The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

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laalratty
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Post by laalratty » Wed May 15, 2013 8:51 pm

My impression has always been that the clue is in the name, "waste" tip meaning that it is just waste. I don't think there is an environmental impact as such, very little if anything appears to be able to grow in it, although eventually stuff would probably fight its way through, especially if it was removed. What does concern me is ownership (although with the company presumably only existing in skeleton form, if at all, then they might not care) or more importantly stability. The very last thing I'd want to see if several thousand tons of waste careering down the hill and landing on Tanygrisiau, which is what would happen if Cwmorthin went. Hence I tried to make sure I only took stuff off the top, or from out of the beck (which is the one the FfR crosses just before Tanygrisiau station). But yes, a visit to get some raw material can also be inspirational in other ways ;)
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Post by Andrew » Wed May 15, 2013 10:29 pm

Good points chaps, thank you. I reckon I'm convinced - now I just need to convince the rest of the family that a trip to a North Wales slag heap is a good idea. Maybe I could "get lost" on the way to IKEA one weekend???

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Post by Andrew » Sat Jun 15, 2013 6:23 pm

Hello again,

The better weather of the last few weeks has seen some progress on the railway, with this short extension across the back gate and round the corner.

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It doesn't look like much, but this area was previously a dumping ground for building materials and assorted junk, so it took a fair bit of work just to clear the site. Some of that junk will go back temporarily while I build the next section, the lower terminus - it looks like that's going to be a relatively big job... Eventually the upper terminus will sit on top of the curve in the picture, hiding it from view.

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Initial testing was carried out between showers this afternoon using my Accucraft Baldwin, just back from having a little work carried out at Chuffed 2 Bits. It ran very well, and the new Summerlands chuffer sounded great, although its sensitive front bogie did reveal one curve that will need looking at. The curve in question had already given me a clue - my FR bogie carriage derails at the same bit.

It looks as though it's going to be a tricky line to drive - steep and variable gradients and sharp curves. I've not yet got the hang of smoothly running along the whole line, I reckon it'll take a fair bit of practice. Ballasting will help by ironing out some of the smaller lumps and bumps, but I won't do that until the next section's laid...

Cheers,

Andrew.

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Post by Andrew » Mon Aug 05, 2013 12:23 pm

Hello again...

I've been doing a little more scenic work recently, adding the rear wall of the short cutting pictured up the thread a little. It was a very tight location, with little space between the railway line and the fence, but I managed to scrounge some thin bits of stone from some friends who were doing work in the garden of the old vicarage where they live - and so Vicarage Cutting was born. The stone has been mortared in and I've started encouraging a little plant growth.

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I had a change of plan where ballasting was concerned. I was going to complete my little line as far as the lower terminus (I started from the middle) and then worry about fettling the track, ballasting etc. But I wasn't happy with how trains were running on the first bit, too much bouncing about, so I decided to try and put that right before I built any more, starting in my nice new cutting. So the track was levelled and a mixture of ready-mix mortar, grit and sieved earth applied and watered into place. I'm quite pleased with it, although it looks a little pale when it's very dry, I may slosh some dilute brown masonry paint over it - or just leave it weather naturally.

The next section to be ballasted will be the station. In preparation for that I've finalised the track layout (better clearances and a more narrow gauge look I think, it was all too parallel before...) and added the platform edging made from blocks of slate. Here it is yesterday afternoon...

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Cheers all,

Andrew.
Last edited by Andrew on Thu Aug 08, 2013 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by hussra » Tue Aug 06, 2013 10:15 am

The cutting looks great - nicely done. It's always a hard call as to whether to finish off an area, or press on and lay more track...
Richard Huss
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Post by Andrew » Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:25 pm

Hello again,

After two weeks away I returned from holiday keen to get stuck into railway building again.

The first task was to complete (well, nearly) the ballasting of the station area:

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Like the last lot of ballasting it's a little pale, but should weather - and if it doesn't I'll paint it...

After that I turned my attention to extending the line again, clearing and roughly levelling the area for the lower terminus before laying down some track to give a rough idea of how much space I need:

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The next stage will be to build a low wall to separate railway line and lawn...

While all that was going on I posed a train around the existing line, to provide inspiration as I worked - there are parts of the line (not many - there's not much line!) that are beginning to look as I'd like them to now...

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The Bertie wasn't in steam for these photos but I had a lovely run with my Russell last night that that fired my enthusiasm for further construction, watch this space...

All the best,

Andrew.

