Garden Railway Forum

My builds for my 45mm line so far have used either Accucraft Choppers, or Binney's Caernarfon couplers which have a nice wide head on them. Both of these seem to prevent them doing the buffer interlock tango.

Cheers,
Peter in Va

I was on another spurt of construction today, feeling it was about time to wrap up the woodworking side of the project. The last section of raised bench work was framed and about half the boards put on. Before I put the rest into position, I need to let the concrete cure for about 48 hours before replacing the soil around the foundation and creating a brick edging so boards and ground do not come into contact with one another. I have laid some spare composite roof shingles under the ends of the joists to make sure that they do not make soil contact. There will need to be a short culvert type structure to separate the station area from the gravelly trench that will carry the ground level tracks.

Small radius points are on order, and I am expecting them to arrive Monday or Tuesday. A big track laying effort middle of next week seems likely, but not inevitable. I am supposed to have a quiet Holy Week this year, but someone could still go off sick. I need to run amok with the camera again so that you have some idea what I am blethering on about, and to record the evolution of the line.

Cheers,
Peter in Va

So much for my hopes of a quiet week, as we have had a major visit from the 'foul-up fairy' at work. The district is purchasing some property, which is under contract, and the present owners decided to pick this week to tell the trustees they would not be vacating the premises on time. So having listened to various folks vent, and deciding that we need to kick it across to the professionals, I disappeared into the back garden for a play.

Anyway, last Thursday I had mounted the uphill end of the stringers to hold the remaining section of the station area on two steel brackets of the type used to secure wall studs. In turn these are concreted into a couple of old concrete blocks I was able to recycle from the garden 'this'll come in useful' pile. Friday I managed to attach a few decking boards before making a quick trip out of town for an ordination on Saturday. It persisted it down all day Sunday, and everything was too wet still yesterday to do much. I finally got out there this morning and attached the remainder of the deck boards. I used bricks to edge the top end of the station 'base board' so hopefully there will be enough air circulating to keep rot at bay. I also came across a land drain I only half knew was there, so I am going to have to modify the entry into the station slightly to avoid that. Otherwise it was one of my better sessions outside.

Tomorrow it will get a coat or two of paint, then maybe some track laying on Thursday. A day behind the plan for this week, but not bad under the circumstances.

Cheers,
Peter in Va

And of course, I have a clear day and it is raining... not forecasted, naturally.

Peter in Va

I finally got the terminus of the Far End Tramway put together on Wednesday. I had a little potter about with the little black diesel, a wagon, and a coach, and took a few photographs.
There is going to be a certain amount of trimming down in the back corner of the layout where the loop road comes back into the mainline, but I am going to wait until I have some of the mainline laid before faffing about with that.

Cheers,
Peter in Va

Yes, it was nice to have something pottering about out there, but the satisfaction was slightly dented by the fact the last two weeks have been absolutely bananas with no chance of getting anything done. I haven't even been on here since the 27th! More soon, I hope!

Cheers,
Peter in VA

I am hoping to get back to working on the railway in a week or so. This summer has been absolutely crazy with moving into the church, teaching, dealing with miscellaneous problems related to the property purchase, not to mention various family/health distractions.

The station area, as completed at the end of April has survived the summer OK, and I did keep up with maintenance as far as blitzing the weeds was concerned. The area around the path that I reclaimed from ivy has gradually become grass, and the weeds in the former patio are beginning to conclude that they are fighting a loosing battle considering that they have been mown flat every 7 to 10 days all summer.

The disappointing part about this summer has been that I have not even been able to get down to the basement to build rolling stock. The first class vehicle I was building at the beginning of May is still awaiting the completion of its roof!

That's it for now.
Peter in VA

Life does rather get in the way sometimes but at least if you are keeping the weeds down and cutting the grass you are not going backswards.

Don

I am still waiting to get back to the railway. It is getting frustrating. I think I may have to just go and do something out of sheer cussedness just to get the ball rolling again! Work and life in general keep interfering!

Peter in VA

It must be frustrating - it was all coming along so well! I hope you can get back to it soon...

All the best,

Andrew