The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

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Peter Butler
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Mon Aug 06, 2018 1:17 pm

I'm so sorry to see the deterioration of your line and the work involved to restore it. The lolly fencing is sobering yet some still insist on using it... even varnish can't protect it.
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Aug 06, 2018 2:15 pm

You will get there Andrew.

When your Russell comes home and you experience the slow running it will give you the motivation to rebuild.

I would of pulled my little line long ago if it wasn't for the Slomo.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Aug 06, 2018 4:04 pm

Thanks chaps...

Strangely, I'm not down-hearted, it feels like an opportunity in many ways.

And yes, I think a revived Russell will really help. It's one of the reasons I'm delaying making a decision on how to proceed - my main motivation in getting a Slomo is to aid realistic end-to-end running, but one of the options if I rebuild that section is to lose the upper terminus and have a continuous run...

I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime there are test trains to run!

Cheers,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by philipy » Mon Aug 06, 2018 4:09 pm

Sorry to see/hear about your problems, Andrew, although I have to confess to wondering about the effects of weather when you were detailing the build.

As you say it's created opportunities, but it would be a shame to lose the upper station I think, personally I loved the way it looked.
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Lonsdaler » Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:42 pm

Peter Jones used to swear by scorching ply and then applying waterproof pva to the still warm charred surface, and for wood just the pva, before applying paint.
My personal preference has been to avoid wood at all costs, but having re-read his book on model buildings, I'm almost tempted to give it another go.
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue Aug 07, 2018 7:19 am

Glad to hear you're seeing it as an opportunity rather than a threat - but a bit of a blow nonetheless. Probably about time I crawled under my raised wooden section to see what delights await me ..... :shock:

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by bazzer42 » Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:27 am

Glad to hear you're never say die. When I have to rebuild bits there are often things I would do different. Catch 22 garden railways, wood should be relatively simple to remove if moving house but my breeze block track base :shock:

I have gone into the wooden building thing knowing they won't last forever. This dry summer hasn't been much of a test and whilst I plan to bring things in over winter I realise they have a finite life span.....but how long?

Keep us posted on your rebuilding, love Windmill Hill.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by IanC » Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:58 am

I haven't any experience of using wood in my garden, except for the shed! (That gets a coat of preservative every now and again). If I were to use wood it would be with the expectation that It will be replaced at some point in the future. The timescale would probably depend on the quality of the wood, preventative measures taken and how much moisture it gets exposed to.

I have contemplated making a temporary railway using wood for speed and then gradually upgrading over time to something more durable (breeze blocks?).

Glad to see that the setback has been used to improve the railway.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Tue Aug 07, 2018 2:16 pm

Funny you should mention Peter Jones, his work and writing has been on my mind in recent days, and in particular his preference for massive works of civil engineering in concrete! I clearly need to do something a little more permanent than decking board, but I think whatever charm the line possesses might be lost if I went for anything on quite that scale - there never seemed to be much greenery in Compton Down...

I've been looking back at old pictures, like this one, to remind myself of the construction technique:

Image

The upper baseboard seems to be holding up OK, and it looks like I made a much more solid job of that than I did of other bits. I'm wondering whether I can leave that for now and cobble together new "planters" for the hillside at the front out of hollow concrete blocks and bits of cheap patio slab - it needn't look great because it'll be covered in cladding, and the slate should stick to masonry better than it did to wood... The top, baseboard, bit will fail eventually, but if the sides are solid I could potentially use those to construct something more solid on... Worth further thought perhaps - but all ideas are welcome!

Cheers,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:32 pm

I covered all my wood (gravel boards) with roofing felt and it's been fine. No problems with rot although my line is raised.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:45 pm

tom_tom_go wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:32 pm I covered all my wood (gravel boards) with roofing felt and it's been fine. No problems with rot although my line is raised.
Yeah, the upper bit was felted after that photo was taken, and that's above ground, so I'm hopeful that'll be OK - you never know, the damage may only be cosmetic...

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Lonsdaler » Tue Aug 07, 2018 5:32 pm

I think your problems are all stemming from the contact between wood and soil. Redo the planters with a waterproof membrane and drainage holes, and they will probably be fine.
Phil

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Tue Aug 14, 2018 4:26 pm

Hello again...

Yesterday evening came the anticipated test running of the full slate train - rather latter than planned, in failing light, so I'm afraid these photos aren't great...

