Garden Railway Forum

I am quietly confident about the new building project mentioned above, so here are the first images of progress so far.
The idea is to create a ruined castle for my visitors to the preserved railway to view as an additional attraction. The area is raised above the worked out quarry and will have a car park alongside, possibly with ticket office and ice-cream sales too?
The method is to have a removable box frame about 6" high and carefully place slate chips against the inner face. When the layer reaches about 1" tall a sloppy mix of cement is poured into the centre to support it so another inch can be built up. I told you it was slow and demanded patience! Eventually, when the fill is up to about 5", or I've lost the will to live, I leave it to set overnight. Next day the box is raised and another 5-6" is added.




At the top, a smaller inner box is fitted to define the wall thickness as the floor has fallen away from my ruin. Inside the top the same process is continued and slate chips placed on the cement mix to represent stone wall top.

I'm still waiting for this to set before I can confidently say it works.
However, if it looks ok, I will make another 4 or 5 towers and then connect them with walls in a state of ruin to finish off my castle which will have an imposing site when it is finished.

I'm totally gobsmacked, Peter! Amazing, can't wait to see the end result...one day!

Absolutely amazing Peter - all credit to you, look forward to seeing it. Will try and be at Cothi Bridge Sunday.

Regards

Today was reveal time to see whether the plan works!
Having removed the shuttering from the outside, the next step is to scrub off the cement which finds its way through the stonework. Inevitably some of the stones fall off, which improves the general run-down appearance, after all, this castle suffered under the hands of Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army, (rather appropriate I think!).
More towers will certainly follow, eventually being connected by crumbling walls.

Brilliant!!

That looks very good, and true thinking outside the box for the construction technique, although you must have great patience as well!

Peter Butler:102074 wrote:Today was reveal time to see whether the plan works!
Having removed the shuttering from the outside, the next step is to scrub off the cement which finds its way through the stonework.  Inevitably some of the stones fall off, which improves the general run-down appearance, after all, this castle suffered under the hands of Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army, (rather appropriate I think!).
More towers will certainly follow, eventually being connected by crumbling walls.

Just when I thought I was the only one using slate for building dry stone walling .... Very impressive

Thank you all..... I am fortunate to have beautiful surroundings in which to work, also reasonable spare time and the determination to carry out my ideas to the end. Plus, the weather has been so good I couldn't spend valuable modelling time indoors, could I?

very good peter this is going to look fantastic when its finished very good technique may have to borrow this idea and use it my self

Nice work Peter.
I look forwards to seeing the railways soon.

this castle suffered under the hands of Oliver Cromwell

Just a useless bit of local info but did you know that Cromwells mother is supposed to be buried at Conwil?

(Standing by for brickbats with "no she isn't" written on them!)

Don't know about Cromwell's mother Jim, but I do know a local historian who might be able to substantiate that!
However, back to railways.......  This weekend our Modellers Club exhibited at a local Vintage Show (good to see you there Jim), the weather was very good, with one downpour on Saturday afternoon, and the show was very well attended.    Also there was a car boot sale with plenty of transport related items on offer.  I am still searching for road vehicles to add to my railway and found three:
Firstly, a family saloon which I can use on my visitors car park.  It is a Renault Safrane (?) by Solido which was left hand drive until about an hour ago!  Only £4.00


Next came a metal bodied Jeep in very rusty condition but with great potential.  I have stripped it down, cleaned off the rust and sprayed a primer.  More work required to make it presentable, but at £2.50 (including a scale figure too) quite a bargain..





 Finally, a plastic bodied Volvo digger with back hoe.  This is remote controlled, correct scale and in good condition.... not bad for £5.00.
 Not bad for a day's shopping!

good bargains there peter well done
what scale cars do you use???

Hi Peter if you find any old VW vans you could make one of these.

jim@NAL:102218 wrote:good bargains there peter well done
what scale cars do you use???

Jim, I use 1:18 scale cars which seems to be the most popular scale used by several manufacturers: Bburago, Solido, Maisto etc... The difference between that and our 1:19 scale is so small that it would take a serious rivet counter to notice, and I don't encourage them into the garden!

Big Al:102228 wrote:Hi Peter if you find any old VW vans you could make one of these.

Where does that thing live?
I have a VW van which I use for the road scene but I have never seen anything like that converted to rail use before.



I'm sure you have seen my rail mounted 2CV's in this Forum which are battery powered and work really well. The VW models are quite sought after and hold a good price so I doubt I will be making one of those.

Just a useless bit of local info but did you know that Cromwells mother is supposed to be buried at Conwil?

I've done some research Jim and it seems Elizabeth Steward (Cromwell's mum) died in London on November 18th 1654. That doesn't men she isn't buried at Conwil, but it seems less likely.

Interesting video of a VW rail van I like the way they turn it round.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzRxfGbF8EA

Interesting video Big Al..... Isn't it amazing how people in Germany can manage not to get run down by trains even though there are no fences to keep them out?
I know why we have fences in this country (history again!) but there seems to be a lack of personal responsibility associated with safety here. Perhaps the EU can sort that one out for us?????

The Jeep is now ready for adding to the road vehicle stable... I have sprayed it, weathered it, fitted a windscreen and rear spare tyre (taken from the boot in the Citroen), new steering wheel and handbrake.





During the work I discovered a manufacturers name on the tyres... TONKA, so this is a tough toy, but also pretty close to scale with the other vehicles.

Need a number plate Peter or its not street legal!!