Garden Railway Forum

Great work on the Truss Bridge Graeme. Hope to see your line up and running in the future.

Mitch

One more step on the road to a running track.........

AMS (Accucraft) 45mm ng track isn't currently available in assembled form here in Oz. I was able to get an unused box of assembled track from a friend of Grant, but phase 1 of the track needs more than 60', so I also had to lay in a supply of rail and sleeper strips and assemble the rest myself. AMS code 250 rail comes in 5' lengths and the sleeper strips are 12" long with 11 sleepers.

Some experimentation showed that threading the sleepers on the rail took a fair bit of force and a lot of time, so I ended up building a simple wooden jig that would hold the sleepers square and at the right spacing, while the rail was pushed through the moulded spikes and sleeper plates.

The first photo shows the jig in use. It is simply two pieces of wood with cleats nailed on at sleeper spacing. The longer piece is gripped in the bench vice, then the rails are slid into a sleeper strip and that assembly clamped in place. The shorter piece slides on a couple of bits of wood clamped to the bench. It is loaded with a strip of sleepers and pushed into place so the sleepers slide over the rail. Then repeat until all five sleeper strips are in place.


It might have been a bit easier if the rail was lubricated, but I didn't have any of the soap solution used when fitting tyres to wheel rims and a petroleum based lube could well attack the plastic rail fixings over time.

The second photo shows the result of two afternoons work with the assembly jig stacked on the workbench. There are 15 lengths of track in the pile, so about half the track needed for the mainline loop, if my maths is right. The rest is in a box under the bench, so the next step is putting posts in the ground.........


Regards,
Graeme

Most impressive Graeme.

What sort of timescale do you have in the back of your mind?

That track looks huge to the Peco SM32 stuff I use!

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Fri Oct 26, 2018 3:49 pm That track looks huge to the Peco SM32 stuff I use!

But what I'd give for 5ft lengths!

Must say Graeme, thats very impressive indeed. They do look far superior to the ready bought stuff….Bet they are far cheaper too.

That does look good, Graeme.
I wish now that I had constructed my railway from code 250 track - bog standard code 332 LGB rail looks far too heavyweight for a light railway by comparison.

Rik

Great work graeme! Hope to see more on your railway soon.

Mitch

philipy wrote: ↑Fri Oct 26, 2018 2:28 pm What sort of timescale do you have in the back of your mind?

Stage 1 running by Easter, but I'm not guaranteeing which Easter...........

Graeme

GTB wrote: ↑Sat Oct 27, 2018 2:10 pm

philipy wrote: ↑Fri Oct 26, 2018 2:28 pm What sort of timescale do you have in the back of your mind?

Stage 1 running by Easter, but I'm not guaranteeing which Easter...........

Graeme

Soooo.. first train an Easter Egg Special then?

GTB wrote: ↑Sat Oct 27, 2018 2:10 pm Stage 1 running by Easter,

I'll remember that!!
Grant.

Something has started sprouting in the backyard (besides weeds) ..........

The pic shows the first 2m of track support that was installed this week as a test piece. The design was easy enough to assemble and is strong enough for the job, so the test has been signed off and work is now proceeding on extending the track support around the raised area of the backyard.


The material needed to build the supports for the first stage was delivered Friday and this pic shows them stacked on the garage workshop floor. The car that normally occupies that area will be parked in the drive for some time I think.


The actual support posts are star pickets hammered into the ground at 1m intervals, with just enough sticking up for the T-support to slide over the star picket and sit at the right height. The T-support is a piece of 50mm x 50mm galv angle bolted to a piece of 40mm square galv RHS tube. The longitudinal supports are 30mm x 30mm galv angle glued to the cross piece of the T-support. The star pickets have a black bituminous coating to provide some rust protection and the above ground steelwork is galvanised for the same reason. The deck will be made from Weathertex cladding boards, which are stacked on the left of the above pic. This is basically a heavy weatherproof version of Masonite, designed for external cladding of buildings and to resist the Aust. climate.

When I started designing a track support structure, it turned out that using galvanised steel for the support frame was the same price locally as building it in timber, so the choice was a no-brainer. The steel has to be bought through a steel distributor though, as the same stuff from hardware stores is twice the price. The corrosion life of the galvanised steel will outlast me as it isn't buried in the ground, plus it doesn't warp and the termites can't eat it. Same goes for the star pickets. Although it is made from Aust hardwoods, Weathertex is termite resistant and is also well above the ground, so harder for them to reach.

Building the test length suggested I can erect about 3m in an afternoon without killing myself. The first production length was successfully laid today, so the installed length is now 6m. I may make the completion target yet if the weather co-operates, but I'm still not saying 'which' Easter it will be finished.........

The next pic shows progress at close of play today. There won't be any progress next week as the forecast is for rain for the first three days and then I'll be packing the car ready for the Great Southern Steamup at Gembrook next weekend.


Regards,
Graeme

Been trying various bits of steel tube as a fit on star pickets, was looking like the order of 1 7/8ths ID. Did think of square tube but didn't have any big enough. Glad you got it sorted though, a circle by this Easter surely.
See you Friday.
Grant.
PS 30 X 30 angle glued! glued! glued! what's this glued, a mechanical fastening to come later perhaps?

Thats really fantastic Graeme. What a brilliant idea using galvanised steel. It would be possible to carry some weight I bet, without it creaking and moving over time. Plus there will be hardly any maintenance after, if any.

Waiting to see a small run on it, if that will be possible…. :thumb right:

LNR wrote: ↑Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:55 pm Been trying various bits of steel tube as a fit on star pickets, was looking like the order of 1 7/8ths ID. Did think of square tube but didn't have any big enough.
See you Friday.
Grant.
PS 30 X 30 angle glued! glued! glued! what's this glued, a mechanical fastening to come later perhaps?

48mm id pipe would have worked, but there's no galv steel pipe/tube anywhere near that. Star pickets aren't a precision rolled section and neither is 40mm SHS tubing, so some posts fit and some don't, but nothing that can't be adjusted with an angle grinder.

If modern adhesives can glue a jet fighter together, they are strong enough for this job. If it doesn't work, the fallback might be the electric glue gun.......

Yes, I'll see you Friday.......

Graeme

What 'glue' have you used?

Looks like a good solid structure Graeme! Shouldn't have any issues supporting the weight of the garratt on that.

In between rain events, hot spells and real life, progress is slowly continuing..........

Support posts are now installed past the big curve at the south end and are heading back towards the north along the retaining wall, so about halfway there.

The pic shows progress yesterday and a few more posts went in today. With the weather the way it is (not a cloud between here and Adelaide when the photo was taken), I can put in three posts in the morning while it is still fairly cool, then retire to the workshop to make the three posts for the next day. The yellow gizmo on the partially driven star picket is a post level so the picket can be kept vertical as it is driven in. A 4lb club hammer isn't ideal for driving them, but the posts are too short to use the normal type of star picket driver.


The original plan was to use a flexible adhesive to join the longitudinals to the cross pieces, but that idea hasn't worked out. I trialled Fix All which the maker claims works on zinc coated steels, but the galv steel also has a lacquer coating and the adhesive bond wasn't strong enough, as the joint easily broke when twisted by hand pressure. I've now dug out the old mains powered hand drill and it's drill stand, so the longitudinals can be drilled in place and will be bolted as well as glued. When the nuts and bolts get here.........

Regards,
Graeme

Out of interest Graeme why have you chosen not to use your tree bark covered raised beds for the trackwork?

It would look nice having the track running around the bushes you have in my mind.

I need one of those kneelers Graeme…..