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Post by laalratty » Thu Aug 29, 2013 8:52 pm

Nice work, I do like those coaches...
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Post by Narrow Minded » Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:44 am

Coming along very nicely Andrew :D
The planned terminus looks great, and I especially like the second photo (with the old Koala Brothers station! ;) )
Last edited by Narrow Minded on Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Keith S » Sat Aug 31, 2013 7:55 pm

Allright, that's IT. I can't take it anymore. I'm buying a Roundhouse Bertie, and converting it to hackworth valve gear. I can't take looking at pictures of Berties a second longer.

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Post by Andrew » Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:48 am

Keith S:87577 wrote:Allright, that's IT. I can't take it anymore. I'm buying a Roundhouse Bertie, and converting it to hackworth valve gear. I can't take looking at pictures of Berties a second longer.
Glad you're back feeling positive about all things 16mm Keith! I should probably confess that the Bertie wasn't in steam because it had failed - It's not run smoothly since I reassembled the rods after repainting, but I'm hoping to cure that this week...

Cheers,

Andrew

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Post by Keith S » Sun Sep 01, 2013 6:11 pm

It must be something simple. I hope you get Bertie fettled soon.

I haven't built or run a thing since June. I like 16mm because of my interest in live steam, and the locomotives are a compelling size. I need to get a garden before I can be particularly active with train-running, but I can still covet locomotives. I like the way "Bertie" looks. Some do not like the small smokebox, but I think the overall design is clever with the tank disguising the actual size of the boiler, which in turn makes the cab look as though the engine has a prototypical "marine" style firebox, which many small tank engines did have. Overall it's a nice model in my opinion. It looks very British. I also like those two green carriages. They look very nice, especially the red end on the balcony coach. I like models that make me wish I could ride on them.

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Post by Dannypenguin » Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:10 pm

Andrew:87608 wrote: ...because it had failed - It's not run smoothly since I reassembled the rods after repainting....
Thats exactly why the only mod my Berties got is a pressure gauge, and hopefully a brass dome, nothing that requires taking apart... ;)
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Post by Andrew » Sat Nov 09, 2013 11:16 am

Hello again,

It's been a while, but there's a little more progress to report on my (WH)WHR. I've just taken a week off work and between rain showers and various jobs around the house I got this small wall built:

Image

It's from bricks recovered from a house I one lived in that have been sitting around the garden for a decade waiting to be put to good use. Beyond the brick wall is another low wall built from old concrete blocks - these will be faced with slate. The idea is that the area behind the wall is levelled to form my lower terminus. For now I plan to cover the whole area with slate chippings, tidy it all up and just lay a very simple track layout while I take stock and plan the next stage... I hope to run a test train in a wee or two though...

Cheers,

Andrew

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Post by Andrew » Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:00 pm

Good evening...

A minor milestone was achieved this weekend when the Windmill Hill Welsh Highland was extended into the probable site of Llanbadarn, the proposed lower terminus. It's just a temporary set-up for now, a single line and a siding, with some very basic scenery to assess both the operating potential of an end-to-end line and the impact on the garden of the station site. If either prove undesirable the plan will probably change to a continuous circuit with just a single track through this area. Either way it will allow me to grow the lawn again in an area that's been a boggy dumping ground for far too long...

Anyway, here's yesterday's first train entering Llanbadarn with my son Jonah at the controls:

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And Moelwyn a rest having reached the new end of the line:

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Apologies for the poor photos, rubbish light yesterday afternoon. Incidentally, this humble train was known as "The Brendon Bell", as my wife has decreed that until regular operation starts all trains, even lowly works trains, must be named. So this one features a local street name combined with her maiden name...

Today saw the running of "The Steamy Brendon Bell", with loco No 3 getting a look in:

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Moelwyn was in use again, on shunt release duties:

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My youngest children enjoyed helping with that so much that when No 3 had run out of steam I let them loose with Moelwyn, setting them shunting puzzles to solve. One drove while the other acted as shunter and the pair of them had a lovely time - by the time we went in for lunch we'd all been playing trains for an hour and a half and could happily have continued for longer. So THAT's what it's all about...

Here's Daisy and Jonah working out how to deliver a load of timber to the wood store and then put the train back in the right order for the return journey:

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Back to work tomorrow, but it's been a fine weekend...

Andrew.

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Post by jim@NAL » Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:51 pm

looking good I like the cutting

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Post by Andrew » Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:37 pm

Hello!

No wonder I had to dig so far to find this thread, it looks like I haven't added anything to it since November. Which is true of the railway too, but then it's rained pretty much every day since then...

