The Charnwood Forest Light Railway

[Soar Valley Light]

It's amazing how things come along to derail progress. The lack of updates on the CFLR construction progress is directly proportional to the lack of direct progress I'm afraid. That said the enabling works are progressing apace. The new path is now only inches from the back yard, the cable duct for the security light at the bottom of the garden is in, the wall to the operating pit for Abbey Station is 99% complete and I think the last of the major quarrying operations has finally come to an end with the near completion of the new path. Maybe the most significant progress (in garden terms) is the completion of the creosoting of both new fencees - boy do my arms wrists and hands ache!

Attached is a very rough sketch of the overall track plan for the line. I hope to refine this shortly and I'd love to think I could have some railway construction underway before the weather really turns. I have my heart set on using Filcris products as a foundation but the cost is crippling! I'm going to have to phase my purchases as and when funds allow I'm afraid. At least they are durable and unlikely to need replacement. I need to get at least some of the terminus area complete as the left hand line leaving it will have to cross the path and be set into it, this in turn will set the levels for the path, hence the need to progess things as it will delay laying the new yard surface otherwise.

I think I need a bar chart!

More updates to follow soon, hopefully next time with photo's.

[Soar Valley Light]

Well, work grinds slowly on - despite a dodgy elbow from all the digging! I never cease to be amazed at the multifarious jobs needing to be undertaken just to get round to STARTING railway construction.





You wouldn't think this was a garden, or even the site of railway construction! The quarrying operation pictured is a reclamation of daffodil and hyacinth bulbs, buried months ago beneath the soil dumps. Now the new path is progressing I'm finally breaking into the soil dumps to build up the new beds. This will allow the path edging to be installed and thus lead to the completion of this section of the new path. The new garden beds will be the first ones completed that will ultimately have the railway passing through.

Completion of the path and the last section of yard beyond it will require some concreting work. One branch of the Railway from Abbey station will cross this concrete area and be set into it. At last I will need to commence some ACTUAL railway construction to allow this to go ahead. That's also going to mean constructing the foundations for the track in Abbey station itself. I'm pretty set on using Filcris materials for this but it's unliklely I'll be able to afford them for any of the further construction. Having searched this forum I'm planning to source alternative similar materials in plastic extrusions, most probably gutter downpipe posts and fascia board edging with the track fixed on top. I plan to fill up beneath and around this with sandy soil, suitably compacted, to about 1/4" below sleeper bottom. I'll then fill up around the track with some suitable fine stone material, very probably fixed in place using one of the methods successfully employed by Rik or Peter.

I'm hoping the weather doesn't turn too early this year. Progress is going to be restricted to midweek evenings for the next couple of weeks due to rostered shifts on the Bluebell Railway over the next couple of weekends. I'm itching to get some track down now but knowing me it might end up being Christmas before that actually happens - and I'm not saying which year!

[ge_rik]

Great progress being made Andrew. Must admit that the civil engineering bit of the build was the really satisfying part for me. Especially the terraforming. Mind you, getting the first train running is also a high point!

Rik

[Peter Butler]

Agreed Rik, the 'hard landscaping' is certainly the most satisfying for me too.  To create a setting and make it appear natural(ish) is the best part, although would be a complete waste without the trains running through it occasionally, in my case, rarely, as I enjoy the creation of both railway and stock much more than operating.

[Dwayne]

Andrew, looking good so far. Quite the challenge you have there in comparison to what I had to deal with. I admire the civil engineering you guys over there perform to get trains into the yard.

[Andrew]

It's going to be great when the track starts going down, and all the better for all the planning and preparation you've put in...

I guess I'm more of a soft landscaping kind of chap - I like a nice solid base to work on but it takes me yonks to getting around to making it. The bit I like is helping nature to take over after that first stage - and it's amazing how after just a couple of years a railway can look like it's been there for a hundred...

Enjoy your Bluebell stints. I'm a regular visitor to the Bluebell's new website, must get back there sometime, there always seems to be a lot going on...

Andrew

[jim@NAL]

wow looks good

[Soar Valley Light]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. It all helps to get me out into the garden now the weather is getting chillier! More edging was set for the path tonight and the remaining fittings for the cable duct (for the light at the bottom of the garden) have now arrived. I discovered more paving slabs buried under the gravel covered part of the old garden too, so I may be rethinking some of the concreting works. Good recovered slabs are much cheaper than new concrete!

Andrew, the Bluebell is well worth a visit. If nothing else the scenery is wonderful, Sussex is a beautiful county. I've got a couple of weekends of it just now, the main operating season has finished but I'm getting as many turns in the old Kingscote box as I can before it closes in the new year. My favourite box ever (and featured in my avatar on here).

