Garden Railway Forum

The point is just as supplied, no finish has been applied

Ah, I should've been clearer - I was referring to the finish of your raised track bed structure.

Ah, the timber is pressure treated and I have creosoted it as well, not traditional creosote but the more up to date stuff which is all that’s available to consumers now.

Your line does look impressive Phil and you have done more in a few hours than I do in 12 months...

I have always said to Anne that I should have some Cliff Barker track of some sort, they do look far far better than the Peco stuff...and they are very reasonable too aren't they.

Thanks Rod,

yes, the Cliff Barker track is good VFM. I was mighty pleased to see that I had got my order in just before a price rise!

Phil

After a dry start to the morning during which I managed to do a little soldering outside to fix the last 30cm or so of track into place in the oval the rain began so outdoor play was suspended.

The two ends were lifted up onto legs about ten days apart, the second appearing last Thursday. Once I had assembled nearly all of the track a loose lay on the table got a tentative layout:-

At the far end of the table I have made a lifting flap for access into the centre:-
This shows it lifted. For this short section I have used nickel silver rail (the rest is stainless steel) since it is easy to solder to copper clad circuit board at the joins. The piece I soldered this morning meets the flap at the end of the table. There will also be two short pieces of NS track where the scenic boards are attached. The track was pinned down on the table yesterday and Clara had a trial run around the oval, bar the gap. All was well apart from one of the rails joints on the left hand end semi-circle had split - I had too much strain on the Bayblend rail joiners from Cliff I am using - it's a learning curve and I may need to go to metal joiners round the curves.

Phil

A brave move building a lift section on a curve, although I can see you had little option elsewhere.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun Jul 30, 2023 2:40 pm A brave move building a lift section on a curve, although I can see you had little option elsewhere.

One of these might help, if alignment becomes a problem.


Looking good!

Making a lot of progress with your line, it's going to be mighty impressive. What length will it be when done.

Thanks Aaron,

I have a selection of brass bolts ready to fit if necessary, I added more screws to the hinges which changed the alignment slightly which I can probably deal with by resoldering at the board joint. It’s a case of letting it settle down before major alteration.

Rod,

The straight table is 7.2m or close to 24’ long and the radius of the ends is a little under 5’.

Phil

Phil

Impressive progress - particularly as it has hardly stopped raining for ages.

It is all looking good.

I am looking forward to running on it.

Trevor

There has been a dry afternoon during which I have re-aligned the joint of the lifting section, completed the loop and added a short bit of track to allow coupling up of the Orsaf Newydd boards.

Clara has done a complete circuit starting from the station, and a second one, three quarters of which I captured on video before she ran out of battery!

Phil

Wow you do work fast Phil, that station is looking brilliant and the two sidings work well with the main line for the station.

Nearly 58' overall running, plus the track you are having inside the main loop, I think you are having track inside looking at your plan, is a nice line to run loco's on.

I haven't done anything to our line for weeks, far to wet in our garden and the sleepers take some blooming cutting by hand saw....

Thanks Rod,

don't think your arithmetic is quite right! 2 x (24 + 15) = 78 as far as I reckon!

Things have come together quite quickly, especially as Trevor says the weather has not been helpful though it did make the ground softer for getting the fence post spikes in - which was also made easier by having a friend who can wield a sledge hammer very effectively.

Next up should be Yr Hen Felin on the other open frame section, just needs a short bit of NS track added to align with the boards.

I'm thinking the layout on the front table might need to be adjusted since the space between the running lines is only about 6" which is perhaps not wide enough to allow some sort of station building. Once running is possible there's no need to rush on finalising that however. My next priority is to add some width to the curved ends so I can incorporate some sort of fencing for safety purposes.

All suggestions welcome.

Phil

PS don't envy you cutting sleepers by hand but then I do have woodworking machinery!

:

I do have a chop saw that my youngest son-law has lent me, but it has a 5” blade and it’s just not big enough to cut the sleeper. When I do start cutting it takes me about 30 minutes stopping and starting every couple of cuts. Then I need the rest of the day to recuperate.


Philpy of this forum did some fixing for his own line and also made some for me. He has two versions, one which fixes to the top of the board and another which goes on the outside of it. He may well be able to help you with that.

Looking forward to seeing the video of the loco you ran earlier.

That's looking great - I love how the scenic boards fit into the new bits. Wll you be able to operate the "Inglenook" puzzle independently while a train circles the mainline?

It all looks like it will be a lot of fun!

Thanks Andrew,

yes, the inglenook puzzle will be operable without any interference of the rest of the layout

Phil

Working towards being able to fence the line I have been adding bits of wood to extend the width of the boards of the curved ends where the track gets perilously close to the edge.

The first photo shows the raw pieces added:-

The second after adding a coat of creosote, the extensions blend in much more:-

I have been preparing 12mm square section beech to make the posts. I shall drill the posts to accept galvanised wire once I have cut them to length. There may be quite a lot of them to do! I intend to screw the posts to the outside edge of the boards. Will see if it works.

Phil

This should work:-
The posts were cut to length in groups of eight using an end stop on the radial arm saw then drilled with four holes each using a jig clamped to the table of the pillar drill, a total of 87 were prepared. They were dropped into a bucket with some creosote and then drained and left to dry a bit.

Phil

Looking good Phil... we can do speed trials now on your Wall of Death!