The Hollycross Railway Company!

[pippindoo]

Shhhh! A little known secret project is taking place in a quiet little corner of Yorkshire, details to follow, but for now, progress over the last few days......

[Peter Butler]

Excellent work... a great start and obviously well planned and executed.
I can see you have your priorities right with the lawned area for the washing line. Everywhere looks so neat and tidy, you will surely get planning permission for an extension after the authorities see that.

[pippindoo]

Thanks Peter, that lawn was actually on a very steep slope before the Bank Holiday! See photo below. I levelled it behind a new wall, using bricks from around the garden, and laid the turf AFTER  getting the railway trackbed in! The track will then loop round on a filcris structure over the lawn in the other photo below. The curved line of blocks provides a way of reversing trains. A 2nd stage may see the railway venture round the front too, but not yet. Oh, and a fence is planned next above the main garden wall, to hide things a bit.

[Dannypenguin]

Nice start!

[robyholmes]

Very nice, good to see another Yorkshire railway (Good weather too)

[Dwayne]

Great start!

[LNR]

Congratulations on a great start, that tunnel will certainly look the part with some growth over the top.
Grant.

[pippindoo]

....or maybe with a train emerging.....

IMG_20160618_085628.jpg (118.44 KiB) Viewed 18368 times

[Soar Valley Light]

Well done Pipp, another railway that rises from the ground at lightning speed and puts my tardy efforts to shame! It looks very neat, tidy and well built. It's clearly been engineered and not just 'happened' as you went along. I look forward to seeing more.

Andrew

[pippindoo]

Not a great deal of planning or engineering Andrew, it pretty much is just 'happening' as I go but all seems OK so far. Bit more track gone in this morning to form the outer platform road and the next job will be to tackle the footpath crossing so I can access the worksite without clambering about! As it happens though, we're just in time to see the Morning Mixed arrive at Hollycross so work can be postponed for a short time.......

[Joe]

Impressive and i like those blood and custard coaches

[pippindoo]

Impressive and i like those blood and custard coaches

Bog standard IP kits Joe, built exactly as per but with toilet paper pasted on the roof to represent felt. They match the slightly larger ACCUCRAFT loading gauge so look well behind the Lawley!

[ge_rik]

Brilliant start made. Looks part of the landscape already. Will be interested in developments.

Rik

[pippindoo]

A little bit more progress made but a few days of rain has slowed things down. I've added a new folder on my flickr pages to put photos of the railway into, link provided below. The footpath crossings now in place and the station trackwork is coming along nicely. And trains have been running too!...

[andymctractor]

Lovely stuff.
There are some less successful attempts to make track beds out of straight units be they either blocks or planks.
What is clear here is that the track radii are large enouth to reduce the threepenny piece effect. This is helped further by the high standard of block laying giving a very effective 'well engineered' impression.
Whilst my railway is firmly fenced in at its extremities I feel that a railway using similar standards of contruction to this could spread incrementally beyond the original plans and without too much forward planning for each change.

Good luck.

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Pip,

As Andy says, there is some very good quality engineering on display there. I'm very impressed. Getting the alignment smooth and even is absolutely everything when it comes to looking realistic. Very few railways, even narrow gauge industrial ones, were ever just 'laid where they fell', there was almost always at least some surveying and setting out. This means straight straights and circular curves on the whole. Those lines which replicate this always look the better for it.

I love your loco too, the livery is superb. Keep the pics coming please, you are the latest in a whole string of people bringing me inspiration. You have my sincere thanks for that.

Andrew

[pippindoo]

Many Thanks Andy and Andrew. Ive done some planting out around the area which seems to have made a big difference and also finished the access path. A couple of photos here.......



....and a few more photos on my flickr site. Feel free to have a nosey there, link below

[pippindoo]

Greetings Peeps! Been a few weeks since Ive done anything to the railway but back in business these last couple of days and the next stage is underway, namely the raised 'filcris' section. The photos show progress so far, all achieved quite quickly really, the filcris is a joy to work with, hopefully it proves to be relatively maintenance free too! Time, and running trains, will tell! On with the show....

Going beyond Hollycross station, the line will run onto a raised section, almost immediately crossing the main path to the house where I plan to put in a removable bridge. A bit of faffing around gave me the initial positioning of the main bridge supports.



These were built and put in a couple of days ago, securely set in Postfix. A couple of battens were fixed to them to ensure they stay in position relative to each other, both while being set up and the next stage to ensure no twisting out of line occured. I can report this proved its worth, filcris is great to work with, very easy to use, but it IS flexible! Onwards....


The photo above shows the junction for a branch which will eventually lead to the front of the house. From this point, the run out and back will be approximately 60 yards, and will require locos to work hard on the way back!

Standard crosshead screws were used, initially in pre-drilled holes, but I found the filcris accepts them without holes being drilled, it doesnt split, crack, bobble and screws will countersink themselves very easily and neatly, making construction fly along. Within a couple of hours, the first train was venturing onto the new bit of line, and Im pleased with progress. You will note, some realignment of the outer platform line is required as a result of not much proper planning!



The wagon was built with a view to filming. 2 rubber bands hold the camera in place against the bolster and away we go...Ahem....

[Big Jim]

That is looking great. How do you find the cost filcris vs timber?

[pippindoo]

Hi Jim! Thanks very much, Im getting there slowly. Like everything 'green and eco friendly ', the filcris stuff looks pricey, but if it works as it should, the real saving comes in not having to remove rotten timber, dig out and replace concrete footings, rip out and replace torn roofing felt etc and do all the work again in several years, or even sooner! The filcris website shows all sizes of posts, rails and accessories, with prices, so once youve worked out what you need, you can cost it out and then make the decision. I initially thought £40 for carriage was excessive but when it arrived, and filcris rang to arrange delivery on a day to suit me, it was very well packaged in 3 heavy, and 3 metre long parcels so I guess its not too bad. The customer service is very good, the product is very easy to work with, and I would recommend it to anyone if theyre OK with the cost. I did consider using it throughout but feel that Ive made a saving using the blocks and concrete I settled on for the ground level section which again, should be maintenance free hopefully. Hope this helps mate!