The Potters Orchid Railway

[ge_rik]

Looking good! You know you are making good progress when the water feature goes in! As with all your projects, it looks well engineered.

Rik

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Dazza, looking good, what mix of concrete did you use, and did you add anything to it, also how long do plan to allow it to set before adding water

Thanks every one for the kind comments. Jimmy, I used general mix concrete for the pond, the same stuff for the track bed and other major work. For the pond I should have used a rapid set brew to stop the slumping, it got too late, too cool, no sun and so I left it in the dark to cure before I could properly finish it. First light Monday morning I got up and while still soft I chipped out the thick slump where the pump will sit. I used two layers with fine Chicken wire in between the layers in the pond. A plastic liner and then clay smoothed out over the soil. I reckon it will be this weekend before I add water. I have many tasks with rock advancement about the pond after work and I only get an hour at it before dark. I am looking at the dwindling reserve of rock and becoming less fussy, no doubt some geologists will be offended.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Rock work progresses at the Potters Orchid Railway, however Slartibartfast is constantly complaining that he will be offending geologists all over the galaxy. The directors of the POR reply with, "Do your best with what you have been provided with,get on with it, and here, have another beer" That seems to help ease his frustrations.





The poor sods did not have plastic chairs in Northern France circa 1915

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

The MVL bridge was yet again helicoptered into place for for a viewing by the POR head director. The director commented that the flowing water makes satisfactory soothing sounds and was pleasing to watch. The rock worker was rewarded with a soothing beer and snacks. This was pleasing and encouraging to the rock fatigued work force to press onwards.

[philipy]

The poor sods did not have plastic chairs in Northern France circa 1915[/b][/color]

"....keep right on till the end of the road, keep right on till the end...."

[ge_rik]

I do like the way you've carefully matched the strata on those rocks. Makes me wish I had paid more attention to that on the PLR.
That final shot of Mam admiring your joint handiwork with a glass of wine in hand really sums up one of the joys of this hobby. Just imagine what it'll be like in six months time on a sultry summers evening.......

Rik

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

I do like the way you've carefully matched the strata on those rocks. Makes me wish I had paid more attention to that on the PLR.
That final shot of Mam admiring your joint handiwork with a glass of wine in hand really sums up one of the joys of this hobby. Just imagine what it'll be like in six months time on a sultry summers evening.......

Rik

Thanks and yes.
However I am also looking forward to the next winter and run evenings. Cold still evenings so the vapours and aromas are strong, but the first friends and invitees run days will have the be this summer. Onwards.

[Andrew]

Wow, those rocks and that bridge look absolutely fantastic, well worth the huge amount of effort!

Inspired by your forum signature, I've just finished the first "Hitchhiker's Guide..." novel (it's been staring at me from the shelf for years!), and can see why Slartibartfast is involved in your geological works now - is this one vaguely reminiscent of a Norwegian fjord?!

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Wow, those rocks and that bridge look absolutely fantastic, well worth the huge amount of effort!

Inspired by your forum signature, I've just finished the first "Hitchhiker's Guide..." novel (it's been staring at me from the shelf for years!), and can see why Slartibartfast is involved in your geological works now - is this one vaguely reminiscent of a Norwegian fjord?!

Cheers,

Andrew.

Slaritbartfast is constantly complaining about the selection and quantity of rock available for this contract to Terra form the POR is far short of what he had when he created the Norwegian fjords, but we think he is losing his touch and a bit too fussy since then.

Douglas Adam's early departure was a loss to us all. I will say that the first 2-3 books are his best in the HG series . The other books he wrote "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" are also a good read. The original radio and TV series are a good laugh, but also there is some deeper stuff in there if you ponder the words.
Some of my favourite D.A quotes are

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.

The chances of finding out what’s really going on in the universe are so remote, the only thing to do is hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied.

Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm

Not unnaturally, many elevators imbued with intelligence and precognition became terribly frustrated with the mindless business of going up and down, up and down, experimented briefly with the notion of going sideways, as a sort of existential protest, demanded participation in the decision-making process and finally took to squatting in basements sulking.

The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses.To explain — since every piece of matter in the Universe is in some way affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation — every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake. The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife.

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime from out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm’s way, turning it into tar to cover the land with, smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another.

It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn’t cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in about 2:55, when you know you’ve taken all the baths that you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o’clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.

He gazed keenly into the distance and looked as if he would quite like the wind to blow his hair back dramatically at that point, but the wind was busy fooling around with some leaves a little way off.

