Garden Railway Forum

I think the tree bypass section on the track is inspired

Thanks, it certainly adds interest.

TTHLRMatt:100890 wrote:Thanks, it certainly adds interest.

And I look forward to the pics!

Now, lets get up to date shall we?
Sunday seemed a good enough day to finish off Thorpe running wise and do the little fixes we had been meaning to!
First, the No 2 road loop was connected up to the rest of the track.

My little atropos sled was used to pick up the odd rail ends.

Coldoch No 3 coming round the bend.

In the warm sun light, we used Caradon to test the track work and due to not many movements, I was able to keep him in steam for a surprisingly long time!

On the home made point at the South end of the station was fitted with a point lever (90733 will remember making the points!) but a sign might be made to go near it as the lever cant be pushed right to the ground either way! The far blade was also re soldered to the tie bar.

One of the new members of the fleet, Tom B came out for a run......

...... and shunt everything about!

Tarn Torrasay came out for a long awaited run to stretch its legs after not coming to Harrogate.

Compulsory use of the new bogie flat bed.

Unfortunately this happened.....

The bogie bolt worked loose and in a derailment, the bogie came out, loosing the screw somewhere under the station.... with the nettles. A new one was found late but after a bit of fun with the sled, the bogie was put back under.



Later, we used it to take away some of the smaller track pieces.

Now for some shunting.




For one of the new headshunts, I constructed quite a nice little buffer and fixed it in place with a concoction of adhesives and nails. A lot of bumping later, it still stands and does not even wobble when something hits it.


Work at the end of Sunday


Now, through this week, after exams as a destresser, I have gradually been doing some ballasting on the section I am certain it will be on (not sure where the platforms exactly are). This is excess from the station at Lakeshore Railroad but seems to be sitting very well after a lot of rain, loose. This will be sprayed with some dilute PVA though.


Tom B looking quite the part.




Wednesday was the last day recently that I did any ballasting.

I took the advantage of having Lanty Slee out (as not our longest but our widest and beefiest loco (for now)) to mark out for the platforms using a pencil along its edge.





Our current widest vehicle.

Good progress, and doesn't the ballast make a difference?

I know doesn't it. Makes it even more so since it was FRRRREEEEE :p

It would be much easier to make the platforms rail height.............. just a thought!

That's looking really good Matt. Have you any idea of the grading size of the stone?

Your track alignment looks like you've spent the time and effort to get it right; no kinks and irregularities. Well done on some professional workmanship. The Ragleth looks really good making it's way through the layout.

Andrew

Thats about how high they will be Bryan but I still want to work out where the locos overhang on the curves.
Thanks Andrew, we did take a lot of time over it! No I dont know the stone grade but it looks about right for the scale. Its actually a Lawley but we do have a Ragleth as well!

I've been and fetched my specs and I can now see my mistake!

I think it is the care you take over things like vehicle overhang and platform position which make all the difference Matt. They might seem over the top on face value but your pictures show that going the extra mile has worthwhile results.

The stone looks a bigger size than is often seen, probably about a third bigger. It's not something I've particularly been conscious of until I saw the photos you posted. It's something I'll certainly be bearing in mind as and when the day finally comes to put some ballast down on the Soar Valley Light.

That ballast is only being used for Thorpe anyway, I will be shifting to Limestone further round!

Matt,
You could solve the issue of the lever throw on your home made point, by putting an 'omega loop' into the link rod between lever and tie bar.

We have considered that and still are! We just have a visualization of someone coming and throwing it right down to the point where it just breaks

In between days at Lakeshore and building larger items, I found a bit of time to do a small amount of work at Thorpe.
I brought out some of my 7/8ths / 1:12th bits and tried the sierra valley wheels through the points, finding some tight spots so the flanges may be turned down a bit.

After penciling out the low platform boundaries, I added some shuttering using some balsa and small dabs of superglue for when I pour the cement! This will then be removed and the edging added.


I would have gotten all the above done but I managed to accidentally slip when cutting with a craft knife and I slit my thumb open, quite deep too! After its was wrapped up (a lot!!!) I sat down for a while with a cuppa, for once blood got the better of me

I know where you´re coming from concerning the thumb. I used to be quite a good pianist, until ....

I´m sure you measured out the platforms in relation to the largest piece of rolling stock you´ll even buy or make. I just discovered a while back that I didn´t. The Swift Sixteen tram is really, really wide (esp. if you have dual gauge track and thought that the 45mm stuff was wider and closer to the platform ....

Yeh I get what you mean about the platform totally! We have a rear road (No 4) that is basically a through road for the larger locos. The platform will be slightly lower to try and compensate but something will come along

Now for some photos from a few weeks back when I steamed Herries up one night!

That´s a coincidence. I was testing a Peter Angus loco on the K&NWLR last night.

That is a very pretty little locomotive!

Now that is a good looking locomotive.

Chris Cairns