Garden Railway Forum

The upper balloon loop of the Afonglas and Nant Llywyd railway was the first part of the line to be built, constructed about 3 years ago. It featured a tunnel with a 3 foot radius curve going through 180 degrees. There was a bad joint in the middle which often caught out visiting engines, which derailed on the joint, or got stuck and pulled their trains off on the corner as they passed the joint. Needless to say the bad joint was right in the middle of the tunnel and this made retriving derailed stock horrible. It was so bad SLRmidge once referred to it as "the tunnel of doom".
So this week I have removed the plants above the tunnel, and removed the tunnel roof, so that the railway can be re-aligned to a easier 4 foot radius, and my improved over 3 years tracklaying skills should make sure there are no bad joints.


Here you can see the tunnel top removed and a corner of the shed which is to be demolished
There is more however! Part of the upper balloon loop ran through a knackered "wendy house" type shed that me and riveresk used to play in when we were younger. However the low doors and roof makes it a big hazard to heads, and sice the floor is rotten it is being removed. The space made will allow for the slate qyarry area to be expanded, and also a new proper upper station will be built. This will allow me to do "service running" open days, something that has recently become a big hit at NWAG open days at lines in Morecambe recently. It is where the railway is run like a real railway, moving goods loads and passengers (well ok, little mail sacks) and sticking to token block operating passing trains in loops. Of course my line will have slate workings to liven things up.
I couldn't do this previosly as I had no main upper station. But before I can do it, there is a lot of work to do!

Sounds good, thanks for e-mailing the pics. The Gweithdy ones should be with you tomorrow I've got a rather lengthy English coursework to finish tonight.

laalratty wrote:moving goods loads

Forklift Truck!

Yep must get round to buying one of them!!!!!

will look great when its finnished mate looking forward to the pictures.
those forklift trucks are great picked one up when were in the uk

hehe i know im guna weather mine down sometime...

Well stage 1 of this product has made rapid progress, with the trackbed for new 4 foot radius being cast, leaving about half still to do which will be done with thermolite blocks. The last train on the old formation may be on Friday, depending on how quicky the rest of the new trackbed can be laid and when the shed is demolished. When the shed is demolished, stage 2 can begin, this is construction of the trackbed connecting the new curve to the trackbed on the other side of the shed (the railway runs through the shed at the moment)

very good indeed

Well work has proceeded very well, so well that I decided to actually run a train, the last steam train over the old alignment



Obviously the old line closing ment closing the halt on the alignment, Ty Pren. This notice was placed outside the halt building



Here is the trackbed so far, although the last half concrete block on the concrete sub base in the picture was fixed down after the train finished running

Hahaha, I love that sign!!! Brilliant!

Super stuff, really made me smile!

Love the sign! That's what i like about garden railways. People go to great lengths to make their lines as realistic as possible.

That's possibley why the rest of reality consider us to be insane.

Well stage 1 was completed today, which is the new trackbed up to the shed. Now I feel a little bit of demolition is in order  :twisted: That shed has got to go!
As for the sign, that shows the fun you can have on publisher

laalratty wrote:Well stage 1 was completed today, which is the new trackbed up to the shed. Now I feel a little bit of demolition is in order  :twisted: That shed has got to go!
As for the sign, that shows the fun you can have on publisher

Demolition? Cool!

What explosives are you using? TNT, or Gunpowder?

Wrecking Ball ? Perhaps you need to carry out a risk assesment .

Or you could use the method Fred Dibnah used.

You could even buy a Fred Dibnah model from busy bodies.

Hmmm
gunpowder- not got that
wreking ball- not got one of them
Fred Dibnah meathod- would be dangerous, even with use of fire engine in garden and it only works on chimneys
No im favoring removing some of the nails with a hammer, then using a crowbar when I can't get at the nails then.......

....... if in doubt do as it says in my (present) signiture

HIT IT HARD WITH BIG HAMMER

laalratty wrote:Hmmm
gunpowder- not got that
wreking ball- not got one of them
Fred Dibnah meathod- would be dangerous, even with use of fire engine in garden and it only works on chimneys
No im favoring removing some of the nails with a hammer, then using a crowbar when I can't get at the nails then.......

....... if in doubt doubt do as it says in my (present) signiture

HIT IT HARD WITH BIG HAMMER

Hmm, sometime tells me this isn't going to end well.

Sounds like it is to me Matt .

What? Can I not be trusted to destroy a simple little wooden building?

Oh no, you can be trusted to demolish the building - it's what else that you'll destroy whilst killing the wendyhouse that concerns me.