He was staring at the instruments with the air of one who is trying to convert Fahrenheit to centigrade in his head while his house is burning down.”

There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

He hoped and prayed that there wasn’t an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn’t an afterlife.

The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more distant hills, like a man saying “And another thing…” twenty minutes after admitting he’s lost the argument.

It seemed to me,” said Wonko the Sane, “that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a packet of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane.”

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws

[steamyjim]

Some seriously impressive scenery there! Lovely work.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

At the Potters Orchid Railway the labourer is diligently applying all spare daylight hours after his workshop bike frame making hours to the the rock work but it all seems to be taking 4 times longer than expected but the gorge and bridge section is not far from being completed while channeling Slartibartfast from afar. Staff last night did another test run of the water flowing and result was very pleasing, just a few little things to sort and the final sections of work rock to be done and then planting can begin.

[ge_rik]

Blimey, Dazza. That's one heck of a lot of rock you and Slartibartfast have shifted!!

Rik

[FWLR]

Blooming HECK....The passengers and any goods company will need to take out extra insurance..

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

November 2017


Nearly finished July 2020

[FWLR]

Now thats proper landscaping Dazza.

You and MAM have done a tremendous job.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Now thats proper landscaping Dazza.

You and MAM have done a tremendous job.

Thanks Rod. This mornings project is fill behind the water fall with soil and the head horticulturist (MAM) will plant this out with the waiting seedlings. Then the push to complete the rock work this weekend and lay track on the lovely MVL under arch bridge. When all this is done it is to the tunnel portals and the two loops inside cuttings and make these into sizeable hills to plant out. These may take some weeks. That will complete the major Terra Forming and the clean up and concrete slab for the sitting and sipping bench along with paths and more gardens can get underway. This all has to be done before December or it will never get done. This is the year for this. Then back to the Red Room and much about with metal. Get the loco done.

[invicta280]

No half measures here!

[tom_tom_go]

It is all rather spectacular what you and your wife are achieving Dazza.

[Peter Butler]

To be able to visualise the final appearance and then carry out the installation of all that solid rock, as well as fitting in planting and water features too, is just astonishing. MAM's artistic flair, combined with practical skills from both of you, have pulled this together beautifully.
I know someone who paid a professional garden landscape company to build his garden railway as they were used to handling all of the associated materials, but your work is miles ahead of theirs.
There is surely another occupation available, should you wish to diversify.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

To be able to visualise the final appearance and then carry out the installation of all that solid rock, as well as fitting in planting and water features too, is just astonishing. MAM's artistic flair, combined with practical skills from both of you, have pulled this together beautifully.
I know someone who paid a professional garden landscape company to build his garden railway as they were used to handling all of the associated materials, but your work is miles ahead of theirs.
There is surely another occupation available, should you wish to diversify.

Thank you Peter and every one else for their kind comments, they are much appreciated. Doing this for a hobby with time just being what it needs to be, a few hours after work knock off, full weekends here and there and lots of time recently devoted due to no shifts with the full size steam, however when one has a clock with a $ attached to each minute and hour passing, well for me that would destroy the hobby, enjoyment would vanish. I have no real idea of how much time we have devoted to this recently and we are only half way. Perhaps in the order of 800 to 1000 hours so at a paltry $85 an hour, the labour bill is $68,000 - $ 85,000 for the basic railway without materials. We are close to 90 bags of 20kg ready mix concrete and 10 bags x 20kg of mortar. Then also the retaining wall was constructed in 2013 when the house extension and make over was done, which gave me the red room as well. The retaining wall was designed to take a garden railway so it was a terrace because ground level lines are some thing I never would enjoy. 80 tones of fill went into the back yard so factor those cost in ? I will only do this once and I will be satisfied with that. This garden railway jaunt is all new to me. I do not have a working loco yet, but MAM's lady Ann does steam. We drive ordinary second hand cars, for me cars are just buckets of plastic, nuts and bolts and most buy cars to be posers and believe the car adverts that buying a 50K car will bring you joy. We rather use the results of our professional expression to do stuff and be creative. So that is how we afford to indulge in our hobbies. As like Model Engineering, the amount of real hours cannot be billed at a rate that makes it worthwhile and also reflects skill, knowledge and design. I spent from 7.00am till 5.00 pm in the back yard yesterday. Will some one pay me $850 for that plus expenses ? The real rate should be closer to $150 an hour, to accommodate the business costs, not just being paid a brickies labour wage. Rhetorical question. I am flattered with all the nice comments, and I like sharing stuff with others who have the same interests. That is fun. Fun, it must be fun. More progress pics soon