Andrew

[Andrew]

Andrew, the Bluebell is well worth a visit. If nothing else the scenery is wonderful, Sussex is a beautiful county. I've got a couple of weekends of it just now, the main operating season has finished but I'm getting as many turns in the old Kingscote box as I can before it closes in the new year. My favourite box ever (and featured in my avatar on here).

It's been years since I went to the Bluebell - it was for a gala I think, and I arrived by bus at Kingscote in time to jump on the Golden Arrow - hauled by the Q1! Can't remember what else was running apart from that I saw "Normandy" hauling the two Cheshams then restored, plus the GNR observation car I think. But I agree, it's lovely, and I must go back.

What's happening at Kingscote? Is the box being replaced? I've not been in many signalboxes, but I have a fondness for the lovely little one at Tenterden Town (ex Chilham I think) where my late Grandpa used to volunteer. The other KESR boxes are too big for the line I think, but that one looked very much at home...

My local line now is the Avon Valley, which is crying out for a nice Midland box at Bitton, which once had those great tall signals designed for easier sighting over bridges and round curves. That said, they can run a very intensive service without fixed signalling and will be this weekend for their London Transport-themed gala, which I'm very much looking forward to...

Enjoy your signalling turns,

Andrew.

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Andrew,

As a fundamentally Midland man I couldn't agree more about the Avon Valley. The 'temporary' box at Kingscote is now at least ten years old and finally being replaced by the permanent box at the north end of the station (formerly Brighton Upper Goods). I'm back there again this weekend for my final two turns in the old box.

My other half fell over in the Garden on Wednesday, thanks to the gravel path subsiding into the gravel quarry. I knew I was pushing my luck the other week when I quarried another six inch strip to finish the new path foundation. Well, I couldn't risk a repeat 'Human derailment', it could result in a withdrawal of planning permission! So, I set to in every spare moment of yesterday and finished the path. It was too dark for pictures by the time I'd finished but some will follow.

This major leap forwards has opened the way for the first stages of railway construction (at last!). I've splashed out and treated myself to a piece of board and some frame runners from Filcris for this first stage of construction, they arrived today. I was late home though and I've not even unpacked it yet! I've got them to cut two sections out of one end to use as templates to form the curved sections of the support frames to consistent radii. I'm itching to get started now!

Andrew

[Soar Valley Light]

Greetings one and all. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and are in the process of seeing in the New Year in style!

Progress in the Charnwood Forest has been painfully slow - literally! My Partner having a serious RTA, my back giving out, closely followed by a partial dislocation of by digging elbow and my Dad having to go for major surgery to repair a hernia, have meant progress has been woeful. To confound things even more, on the rare occasions I have had chance to get into the garden it has rained!

Fortunately I'm finding a bit of time to spend on outdoor activities at the moment, however, the recovery from this situation has demanded that I devote my initial efforts to the allotments. Finally I've managed a couple of shifts in the house garden, it's all still very much 'enabling work' but it's all progress I guess.



This is the excavation work for the station approach. Levels still have to be finalised but I can see much more clearly where I'm going now (although I appreciate it might not be obvious to anyone else!)



An this is the view the other way. The railway needs to squeeze between the vegetation and the path to the centre left of the picture; a tunnel may be in order here! There will be a continuous run in the bottom part of the garden (that currently resembles a moonscape!). It will be at a lower level and the gradients between the two are still under review but the aim is to go no steeper than 1 in 50 at worst (and hopefully much less)

Further work was done in the lower area with the transplanting of some gooseberry bushes off the course of the railway. A long way to go still, but no quite so far as there was before this latest push!

Watch out for the next thrilling instalment.

Andrew

[Peter Butler]

Andrew, I'm sorry to hear of all the things which seem to have happened together particularly at this time of year. Let's hope you get an opportunity to progress the work as soon as the monsoon season is over.

[Annie]

Oooooooo I dislocated my elbow once, - it's something I never what to do again

I hope work on your railway will proceed with better speed in 2016.

[Andrew]

Good luck for 2016!

My first garden line ran along a row of gooseberry bushes which I clipped very close for a sort of bonsai effect and which I thought looked rather like oaks if you squinted a bit - albeit oaks with very large acorns!

Looking forward to first train pics this year...

Andrew

[Soar Valley Light]

More progress today! Some minor enabling work has continued since the last post but today saw real progress. The last of the vegetation clearance was complete and earthworks proper commenced. Only a short stretch but it has finally enabled be to get a perspective on the main circuit of the line, it's alignment and the potential levels of it and the connection to the terminus.