First the wagons were assembled in Penlan's loop - 12 mixed slate wagons, 9 from the FR and 3 WHR examples:

Slate test 1.jpg
Slate test 1.jpg (246.53 KiB) Viewed 5485 times
Regner Daisy raised steam at Clarach before trundling all the way down to Trefechan to pick up the MOTTLITS, still living in the tunnel while I work out where else to keep them... For now they were pulled up the hill and left in Penlan's platform road, passing the marigolds on the way...
Slate test 2.jpg
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The real test then began - and, thankfully, the slate wagons ran very well, with just one minor derailment. Here's the train at a dusky Trefechan, with Daisy about to run round:
Slate test 3.jpg
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And waiting time before heading off up the hill again:
Slate test 4.jpg
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Slate test 5.jpg
Slate test 5.jpg (372.16 KiB) Viewed 5485 times
And the full train, climbing Penlan bank.
Slate test 6.jpg
Slate test 6.jpg (281.48 KiB) Viewed 5485 times
There's not much scope for the length of the train to grow much, but I'll keep on building wagons so I can vary its consist, and add more WHR wagons into the mix too...

And finally, more exciting (?!!) wildlife news...

On arrival at Clarach, a stowaway was found on the last wagon - a tiny (almost scale sized!) snail. I don't know how he'd got aboard, but even with the Regner chuffing a long at a scale 15mph or so, this must have been as fast as the little chap's ever travelled! He didn't look any the worse for his adventures, although I don't think he had a valid ticket...
Snail 1.jpg
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Snail 2.jpg
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Snail 3.jpg
Snail 3.jpg (89.62 KiB) Viewed 5485 times
Cheers all,

Andrew.

PS Apologies again for the poor quality pics, I'll get out in decent light next time!

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by philipy » Tue Aug 14, 2018 4:51 pm

That train looks as good as I imagined it would, well done. Are you going to load them?
Philip

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Tue Aug 14, 2018 5:42 pm

The last shot of the snail appears if it is posing for the camera!

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Wed Aug 15, 2018 8:29 am

philipy wrote: Tue Aug 14, 2018 4:51 pm That train looks as good as I imagined it would, well done. Are you going to load them?
Glad you like it, thanks!

I probably will create loads for them, but it's not an immediate priority, partly because there are now so many of them - should've done it as I went along!

My line's end-to-end, with the slate quarry theoretically located just beyond the upper terminus (I plan to add wooden gates at some point, to hint at the quarry, just out of sight), so with or without loads 50% of my slate trains are "wrong". If the current FR can live with that then so can I, but when I do make loads I think they'll be of the "lift out" variety (perhaps with a little hook or hidden magnet in the top) so that trains can run correctly loaded if I feel so inclined. Because my two termini are situated pretty much on top of each other, loads could be removed at the bottom and air-lifted up to the top without any problem, to await re-loading into the empties when they get back there. Utterly pointless, in a Bagpuss Chocolate Biscuit Factory kind of way, but none the worse for that...

I'm not sure how I'll make the loads yet (Don't want to buy 'em, too pricey...) but I might experiment with finely corrugated card or plastic, I've a feeling it might be possible to do something that looks reasonable that way. It's a way of adding extra weight too of course, which - although not essential - would be handy at the lower terminus where they need to be propelled into the unloading siding, a manoeuvre which can be a problem with light wagons...

Cheers,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by philipy » Wed Aug 15, 2018 10:04 am

I'd have thought that 10thou black plasticard slates glued together and painted, would do the trick, but you would need an awful lot of them!

Somewhere over the years there was somebody who advocated cutting real slate and I have seen it done at an exhibition demo many years ago.
I may be wrong and I apologise profusely if I am, but something in the deep recesses of my memory says it could have been "Mr. Bond of the DVLR" , a former Director on here.
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Big Jim » Wed Aug 15, 2018 5:18 pm

philipy wrote: Wed Aug 15, 2018 10:04 am I'd have thought that 10thou black plasticard slates glued together and painted, would do the trick, but you would need an awful lot of them!

Somewhere over the years there was somebody who advocated cutting real slate and I have seen it done at an exhibition demo many years ago.
I may be wrong and I apologise profusely if I am, but something in the deep recesses of my memory says it could have been "Mr. Bond of the DVLR" , a former Director on here.
I too have seen it done with real slate, but I cannot recall who did it or how they split them thin enough. You could use an electric tile cutter to cut old roof slates to the correct dimensions and then try and spilt them using a Stanley blade and a small hammer. The possible downside is that you cannot scale nature, slate cut to any size is still 12 inch to the foot scale and I think the weight might be a bit OTT as well.

I have seen a method using a block of polystyrene with plasticard slates glued on, full size for the sides and 5mm strips to represent the ends and tops.
If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer!

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:06 pm

Try this link.... watch?v=aiDB8gLCEuU&T=54s or in youtube enter.... Slate Splitting Brandon 2009
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Wed Aug 15, 2018 8:38 pm

Peter Butler wrote: Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:06 pm Try this link.... watch?v=aiDB8gLCEuU&T=54s or in youtube enter.... Slate Splitting Brandon 2009

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