Garden Railway Forum

Must be heartbreaking Greg. I would be tempted to use lightweight blocks to make support pillars for the layout and look for some of the steel angle they use for racking some if like giant meccano pieces.
We can have problems over here with wodworm. I bought a run down cottage to do up. All the rafters were so riddled with worm they had bowed a were lighter than expanded foam. Mind you the main timber the wall plates, purlins, and his were barely touched being Oak heartwood they would blunt the worms teeth. Would anything stop the termites?

Don

DonW wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 2:12 pm Must be heartbreaking Greg. I would be tempted to use lightweight blocks to make support pillars for the layout and look for some of the steel angle they use for racking some if like giant meccano pieces.
We can have problems over here with wodworm. I bought a run down cottage to do up. All the rafters were so riddled with worm they had bowed a were lighter than expanded foam. Mind you the main timber the wall plates, purlins, and his were barely touched being Oak heartwood they would blunt the worms teeth. Would anything stop the termites?

Don

So you have wood problems too.
The termites did not come from the rock but from the wet outside soil, somehow. Actually, very little of the baseboard supports were touched by the termites, but I decided to replace everything with termite proofed timber anyhow.
I'll be using old bricks or similar for the small supports on the rock ledge. They are only 20-30cm high.
My main aim is to ensure that none of the new work touches the main house timbers or piers. The problem was that I had butted the baseboard up against the house brick piers. That meant the termites could build their track up between the two and were invisible.

Greg

these days in the UK all the structural timbers have to be pressure treated wood, things like skirting and architraves are not included. Also the humidity of modern houses is much lower than in old cottages and that discourages wood worm. The other problem is dry rot which is a fungus. There is always something. You sound as though you have it sorted now.

Don

Hell of a job, Can't envy you that. Would offer to come help if I lived in Sydney. Some well thought-out design changes though.

It's been 4 months since I ripped out all the termite damaged timber and for a number of reasons I have not been able to get back to replacing any of it.
But I have now decided to do some tidying of the electrical wiring. Tidying means ripping most of it out in this case.

Back in the bad old days there was track power! Thanks goodness I went over to RC and battery about 2005. But before that I had used home made Radio control of fixed track power controllers.
I had 4 RC controllers each with its own transformer and RC system. And there were 4 single line track sections so I built this selection panel to be able to connect any section to any controller by the use of plugs. You can see one of the plugs in the top right.
Today I ripped it all out!

There were also local controllers at each of the 5 major stations. To supply these I ran a +/- 15Vdc supply around the yard. One of the rails was 'common' for all track supplies, and the +/- supply made direction control easier. The general auxiliaries like lights and turnout motors were supplied from this supply too.
Anyhow, without the station controllers, the power requirements of the +/- supply was reduced. So I have rewired the main power supply with smaller transformers, added better short circuit protection and tidied all the wiring up.
A small step in the rebuild process.

Good old track power...... Or should that be BAD old track power . I remember those days. I went from rheostat control on five sections to radio controlled track power, then to DCC before seeing the light (partly your fault ) and going over to battery powered radio control - and haven't looked back since!

So, are you retaining the option of track power in case it's ever needed again?

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:26 pm Good old track power...... Or should that be BAD old track power . I remember those days. I went from rheostat control on five sections to radio controlled track power, then to DCC before seeing the light (partly your fault ) and going over to battery powered radio control - and haven't looked back since!

So, are you retaining the option of track power in case it's ever needed again?

Rik

I went straight to battery R/C at the start thanks to advice from Greg.
I did have experience with DC track power in HO so was aware of the downside.
Funnily enough I have stayed with track power for my HO but added DCC but as it is indoors there a lot less hassles.
The only wiring I have is for the servo point control and its 5V power supply is a battery trickle charged off a solar panel.

GAP wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 9:57 pm I went straight to battery R/C at the start thanks to advice from Greg.
I did have experience with DC track power in HO so was aware of the downside.
Funnily enough I have stayed with track power for my HO but added DCC but as it is indoors there a lot less hassles.
The only wiring I have is for the servo point control and its 5V power supply is a battery trickle charged off a solar panel.

I also ran dead-rail from day dot, after some years of hassle with indoor analogue HO - part of the reason I flogged it all off a few months ago.
So much better now, being able to just sweep the track with a wagon, and get straight to playing self-propelled trains when one feels like it.

Finally I have done some carpentry and the new baseboard within the train room is complete.
It is hard to photograph the whole thing so here is a montage.


I still have to replace the termite damaged walls (black in the 'right end' pic) before I can lay track as I will be crawling over that area to do the work.
But I have started trial track layouts. I'm planning on using those 'sharp' R1, 2' radius curves to have four storage sidings within the double reversing loops. I have been modifying the check rails on the turnouts to allow my 8-coupled locos to get through them. The sharp curves will all be on the sidings entries.
Here is a short video of a possible track layout and how I modified the points.

The slow progress continues.
I have made a storage 'drawer' that pulls out across the front tracks to give me lots of 'off-track' storage. The video will explain more...



I still cannot complete the track laying until the termite riddled walls are replaced and I can't do that till I get some help. But I have finalised the turnout and siding arrangement which you can see here. All the black LGB track and turnouts are screwed down and all the future track will be the aluminium bar in slotted timber which was there before. The 3 tracks at the front are for locos so I can reach and turn off the loco battery! The 2 further back tracks, where I can't easily reach, will be for rakes of wagons to be pushed into.
I'll probably move outside now to do repairs to the termite damaged building-storage cupboard under Melaleuca baseboard.
Someday I'll run trains again.

That drawer is a brilliant concept and a fantastic way to solve two problems in one.

Clever idea, Greg. Makes excellent use of what would otherwise be wasted space.

Rik

Great way to utilise what would otherwise a wasted space.
Will be a great help in making up trains.

Getting there! That drawer is ingenious.
Might it be worth fitting a piece of timber at the front of the baseboard, (either a longitudal lip or vertical sprag) in case the drawer ever rolls a little too far out?

That drawer is an inspired idea, and has got me thinking...

The final installment. After 7 months, I can finally write "Finis".
New room walls completed
All track laying is finished
All trains now stored, with plenty of spare space.
A video of the story..

Very well done, Greg. Lets just hope the termite proof timber lives up to its name, you don't want to have to do it all again in the future, I'm sure.

Great to see a train running through Termite again. In future, I suggest you take greater care in naming any stations on your railway .... I'd put a hold on that the extension to Tornado .....

Rik

Must be a huge relief to be done with that job. Very nicely organised, too.

Thanks for the comments guys.