That all changed this weekend, and the lovely sunny weather got me outside again, to survey the next stretch of line to be built, which will curve underneath the deck and then dive underneath the swing chair:

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As you can see, it's hardly going to be a scenic delight, but there ain't any other way to get from the passing point to the upper terminus!

As we all know, running a train can help with motivation (as you can imagine from the above photos, I needed all the help I could get...) so Moelwyn and the slate wagons came out to play:

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It was the first run for Jim, Moelyn's new driver - I think he was once supposed to look like Hannibal from the A Team, but I reckon he looks more like my late Uncle Jim, hence the name.

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I managed to get the site into a workable state yesterday, and today started digging a trench for footings and a recycled brick trackbed - I expect that'll take a good few weeks to achieve, but it's nice to be back outdoors...

Andrew.
Last edited by Andrew on Mon Mar 31, 2014 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by kandnwlr » Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:14 am

Andrew:83476 wrote:
laalratty:83399 wrote:Nice work, getting slate to improve the look of my line I found was a great excuse to get a parent to drive me to North Wales (although I'd drive myself these days), in particular the waste tips at Cwmorthin are very accessible. Not quite sure of the legal status of acquiring  slate this way though.... :roll:
Yes, I'd wondered about liberating some waste slate from a tip somewhere.

Legally I guess it must be dubious, the stuff must belong to someone whether they want it or not.

Morally I reckon it's probably OK, depending on where it's from - if it's from a slag heap hundreds of feet high that's been there unwanted  for 150 years that would seem to me to be OK.

I don't know if there's an environmental consideration? Is a slate  tip an important eco-system? Would I risk disturbing the nesting place of the Lesser-Spotted Slate Warblers or distracting the endangered Purple Crested Slag Lizard from the task in hand during the important mating season? Dunno...

Of course it would cost a whole load to drive from Bristol to Wales, but I could do with a nice inspirational trip in that direction...

Cheers,

Andrew.

Do we have to wear hi-viz vests while collecting rock samples? :lol: The best investment I ever made was a geological map and hammer; let´s you know where something might be available closer to home. As for disturbing the habitat, I suspect that you´d have to take a tonne or so to have any measurable impact - I trust that we´re not in that business. BTW: If youi´re interested in looking for substitutes, then shale is not bad for slate - and it´s much easier to break into small pieces. Probably available closer to Bristol 8)

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Post by Andrew » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:40 pm

Thanks for the thoughts re slate etc. I'm still hoping to find my way to a slag heap at some point, but have changed my plans slightly too. The corner of the line where Moelwyn's standing is to become a tunnel, with the upper terminus above it - I was planning to use lots of slate in that area. Surprisingly I've found that removing the shed that the old line ran through and dropping it to ground level have had the effect of increasing its visual impact from the house, and I need to reduce this as much as possible in future building - so the upper station will be somewhat "slimline" in nature, a simple run round loop and platform, with plenty of planting. I plan to make wooden planters around he upper station to facilitate that, and think I'll face those with slate kitchen tiles - I picked up lots of those cheaply or for free. I reckon that should look OK, particularly once trailing plants etc start growing over it... Better get back to the present extension first, and carry on digging my little trench under the swing sofa...

Cheers,

Andrew.

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Post by Andrew » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:41 pm

With the weather brightening up I've been back outside building. On Saturday I managed to lay the concrete footing that will carry the next section of my little line. Apologies, this may be the dullest photo ever taken:

Image

Sunday didn't see any further work because we headed off to take the West Somerset to Minehead. Which was a lovely day out until I got what I thought was a smut in my eye on the way home - when it hadn't shifted by Monday I took myself to Bristol Eye Hospital's A&E where it turned out to be a piece of rusty metal - a bit of one of the 7F's boiler tubes?

Anyway, this evening I cracked on and laid some of the bricks that will form the latest bit of trackbed - no dull photos today because by the time I'd finished it was so dark I couldn't see the bubble in the spirit level. I'm off work next week so will hopefully get this part of the line finished then...

After that it's the final push to the upper terminus. I've just purchased the track for this, including the new-ish Peco small radius points to save space, and this evening I tried out the proposed layout on the kitchen floor. In theory the points are just a little tighter than my Baldwin will cope with, but it looks as though it should just about be OK...  

Image

Bye for now,

Andrew
Last edited by Andrew on Mon Mar 31, 2014 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by laalratty » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:05 pm

That "worlds dullest photo" reminds me of a few I've taken of lines under construction...! Good to see things progressing though, and having just bought a couple of the 38 inch radius points, it is good to know what will and will not get round.
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"It's a bit big isn't it?"
"It's a full scale model sir....."

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