in due course.

So I have worked out what the lowest point I can go, the boundary wall is only so tall and I want people to be able to walk past (public foot path) and not see the railway. Here is the mock up on the lowest part of the wall.





I was then able to laser over to the shed to work out the steaming area and I mocked up the basic platform. This decided that I would use the side of the shed to run the railway past and possibly introduce the tracks into the shed.



The following weekend I was able to employ the help of my Dad and a good friend. I had some blocks delivered and we were able to build the piers that make the main straight.





After this was done I was able to work out, with help from Dad, what radius curves I could get away with in the space available. 9' radius around the the steam up area and 8'6" at the temp loop end. Here is the section freshly cut out.

Thats some heavy engineering. Are you planning to plant something to hide the piers?

Don

DonW wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 11:52 pm Thats some heavy engineering. Are you planning to plant something to hide the piers?

It's only heavy because I already had the sleepers and wanted to make use of them, why not put a railway on the sleepers?

There will be wooden fencing to cover the void below the sleepers and hide the railway from the lawn view. I don't want too many horticultural commitments to just run a train. Things may change though, but there is no plans to plant anything at the moment.

There is something very apt about using the sleepers and the fencing will make it all look tidy.

Don

Looking very good it's crying out for a hudge bridge .

The use of those sleepers is brilliant, they won't be rotting away any time soon....

jim@NAL wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 9:57 pm Looking very good it's crying out for a hudge bridge .

Thanks, there is a bridge to be put in (see first recent post with overview) but it will be a lift out type to allow access to the grassy area. I am tempted to put a wooden trestle type bridge in somewhere though.

FWLR wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:39 am The use of those sleepers is brilliant, they won't be rotting away any time soon....

I bought them a few years ago with the intention of putting a layout at my last house, it only had a small slabbed courtyard garden so these sleepers would have gone around the perimeter. They have already been outside for 3 years and still look as good as they do!

Update

With the platform position decided, I fixed it together and fitted it onto the side of the shed for the short term (until the line actually reaches the shed, levels may change). I made this out of wood that was donated to me from a friend who had these offcuts from building a garden shed and the thicker material was from a pallet I had delivered to work. Total cost £0.





Then it was time for things to progress from the sleepers to around the corner using the pieces I cut up in the last post. I bought some fence posts, dumped them into the ground and set about building the framework for the arch to sit on. Apart from the posts the arch was built again from donated wood as was the framework being a combination of pallet wood and decking board offcuts.

Here is the completed arch.







With the trestle now reaching the shed (steam up area), the level was off by 2 inches over 21 meters (69 feet), which could easily have been an error on my part of levelling the laser.



I had pre bent a piece of track to the correct radius to check clearances between shed side and corner.



For now that is all!

Nice work. That's dual gauge track (see I can be observant) what gauges please? 32mm and 45mm?

idlemarvel wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 3:49 pm ...what gauges please? 32mm and 45mm?

That would be correct. I have models on both gauges so this is a must.

Hi Mark, Looking great!, what locos do you have on 45mm Gauge?
Mitch

You have been busy Mark. That you are able to get most of your wood free is a bonus... Are you going to treat the wood with some preservative...Like the way you have used your freebie wood to make the steam up area. I may have been tempted however to go through your shed too. You know something like the OO and N gauge guys do on the layouts for fiddle yards and the like.

The dual gauge track is a great idea also. Don't think of me being silly,
but where do you get it from..ie: Peco or somewhere else....

Wow that is a lot of progress. All looking very good 2ins in 69ft is nothing to worry about ( 1:423 I think) provided it is spread over the 69 ft.

Don

Mitch stack wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 12:44 am Hi Mark, Looking great!, what locos do you have on 45mm Gauge?
Mitch

Hi Mitch, thank you. The ones I immediately think about that I have on 45mm, I have a couple of mss locos, Accucraft Dora, bowande porter, Accucraft ruby, cheddar/Grs tram and I have a G1 aster 64xx pannier.

I think that is all I have...?

FWLR wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 7:04 am You have been busy Mark. That you are able to get most of your wood free is a bonus... Are you going to treat the wood with some preservative...Like the way you have used your freebie wood to make the steam up area. I may have been tempted however to go through your shed too. You know something like the OO and N gauge guys do on the layouts for fiddle yards and the like.