It's also refocussed my plans. I came to realise I had begun to wander from the construction of a line to run steam on in the garden in favour of a scale model of a fictional railway. I'm back on track (sorry!) and I've stopped trying to cram six stations into the small space available. I'm back to the prospect of runs of plain line making its way through the scenery, free from the clutter of a station every three feet! That's what the Hornby Dublo will be for if I ever find time to clear the cellar and pursue that particular pipe dream!

Anyway, here are a couple of really poor shots of todays work.



Ongoing progress

With the ground clear the top soil was stripped off to make way for embankemt core construction using sandier material stockpiled earlier.The alignment can be made out curving round from left to right.

The embankment core was them tipped and compacted. The aim is to drive plastic stakes into the top of this after it has settled and compacted. To these will be fixed longitudinal runners, one either side, much like the Filcris system only using cheaper commercially available materials. The track will be fixed directly to the top of these runners. The final part of the embankment will then be built up around this construction.

Finally a pretty diabilical shot along the line of the embankment core. I hope you can make it out curving away to the left. this was just as I was finishing work and the light was distinctly fading!


Goodness knows when the next leap forward will be, the allotment is calling for attention too, but I'm determined to press on as soon as I can now. I need to get some flower beds prepared (apparently!) so that the garden has colour in it this year!

[Andrew]

Hello!

Great progress, especially in such grim weather. I've abandoned the garden for the time being, partly because of the cold but also because the lawn's a quagmire and every step I take on it makes it worse...

The filcris-esque construction technique sounds interesting, looking forward to learning more about that...

I've stopped trying to cram six stations into the small space available. I'm back to the prospect of runs of plain line making its way through the scenery, free from the clutter of a station every three feet!

They do take up an awful lot of room, don't they? I convinced myself I needed three stations, and I suppose I still think that given the end-to-end nature of my line (there's an upper and lower terminus and a passing station), but there's not nearly enough "ordinary" track to help create the illusion of a train going somewhere...

Anyway, nice work - looking forward to the next instalment!

Andrew.

[Annie]

Digging an embankment in Winter that is seriously intrepid. It must feel good to be making a start though.

[Joe]

well done for braving the winter elements, its looking like youve got some decent space for landscaping there which will tie in with your minimal station theme. Should be a pretty long run by the time its finished?
cheers
Joe

[Soar Valley Light]

Thanks for the encouragement folks.

Andrew,

I understand your predicament exactly, I'd like to achieve the same. To achieve a continuous run though I'm going to have to forego a third station of any size at all, I might squeeze in a loop and a siding. I think I can do this and still achieve sufficient operational interest though.

It certainly does feel good to have made a start Annie.

Joe,

There isn't that much room I'm afraid, I'm going to have to work hard on perspective and landscaping to make it fit convincingly into the space available and provide the features I want to include. It's going to be important to consider the view of the line from set perspective points to create what I'm after. The continuous run will be no more than 20m at best with a 10m branch to the terminus. There may end up being another branch off the circuit to a triangular junction outside the terminus to allow out and back working.

I managed another hour out there today. I'd planned more but a snow fall last night put paid to that until a thaw set in this afternoon. Even then it was saturated underfoot. I moved some of the soil dump out of the way. This exposed some drier ground and so I dug out the topsoil up to the edge of the former strawberry patch. I was also able to tip some embankment core material into this. In fact I extended both ends of the embankment in this way. It was far too wet to contemplate any compaction though. I remember from my days on earthmoving work just how damaging it can be to overwork material in the wet. We had a tip foreman who used to say each Autumn, when the ground reached a certain wetness, 'It'll be no good now until the cuckoo comes'. He was invariably right - roll on Spring!

Andrew

[Soar Valley Light]

Progress has been slower than I'd hoped on the garden railway, various obstacles have been responsible but at least I have managed to keep going forwards, even if it is at snails pace! Having no working space is the biggest problem, it's a bit like one of those word puzzles you used to get where you slid the letters round in a square frame to form words, there being only one space to move into at a time, much like solitaire. The next step has to be some wall building and I'm struggling a bit for materials and even more for 'get up and go' to get up and get on with it!

Today I managed to do a little bit more setting out to give me an idea of where things will fit. This seems a good photo opportunity so please see below. The route is marked out in white line marking paint, it covers about half the total railway, junk (sorry, stored materials!) prevent going any further. The right hand side nearest the wall is quite difficult to make out as it is partly hidden by the rough ground. I'm not planning to build the line through the current topography, once the Filcris foundation is in I shall be terraforming around the railway to form the ground profiles I want to best fit the line and make it interesting.


View of the bottom end looking over to where the passing loop will be.


Looking back up the garden towards to top end, the branch will peel off on the right hand side and run up beyond the arch (covered in honeysuckle) to the terminous outside the kitchen.


View from the bathroom window!


More updates when there is somehting to share - hopefully something more railway like!

Andrew