A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway - The saga continues

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Mon Mar 25, 2019 9:14 am

philipy wrote: Mon Mar 25, 2019 7:17 am .......... I've been meaning to ask about your pipe/cable hole. Is it actually a hole, or a slot cut in from the side to allow the inverted lid to be removed easily? I'm a bit concerned that a slot would allow warping of the lid from the weight of the pebble topping, but it will be a 'mare to try to lift it up and slide it up the corrugated pipe. I'm thinking about a removable inverted-U shaped clip to hold the ends of the cut rim together.
Mine's a slot. Not had an issue with warping. The slot's only about 1.5" wide and about 2.5" deep. Even inverted, the lid is a close fit on the bin and so it is supported either side of the slot.

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Mon Mar 25, 2019 6:37 pm

Cheers Rik
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Tue Mar 26, 2019 7:08 pm

Rik,
The other thing I've been meaning to ask you about is in your "How I created the stream" blog post. You say " A mix of 5 parts sand to 1 part cement was slapped, slopped and splodged behind, under and between the rocks ". Did you really use that mix? I'm far from being a 'brickie' or anything related, and I realise that it isn't doing anything structural/load bearing, but but 5:1 seems very weak?
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue Mar 26, 2019 7:17 pm

philipy wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2019 7:08 pm Rik,
The other thing I've been meaning to ask you about is in your "How I created the stream" blog post. You say " A mix of 5 parts sand to 1 part cement was slapped, slopped and splodged behind, under and between the rocks ". Did you really use that mix? I'm far from being a 'brickie' or anything related, and I realise that it isn't doing anything structural/load bearing, but but 5:1 seems very weak?
You're right. A 4:1 mix is probably better. In fact, I generally tend to use a 3:1 mix now for most of my small scale jobs around the garden.

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by steamgeorge » Tue Mar 26, 2019 8:10 pm

I use 4:1 for all the concrete on my railway and it seems sturdy enough.

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:33 am

Thanks both.
I tend to go towards 3& a bit:1( -ish!) for the odd bits of mortar when I need it and given the propensity for my soil to move around and expand and contract I think I'll err towards 3 rather 4 for this job to give it a chance of holding togather. In fact I'm considering laying some sort of mesh reinforcement in the stream bed in case the ground drops underneath. The problem may be in not having enough depth in the mortar to allow the reinforcement to function, plus there is always the chance of a cut edge strand accidentally puncturing the liner, unseen. I don't want to have to do a Rik and dig it all up again to find the leak in a couple of years time!
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by Soar Valley Light » Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:17 pm

Evening chaps,

I'm with you on the 3:1 mix for this sort of application. Even for mortar I only drop back to 1:4.

Philip,

The re-inforcing sounds like a really sensible idea. The fear of damage to the liner from metal mesh sounds equally real! Have you considered using plastic mesh for reinforcing. It doesn't have to be 'high tech, you might even manage it with the plastic from the top of 'four packs' of beer. You may need quite a lot of those but gathering the materials should be enjoyable! On a more practical level(!) I bought some plastic non-slip matting for serving trays a few years ago. it came in rolls about 15" wide and about 2 yards long. It was pretty cheap and I think it came off ebay. I think something like that would be ideal. Just a thought. :idea:

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Thu Mar 28, 2019 5:38 am

Andrew,
Thanks for the plastic mesh idea, brilliant. I don't drink so the 4-pack suggestion is a non-starter but I'm not sure if I still have it but I used to have some semi-rigid 1.5" mesh net which I used on a pergola and would be ideal. I'll have a look when I'm home.
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:35 pm

philipy wrote: Mon Mar 25, 2019 7:05 am
Soar Valley Light wrote: Sun Mar 24, 2019 8:17 pm Is the bin a full sized (four foot(ish)) one? Does your stream drain away completely once the pump stops?
Hi Andrew, no it's not a full sized one, its a 70 litre. Can't remember the dims off hand and I'm away for a couple of weeks, will check when I get home.
As promised, the bin is a 70 litre one. which measures a nominal 450mm wide at the top and 540mm deep.

These two pictures show it with the bin full of water having just run the pump to fill the system and then emptied it, so you can see the last dribbles draining back, and then the water level when the system is full and running.
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There is about 150mm water covering over the pump whilst running. The red lump on the pump, which you can just about see, is a filter box. The 'proper' one belonging to the pump was too big to sit in the bottom of the bin so I made one from 2mm HIPS with lots of 8mm holes drilled in it. It should do to keep bits of leaf and other debris from circulating.
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by Soar Valley Light » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:27 pm

Thanks philip,

That's useful information. I still seriously considering embarking on some 'aquatic engineering'. This will point me in the right direction. I must re-read Rik's blog on the subject too.

I hope you had a good holiday.

All the best,

Andrew
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"'cause I can't manage on three gaffer!"

