Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

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tom_tom_go
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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Tue Jun 26, 2018 7:50 am

I don't screw my track down and use ballast that isn't bonded.

Search RWLR on the forum to see what I did.

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Andrew » Tue Jun 26, 2018 1:19 pm

Great little railway! I'm really taken with the way the station sits on the edge of the patio too, just right...

Re ballasting, you could consider a "Rowlands Mix" of some sort - that's kind of semi permanent, but looks pretty good, aids smooth running, is easy to do, and it's not difficult to chip the track out again if necessary. With a line so small you'll be able to balance a little spirit level across the rails at every sleeper to make sure you've got it right before watering the dry mix. I used a grit, ready-mix and seived earth mix - I don't remember what proportion but I'm going to have to remind myself soon because there's not much of my ballast left after several years of neglect...

Looking forward to more updates - although I know from experience that young children don't make for much free time!

All the best,

Andrew.

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by CSL » Tue Jun 26, 2018 4:59 pm

Many thanks for the comments and suggestions, everyone.

On the subject of extending the line - well, it's possible (and my wife has a plan*!) but I'm not so sure... Basically, it's virtually impossible without compromising the original specification requirements, and for my part I've now got the attractive railway for running manual steam that I wanted.

One possibility, however, is a raised steam-raising track, which could just about be squeezed in branching off the circuit on the "hedge" side right before the viaduct. In theory this would allow running round the circuit and then into the bay platform to finish, although I suspect I'd want to squeeze every bit of movement out of each steaming until expiry on the "main" line.

(I don't think I've ever run a steam train into or out of the siding but as some of you have kindly observed it is a very attractive scenic feature in its own right, while my concern about facing points has been proven to be unfounded - probably because ready-to-lay Peco pointwork is more robust than the Tenmille/Brandbright type that I idealistically adopted when I was much younger.)

*Although nobody will believe it, it was all really her idea: when I found that the Mamod still worked after ... years in various lofts it was she who said "You've got to have a garden railway now!".

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Tue Jun 26, 2018 7:46 pm

CSL wrote: Tue Jun 26, 2018 4:59 pm it was she who said "You've got to have a garden railway now!".
One of a rare breed you have there! Good luck with whatever you decide, it seems you both get equal satisfaction from it.
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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by invicta280 » Tue Jun 26, 2018 7:53 pm

Like you, I too am blessed with an other half who 'gets it' where garden railways are concerned.

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Tom the blacksmith » Tue Jun 26, 2018 10:44 pm

Hi CSL,

First thing, great to hear your 5yr old is getting stuck in and I think they've got a good eye, I quite like the back to back bench there but maybe that's because I like the chap who's checking out the back of the mamod.

Steam raising areas are handy, gives you somewhere to splash oil about the place. However it would also be completely pointless if you don't think you'd use it. I'm a great fan of the 'If it ain't broke' saying, I think if your happy then leave it be. I like the station, even if you don't use it, it makes a great feature. I like the idea of the platform height, doesn't obscure too much and flexible for different stock :thumbup: .

Clearly your wife is a keeper!! My Mille was my wedding present from Mrs Blacksmith, I'd love to say she gets it but she doesn't really :roll: .

How did you form the viaduct, especially the arches?

Tom

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by CSL » Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:40 am

Tom the blacksmith: I promise that I'll get on to the viaduct soon! Needs a couple of photos and a bit of time to compose the post (which I'll try to keep concise).

My preferred location for the station nameboard and benches is the other side of the building - so even better positioned for looking at the stock in the bay. (Now that sounds like a song...)

PS: you described yourself as "a sucker for a good viaduct". I rather fear you might be in the wrong place for that, but it's a viaduct anyway!

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Tom the blacksmith » Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:33 am

All viaducts are good viaducts!!!! Quite like bridges too.

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by CSL » Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:48 pm

Time then to talk about the viaduct (Part 1, unillustrated). I fear the obvious flaws shown in the photos that will follow will be uncomfortable... And apologies for the length of the description.

When I first laid out the line (slightly frustratingly the area had the only decent turfed lawn in the garden, but we had originally earmarked it for something else anyway) I put the "far" loop above ground level because I knew that would be good, but I didn't have a solution in mind. I toyed with the idea of a wooden structure with a passing resemblance to a Brunel timber viaduct, which could have developed my efforts in my parents' garden all those years ago - but most importantly my wife didn't like it. And then I thought of Glenfinnan...

I had the ingredients for concrete, I had timber for shuttering. What I wasn't sure about was whether I had the ability, especially to get it right first time as a trackbed.

So I cheated. You will see that the deck is far deeper than a "real" viaduct. That's because I cast the arches first (with estimated sufficient depth over the top to stand freely) and then laid a further layer on top of that.

Also, the piers - especially on the outside - are far too wide; this is because I couldn't cast curved arches with the materials to hand.

A rough concrete base was laid all the way under the path of the viaduct, following the ground contours but slightly below ground level for susequent covering, so wherever the piers came down, they would have foundations.

Except for one incidence of exuberance when I made two arches simultaneously with imperfect results, the arches were cast individually. The mould for the arches was two quarters of a perfectly-shaped log found in the garden, the product of earlier tree-felling.

Small rectangular sections of board were placed underneath the outer edges of the semi-circle to form the piers' vertical lower sections, with soil packed between them to support the quarter logs and prevent the pressure of the concrete pushing things out of place. A narrow space between the quarter-logs was left and filled with sand which could be dug out after setting to release the quarter-logs.