The dual gauge track is a great idea also. Don't think of me being silly,
but where do you get it from..ie: Peco or somewhere else....

So far most of the wood has been free and gathered from my family and friends. It seems that they want to have a ‘clear out’ when I’m looking for materials. The wood has been treated now, didn’t bother to post the difference - just looks a slight different colour but it won’t be staying bare wood for much longer.

One of my dreams is to have some rails through the shed and that was my point in putting the steam up area right on the side of it. The shed is going to store all of the non precious rolling stock. I have plans to shelve it out completely with one shelf as the entrance from the railway.



The dual gauge track in the photo is actually tenmille, vintage of 4 years. I assume they haven’t changed it from then until now. I have some old wooden sleeper Tenmille track that has been converted to 3 rail ( Dad made new sleepers, what a job ) and peco sm32 can be and will be converted with an additional chair and rail. I just need to save for the points!

DonW wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 7:57 am Wow that is a lot of progress. All looking very good 2ins in 69ft is nothing to worry about ( 1:423 I think) provided it is spread over the 69 ft.

Don

I figured either I was wrong at the point of levelling the laser or my spirit level skills aren’t that bad. But either way the elevation isn’t that much to worry about. But thank you for working it out!

Thanks for That, You will be Pleased to see some Mamodfication happening Down Under soon! Goblin is finally at the top of the workshops queue (1 Year Late) for its Rebuild . hopefully will go well on meths pulling my coach around.

Mitch

ace wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 3:08 pm With the trestle now reaching the shed (steam up area), the level was off by 2 inches over 21 meters (69 feet), which could easily have been an error on my part of levelling the laser.

The average DIY laser level only reads to the nearest 1mm per metre, while a reasonable quality spirit level will be about half that at 0.5mm per metre, so half your error is inherent in the laser level itself.

When I was laying out my track I found the errors in level built up rapidly if I didn't keep checking and levelling the laser every time I moved it to take another reading. I did some work a while ago on the rotating head to more securely clamp the laser level and it will now read to the nearest 0.6mm per metre when set up carefully, which is almost as good as a spirit level, but over a much greater distance.

Regards,
Graeme

ace wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 8:52 am

I figured either I was wrong at the point of levelling the laser or my spirit level skills aren’t that bad. But either way the elevation isn’t that much to worry about. But thank you for working it out!

Unless you are using a self levelling laser to check the levels, that is probably within the margin of error and even one of those is only accurate to about +/- 3mm at 10 metres so about 21mm or just over 3/4inch at 69m so I think you did a good job of levelling.

Don

Mitch stack wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 9:59 am Thanks for That, You will be Pleased to see some Mamodfication happening Down Under soon! Goblin is finally at the top of the workshops queue (1 Year Late) for its Rebuild . hopefully will go well on meths pulling my coach around.

Mitch

Great to hear about Goblin, my Chevalier finally had a bottom end overhaul last year when it was inspected after I blew the boiler end cap off (running it dry and filling with water after being stood - my fault I know!) It's now got O ring converted cylinders from an old kit I had in stock - now nla.

GTB wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 3:28 pmThe average DIY laser level only reads to the nearest 1mm per metre, while a reasonable quality spirit level will be about half that at 0.5mm per metre, so half your error is inherent in the laser level itself.

Graeme this is good info to know. I have a good quality spirit level and I re measured the sleepers several times before committing to the final position on the shed - hence the packers you can see in one of the pictures under the sleepers.

DonW wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 4:29 pmUnless you are using a self levelling laser to check the levels, that is probably within the margin of error and even one of those is only accurate to about +/- 3mm at 10 metres so about 21mm or just over 3/4inch at 69m so I think you did a good job of levelling.

That's good to know Don, again useful information. Yes the laser is not a 'home gamer' situation but rather a well used industrial building one. When all said and done the levels seem ok but the little manual locos will soon tell me where the highs and lows really are and I'll have to adjust/shim from there.

Update

So things are now progressing away from the shed and towards the lift out bridge section. Single posts, twin rails and tongue & groove planking to span the lot.







So without further notice the bridge was measured, gap aligned and further progress was made in a swift fashion towards the ground....





And the bridge now laid in place.



and for now that is it!

Good progress Ace and substantial supports which should last many years. I'm intrigued why you need the ladder, it's clearly a tool used in the construction as it keeps moving about! My guess is that it is to keep the post tops level?