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

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philipy
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Fri Sep 07, 2018 10:08 am

ge_rik wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 9:25 am Some cleave more readily than others though. I suppose it's because sandstone is sedimentary??? :?:
Sounds feasible.

This Cotswold limestone is strange. When I've tried hammer and chisel before, it has tended to just break into irregular lumps. However when the winter gets at it, after several years it does crack into thinner bits. Not exactly layers but more or less in the same plane, which is what I want. Trouble is I don't think I can wait 10 years for it to happen! :lol:
I think I might try angle grinding a line round a block and then chisel it, in the hope that the line will give it a weakness. I can always then hammer the ground edges where they are visible
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by Andrew » Fri Sep 07, 2018 10:15 am

Looking great so far - and you've reminded me that a stream is on the long-tern to-do list for the (WH)WHR...

I had one (well', more of an elongated water feature really) on my old line, with a solar powered pump. That worked rather nicely for a while, but then stopped pumping water and started emitting a loud high-pitched whine instead, possibly because it was clogged up with drowned slugs. I'll do it properly next time, using this thread and Rik's blog for guidance...

Cheers,

Andrew.

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Fri Sep 07, 2018 5:09 pm

Well I had a go at stone cutting today. As I suspected this stone doesn't like being chiselled and I ended up with a load of bits instead of two slabs.

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So, I got my small angle grinder out and cut a line right round, and that splits Ok, but obviously leaves a small smooth border, which clearly doesn't look natural.
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However a couple of minutes work with a lump hammer soon roughens that up
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Then a few more minutes with a steel wire brush blends it all together.
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I don't think I'll win any commissions for repairing cathedrals, but it will do for what I want!
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Fri Sep 07, 2018 6:24 pm

Looks the part, proper job!

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Fri Sep 07, 2018 8:56 pm

When the stone has weathered though the winter no-one would ever know!
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Fri Sep 07, 2018 10:20 pm

Peter Butler wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 8:56 pm When the stone has weathered though the winter no-one would ever know!
I'll echo that, especially once moss starts growing over it.

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Mon Sep 10, 2018 1:10 pm

Yes, It should weather nicely, that's partly why I was a bit anxious to get the stones available before winter so they have a chance to weather on the cut faces.

I've done a bit more this past few days but nothing much worth photographing. Basically I've acquired a small plastic box which, with one side removed and possibly a hole cut in it for the supply pipe, will become the former for the top end of the stream. I haven't yet fully decided whether to run the supply pipe over the top or attach it to a tank pipe connector in the side. Running it over the top will be easier to do but harder to disguise whereas going through the side will look much neater but prone to leaks and water syphoning back. In the picture, the pipe will come in from the back LH corner and the stream will flow out either from the front LH side.
The large lump of slate just visible at the RH side will be split and used to form a junction with the waterfall at the back and cover the inlet pipe.

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Yes I know that slate and Cotswold stone aren't normally found together but we have very peculiar geology in Elderbury, it attracts geologists from all over the world. Thats actually the main reason for the railway building Appletree Halt, to enable the hordes of geologists to use the train to do field trips!
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Sat Sep 15, 2018 8:10 pm

Well, I've decided about the water supply position. It will be fed over the top of the end of the tray in the picture above, between the tray and waterfall. To do that neatly and hopefully fairly unobtrusively, I'm planning to 3d print some custom pipework and I've spent 3 or 4 hours over the past two days doing the drawings, which for the sake of completeness I'll post here. There are basically three components, each having two mirror image halves, so eventually I'll print six objects then glue them together.
1) 2 halves of the incoming supply pipe
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2) The 'manifold'
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manifold top view.png
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3) Delivery spouts
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4) Complete system with all of the components assembled.
complete system.png
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The spouts wll hook over the end of the box.
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Sat Sep 15, 2018 8:23 pm

This is an ambitious scheme and I'm looking forward to seeing the completed pipework. I've not seen anything like this before so I can't imagine how you came up with the design.
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Sun Sep 16, 2018 8:25 am

What are you going to use for glue?

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Sun Sep 16, 2018 10:57 am

Blimey, that's well engineered. Is your middle name Bazzalgette?

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by IanC » Sun Sep 16, 2018 11:48 am

ge_rik wrote: Sun Sep 16, 2018 10:57 am Blimey, that's well engineered. Is your middle name Bazzalgette?

Rik
I agree. Interesting engineering. Far more ambitious than my Heath Robinson solution would be.
Ian

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Sun Sep 16, 2018 2:00 pm

Thanks for all the nice comments chaps. Rik's gave both of us a laugh!
Peter Butler wrote: Sat Sep 15, 2018 8:23 pm I can't imagine how you came up with the design.
Peter,
Like most of my idea's/projects it just sort of growed.

I was contemplating some sort of clip to hold the 38mm ID flexible supply pipe to the top of the tray edge and wondering if I could print something, but in the back of my mind I thought that a 38mm (44mm inclding wall thickness) lump would be too difficult to disguise, so I started wondering about going to a flatter but wider profile with the same cross-sectional area to avoid throttling the flow.

