Garden Railway Forum

What is not obvious in this picture, is that I have made the bridge hole tapered / foreshortened, to give the impression of the hole going on for ever ( n fact it is just 9 cm deep). DSCF4705 turn crop.jpg Because of the viaduct / three arch bridge in front, you can’t see right up it anyway, so a pr...

Preparations for a new bridge (actually half a bridge) moved on today, with the offering up and fixing for position of the bridge hole, and trying to work out how to do the adjacent abutments and retaining walls. DSCF4702 cropped and reduced.jpg We havn't worked out yet whether it will be a road (ha...

Area behind the loco shed back corner fitted today. I have added an old water tank to add interest. Fence from old sleepers (foamboard) also makes a nice edge to the area.
J0hn

Here is a picture of the FBGR today - no trains - being near the coast we don't usually get any snow, so even this little bit is special.
J0hn

A few more bits added to tidy up the area in front of the retaining wall opposite the station. DSCF4668 reduced.jpg The corner looks a bit boring, we shall have to find something to put in here. Here is a (rather unfair) close-up of the edge. We don’t use this ballast any more. DSCF4671 reduced.jpg ...

Well that just about finishes the decking, and time for a little reflection. Apart from loads of bits of off-cuts, this is all that was left. DSCF4645 resized.jpg There was no 400mm wide board, just under a metre of 450mm wide board, just under 2 metres of 30cm deep fascia, and just over 2 metres of...

Decking completed today. DSCF4640 reduced.jpg DSCF4641 reduced.jpg Also I was able to sort out the supports for the bridge. DSCF4639 reduced.jpg Just levelling bolts through some hacked about bits of left over plastic fixed to the underside of the bridge deck – you can’t see the captive nut. The ori...

I don’t think that long term loss of flexibility of the material is going to be an issue. The use on house facias shows that once in place, it will remain for 20, 30 or more years without deterioration. It may well become brittle over an extended period, but even then damage is only likely to occur ...

Work continues on greening the space between the back track and the retaining wall.
This will make a nice area to use as a background for photographing rolling stock – always useful to have a few of these around the railway.

J0hn

Works are continuing steadily, with the major straight part now all decked and the first bridge abutment structure made. DSCF4627 resized.jpg Leaving the most awkward part to the end is not always a good idea, but at least I am more experienced at working with the material, so I can see through any ...

Today we inserted a couple more bits of framing, and the first piece of decking – 40cm wide and just under 2 metres long. We had to scrape the ice off the top of the frames when we started this morning. It looks like the box of 1000 plasterboard screws are not going to be enough. DSCF4574 cropped an...

Work continues, and a major portion of the framework is now probably complete. DSCF4570.jpg Completing the framing round the bushes is next, and then it will be sorting out the bridges abutments. I am hoping to be able to use the (removable) bridge that I only rebuilt last year without much alterati...

More external and internal framework has been happening. DSCF4553 cropped resize.JPG The more the parts come together, the stronger it gets. But still great care is needed to keep everything flat and square. All the outside square parts are now in place, and I will be trying to get most of the inter...

Thank you Philipy.

The overall plan is that there will no white bits showing when we have finished.

The outside vertical faces will be painted black.

The decking, which starts off all white, will eventually be completely filled in between the ballasted track-work with some form of scenery.

JOhn

The framing is beginning to take shape. Getting everything straight, level, and parallel to other parts is not something to be rushed, but I am sure that it should ensure that subsequent parts fit more easily. DSCF4545.JPG We have changed over from using wood screws started in small pre-drilled hole...

Another bit of background filling between track and retaining wall was replaced yesterday.
Separate bits in each archway seems to work, although I shall probably paint the edges green rather than black next time.

JOhn

Nothing has put us off so we decided to start. The Material was ordered on Monday and turned up Thursday, but a couple of lengths of one item was not what I had expected, so has been changed - I thought I ordered a couple of lengths of 35mm x 35mm x 5mm thick angle section - I had been told that 35m...

Start to tidy up round the Loco Shed, which had been repositioned slightly, with some filler boards. I have tried to give the grass a bit more texture, so have used scouring pads and string (twine), suitably painted and varnished. I have not used this before, so we will have to see how well this wea...

Having recently had trouble with the some of the FBGR’s areas of timber decking, we had started to replace parts of it. The main problem was the rotting of the timber – some supports lasting less than 7 years. We started with a couple of rectangular areas using plastic rain water pipes for posts wit...

The loco shed is POLA 330911, and one of the earliest items bought for the railway, back in 2008 I think, when all I was scratch building was rolling stock. It is currently being advertised as available from Top Slots n Trains at £210 reduced down to £173. I don’t think we would have paid anything l...