The whole lot was shuttered on all sides (supporting the downhill shuttering got entertaining!) and plastic sheet cut to size and laid over the quarter-logs to separate them from the concrete and enable reuse.

To be continued ... with pictures (definitely of the finished structure, possibly of construction too if I can find and embed the photos).

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by IanC » Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:48 am

Your viaduct looks ok to me. Even better since it made use of materials to hand.

I don't think I would even attempt a curved viaduct. As an aside I once posted a picture of a viaduct on my Flickr account and was told by someone it was an aqueduct even though it didn't carry or go over water!

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Tom the blacksmith » Thu Jun 28, 2018 8:59 pm

CSL wrote: Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:48 pm The mould for the arches was two quarters of a perfectly-shaped log found in the garden, the product of earlier tree-felling.
Love it, my kind of engineering, thanks for sharing :thumbup: :thumbup:

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by CSL » Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:17 pm

OK, Viaduct Part 2 - Illustrated.

This view shows it all well (a bit too well, perhaps...):
P1030126.JPG
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The malformation of the arches is due to the plastic sheet not sitting perfectly over the quarter-logs. The shortcomings of my shuttering are rather obvious too!

The separate deck layer is cast on top of the arch sections, interspersed with transverse timbers to which are fixed both the track and the basic side walls. This was the CVLR's "This is meant to be!" moment, because - with no pre-planning whatsoever - the depth of this layer turned out to be EXACTLY, TO THE MILLIMETRE, THE WIDTH OF THE AVAILABLE TIMBER. Magic.

The next photo shows the view from above. My trial arch was the one to the left of the centre one. When I had all the moulds and shuttering in place I stood back, looked at it, and thought "Hmm - it doesn't look quite right". I measured it and couldn't find anything wrong. As you see from the track alignment, my first impression was right! No matter - I have an idea for using that feature for scenic (and possibly comic) effect.
P1030127.JPG
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And another view from on top, this time from the other side.
P1030128.JPG
P1030128.JPG (168 KiB) Viewed 7406 times
The small pond wasn't very obvious in my previous photos. There WILL be an outflow from the pond into a stream running through one of the arches. One day!

I admit that my viaduct is a little scrappy, and at times I wish I had done better. But the important thing is that it exists and trains can run over it! And I never set out for the finescale look - it doesn't work against the plants in the garden anyway.

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:54 pm

Well I award you top marks for effort and the only criticism I hear is from yourself, so be proud of your achievement.
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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Dwayne » Fri Jun 29, 2018 1:00 am

It ain't pretty. But it is loaded with character. :thumbright:

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by bazzer42 » Fri Jun 29, 2018 7:19 am

Like Dwayne said, bags of character. You could clad it with scribed foamboard but personally I like it as it is. I've found that this branch of railway modelling is full of learn as you go opportunities, it's trying to solve these that make it fun (for me at least). I can assure you if I started casting in concrete the results would be....interesting

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by CSL » Fri Jun 29, 2018 7:37 am

Thanks for the comments. I'm still promising myself that I'll mix some more concrete and face it better - but I've been thinking that since I built it in summer/autumn 2016!

One thing I don't actually want to do is pretend it's a brick viaduct - it really is my mini-Glenfinnan and I want to keep it as that.

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Fri Jun 29, 2018 7:48 am

bazzer42 wrote: Fri Jun 29, 2018 7:19 am Like Dwayne said, bags of character. You could clad it with scribed foamboard but personally I like it as it is. I've found that this branch of railway modelling is full of learn as you go opportunities, it's trying to solve these that make it fun (for me at least). I can assure you if I started casting in concrete the results would be....interesting
It will probably weather in time so you'll hardly notice its composition, after all the curved Glenfinnan (Harry Potter) viaduct is made of concrete.

Rik

Edit: I wrote this while you were writing the above ..... great minds ......
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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Lonsdaler » Fri Jun 29, 2018 8:50 am

You can hide a multitude of sins with a bit of paint. My bridge parapets lack elegance, and some might say so does my painting!
bridge21.jpg
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Phil

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Fri Jun 29, 2018 12:54 pm

Lonsdaler wrote: Fri Jun 29, 2018 8:50 am You can hide a multitude of sins with a bit of paint. My bridge parapets lack elegance, and some might say so does my painting!
bridge21.jpg
Blimey, Phil. The weather where you are is lot different to that we're having in the NW of England!!!!! :) :? ;)

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Re: Clatterbach Valley Light Railway

Post by Lonsdaler » Fri Jun 29, 2018 2:09 pm

ge_rik wrote: Fri Jun 29, 2018 12:54 pm
Lonsdaler wrote: Fri Jun 29, 2018 8:50 am You can hide a multitude of sins with a bit of paint. My bridge parapets lack elegance, and some might say so does my painting!
bridge21.jpg
Blimey, Phil. The weather where you are is lot different to that we're having in the NW of England!!!!! :) :? ;)

Rik
Yes - overnight snow, then the sun comes out and it's 30 degrees by 10 a.m. :lol: :lol:

On a more serious note - we've lived here in the REAL NW of England (North Yorkshire! but close to Kirkby Lonsdale) for 11 years, and we have never seen the local rivers and streams so low - a bit of a spring dry spell is not unusual, but nothing like at the moment :shock:
Apologies for topic drift CSL - back to you.
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