Before getting too complicated a design, I started to think about how it could be drawn. The Sketchup drawing program has a tool called "Follow Me" which I have used a number of times previously for producing things like chamfers. Basically if you draw, say, a diagonal across a corner, highlight the adjacent edge and click "follow me" it automatically runs the triangle to the end of the highlighted line, which can be any shape, like round a door frame for example and you get a chamfered edge to the frame. Well, I had a brainwave at this point, but tested it with something fairly simple. I drew two concentric circles, 3mm apart and removed the centre to give the end of a tube with an external diameter of 38mm. I then drew a line from the outer edge at right angles 150mm long, added a 90deg curve to the end and drew another straight line from the end of the curve. So far so good, but nothing I haven't done before, so now for the bright idea. I highlighted the three lines, hit "Follow Me" and clicked on the face of the tube end, and in a split second it did just that, and I had a hollow tube with a bend in the centre! I then used "Follow me" three more times round the circumference of the pipe to produce the triangular barbs to grip and stop the flexible tube. Finally, because it is easier to print without overhangs, I split it lengthways so eventually I will print 2 open half-tubes, which is the first drawing above.

Following that, I worked out the dimensions of the flattened tube to hook over the tray edge and drew the shape as a long rectangle with one inner curved end and one flat end. I then drew the adjacent lines, similar to the first pipe( different dims obviously), hit F-Me again and got the hollow hooked shape. This was then copied and mirror-imaged so that when glued together flt-to-flat, I will have the area to cope with the same volume - actually I rounded it up slightly to make some notional allowance for friction flow losses in the narrowed pipe.

All I now needed was a piece of pipe, which I'm calling a manifold for want of a better term, with a long thin hole in one side and a fitting to take the two hook pieces. This was drawn using similar techniques.

I hope all that makes some sense if anyone has been daft enough to try reading it! :scratch:

Tom,
I shall print it in ABS and use Plasticweld to stick it all together.

Finally, SWMBO says I ought to point out that I've been doing this whilst sitting near the pool in our hotel overooking the Nile in Luxor! (Sorry !)
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:57 pm

Now it makes sense.... I bet there is a hieroglyph somewhere in Luxor which has inspired you!
Thinking about water flow and distribution it does allow a wider spread of water volume than a simple outlet pipe thus reducing pressure and a jet-like exit from the supply. I think you have found the perfect solution there.
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by Lonsdaler » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:28 am

philipy wrote: Sun Sep 16, 2018 2:00 pm Thanks for all the nice comments chaps. Rik's gave both of us a laugh!

...Before getting too complicated a design, I started to think about how it could be drawn. The Sketchup drawing program has a tool called "Follow Me" which I ...click "follow me" ... hit "Follow Me" ... used "Follow me" ...three more times round the circumference of the ... pool in our hotel overooking the Nile in Luxor! (Sorry !)
Have I got that right? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Have a relaxing holiday Mr and Mrs Philipy - the last time I went to Luxor it rained - the first time in 5 years, apparently :roll: I'm just lucky like that :mrgreen:
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by IanC » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:53 am

Enjoy Luxor. I have fond memories of Luxor. I took my daughter there as part of her 18th birthday present. on her birthday she went into Tutankhamun's tomb. Would love to go back again. So much to see.
Ian

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:30 pm

Phil, we were here at the beginning of May this year and had several days of intermittent rain. It was cold too, we didn't go near the pool for about a week, then suddenly it all cleared up.
About 2 years ago we were down in Aswan and had a torrential thunderstorm, the first they had seen for about 20 years. The locals didn't know what to do!

Ian, yes there is loads to see, although we've been so often that there isn't much we haven't seen now. Don't know when you were here but it is very quiet now, hardly any tourists and the local economy is badly hit. UK TUI and Thos Cook no longer fly here so the only way is by Egyptair from Heathrow
Philip

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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by IanC » Mon Sep 17, 2018 2:56 pm

We went in November 2005. The weather was hot, in the 90s with no sign of rain! The locals were wearing two or three layers of clothes complaining it was cold! I've heard reports that the tourists are staying away because of the unrest. I suspect that's why we are getting reports of new findings in a bid to attract the tourists back. We got on really well with some of the locals to the extent that we were invited to their home to see the real Egypt. I don't think anyone who hasn't been can appreciate the scale of some of the buildings and temples.
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by philipy » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:21 pm

IanC wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 2:56 pm I've heard reports that the tourists are staying away because of the unrest.
Exactly and that is so wrong and so sad. A maniac with a bomb, a knife or a car can kill you just as easily in Manchester, London, Paris, Berlin or the south of France, as here. There are more police here ( all armed) just in Luxor, mostly looking bored, as there are probably in most whole English counties.
One of the felucca ( sailing boat) 'captains' touting for business stopped us as we passed him for a 2nd time and simply said "You tell everyone to come back, tell them it is safe here" and he is absolutely right. My wife says she would rather walk down the street alone at night here than she would most places back home.
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Re: A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway

Post by IanC » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:03 pm

It is tragic. Egypt has so much to offer and the locals are no less friendly than anywhere else in the world. The police where everywhere at the time of our visit. They were armed too. If was two brothers who had one of the Fellucas named Maggie Moon that acted as unofficial guides for us and showed us much of Egypt. They were incredibly helpful and bought us gifts to bring home. I would have no hesitation in returning if the opportunity arose.
Ian

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