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:37 pm

Soar Valley Light wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:27 pm That's useful information. I still seriously considering embarking on some 'aquatic engineering'. This will point me in the right direction. I must re-read Rik's blog on the subject too.
Always willing to assist, if I can help in any way - though it looks like Philip is now highly accomplished at hydraulic engineering and taken it a stage further.

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by Soar Valley Light » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:39 pm

ge_rik wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:37 pm
Soar Valley Light wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:27 pm That's useful information. I still seriously considering embarking on some 'aquatic engineering'. This will point me in the right direction. I must re-read Rik's blog on the subject too.
Always willing to assist, if I can help in any way - though it looks like Philip is now highly accomplished at hydraulic engineering and taken it a stage further.

Rik
Thanks Rik,

You remain the pioneer of the 'trickle trade' and the orignator of my awakened interest in the subject!

Andrew
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"'cause I can't manage on three gaffer!"

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:24 pm

ge_rik wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:37 pm it looks like Philip is now highly accomplished at hydraulic engineering and taken it a stage further.
Thanks Rik, although I'm not sure how justified that praise is! :oops:

However a couple of weeks of enforced idleness has allowed me to mentally play with an idea to solve something that has been niggling at me for ages.
If it works, that accolade may be justified otherwise it will be a candidate for the 'epic failures' thread!
Not saying any more just now... watch this thread!
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by FWLR » Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:17 am

Brilliantly worked out Phillip. Just a little bit of genius ( :idea: ) inspiration we all need sometimes.

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:21 am

philipy wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:24 pm However a couple of weeks of enforced idleness has allowed me to mentally play with an idea to solve something that has been niggling at me for ages.
If it works, that accolade may be justified otherwise it will be a candidate for the 'epic failures' thread!
Not saying any more just now... watch this thread!
Intriguing ...... either way, I'm sure it will be very interesting......

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:24 am

Soar Valley Light wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:39 pm You remain the pioneer of the 'trickle trade' .......
That's very astute of you ...... my wife and daughter will attest to my prostate problems ........ :oops: ;)

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:02 am

With the arrival of some half decent weather earlier this week, and the promise of it improving further, I bit the bullet and decided to make a concerted effort on the stream.

I said that I'd had a niggling problem to work out, but in fact there were two. One of which concerned the ground levels and support for the side walls of the liner. On the garden side I had been planning to use lumps of stone, but I knew that in reality they would move, and in any case just wouldn't look right.

Then I had a minor flash of inspiration... I had a some old roofing slates lying around and found that by carefully bashing them I could force them into the ground to form the sidewalls of the stream and support the liner and mortar and stones of the stream itself. Then the surrounding soil can be built up to them do what it likes as it expands and contracts with the weather. I didn't have enough slates to do the job properly but a quick look on ebay found somebody fairly local selling reclaimed ones at just under £1 each.
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Having knocked those in and trimmed the liner, it was time to start getting 'permanent', which I did yesterday. Basically following Rik's method of wearing a pair of rubber gloves to manually squidge the mortar in and around the stones to create a one piece stream bed. As part of this work, the bridge was permanently mortared in, which was a somewhat traumatic time ( scared of getting mortar where it shouldn't go) but it is looking quite good, now.
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Today, the plan is to to again follow Rik and wire brush the mortar off the face of the stones whilst it is still green.
Then I need to curb my impatience for a few days and allow it to cure properly before testing the water flow!

I forgot to mention that I've also installed a ball valve/flow restrictor, which can just be seen top left of the picture above. It may not be necessary but since I've had one in the garage from years ago, I decided to fit it whilst the pipe was easy to get to. Although the test flows showed the volume to be just about right, the mortar and rocks will have reduced the x-section of the stream, and the volume may need winding back a bit.
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:46 am

That does look good, Philip. Really taking shape now. Did you add dye to the mortar or is it down to the sand you used?

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Sun Apr 21, 2019 12:39 pm

ge_rik wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:46 am Did you add dye to the mortar or is it down to the sand you used?
No dye, although I did buy both brown and buff dyes for exactly this purpose. It's as much down to the cement as the sand, actually. I found that using White cement rather than the standard grey, with yellow sand, it comes out a nice Cotswoldy colour very close to the stones I'm using. They are of several different shades anyway, having come from a number of sources.

Along the way I've discovered that not all yellow sands are created equal, unfortunately. I had a part bag of Hansen yellow sand which I bought from Wickes last Autumn, but when I went to get some more I discovered that Wickes have changed their supplier and they now sell a reddish coloured sand. After much searching I found a local builders merchant who advertised yellow builders sand so I bought a couple of bags. I used up the part bag of Hansen and it came out an almost perfect colour match, but although the new stuff looked much the same in the bag, the mortar mix came out much more yellow, as in these pics. However it is calming down a bit now that it's drying out and once its weathered it will be OK, I think.
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Sun Apr 21, 2019 1:11 pm

Looks great Phil, I like the sound of water trickling away so once it's all running film it please :thumbup:

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