Vale of Fairway

Dannypenguin · Post by **Dannypenguin** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:44 pm

Wow!

Lookin' good

Peter Butler · Post by **Peter Butler** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 10:09 pm

Most impressive..... I certainly agree about early retirement (as will Big Al) but there seems to be years of work ahead of you and hopefully many more post of your progress.
Slatework particularly interesting. Please let us know about the effects of winter on the adhesives.

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 10:39 pm

Peter, the piers and harbour wall have survived one winter albeit damp rather than cold. The piers used tile adhesive the harbour wall gripfill. I think gripfill has become the weapon of choice now!

Peter Butler · Post by **Peter Butler** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 11:01 pm

I am determined to try Gripfill myself as I have a project to complete; my castle gateway, with arched entrance, and up 'till now haven't found a satisfactory solution to make stonework using real slate to match the towers.
Watch my own thread for progress (if any!)

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 6:42 pm

Concrete added to loading dock and to lorry loading bay. Conditions are so cramped thatlorries can only load when run round facilities are not needed.

Should a harbour have a pill box? There may be room under the approach bridge if my sickly fir doesn't pull through.

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 4:52 pm

having had heavy showers this morning I felt the need to do something - a spot of lineside fencing. The posts are melamine chopsticks, drilled, dipped in yacht varnish and then given a coat of sand. A quick flick of aerosol paint and away we go . The wire is cheap pound shop galvanised garden wire but needs a little tension. I have some aluminium tig rods so may use one at each end to take the strain unless you have any good ideas. I tried some stainless steel rods at first instead of the wire but Mrs B's verdict was too clinical.

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 5:24 pm

ummmmmmmmmmmm............... Is this something we should all start scrounging?

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 5:32 pm

MDLR:103568 wrote:ummmmmmmmmmmm............... Is this something we should all start scrounging?

I'm an honest man and bought mine but be careful, some have engraving on them although a dragon would be ok on Mr Butlers railway or maybe even for railways that run dragon transporters....

MDLR · Post by **MDLR** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 6:02 pm

A Dremel would take the engraving off......................

Soar Valley Light · Post by **Soar Valley Light** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 7:04 pm

Or you could pretend it was a Wyvern and that they were a product of the Midland Railway!

Peter Butler · Post by **Peter Butler** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 7:11 pm

The scenery is looking great with the fencing. Some good ideas there, in fact, brilliant!
Shame about the rain in your area We missed it today but it doesn't look too good for Sunday, and Monday even worse and that is when I hold my second Open Day. No matter what you do, you can't control the weather.

jim@NAL · Post by **jim@NAL** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 7:53 pm

now that's rather bloody good well done keep up the good work

Post by **Andrew** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:58 pm

Looking lovely!

I had trouble with the tension on my (fishing wire) lineside fencing t'other day - it had become so slack it got caught round Russell's cylinder and stopped the train. Any thoughts on how to keep it taught would be welcome - what are tig rods??

Keep up the good work - and the updates,

Andrew.

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 10:25 pm

TIG welding rods, I use them in some of the bridges I build. I wondered about placing rods at the end of the fence to take the real strain. Cutting melamine chopsticks to 45 degrees and drilling seemed well nigh impossible! Perhaps a rusty nail might also do the trick. The sticks do go in a reasonable depth so may take a certain degree of tension as is. Can't test the theory as knee has swollen like a football and kneeling is out of the question....

Post by **Andrew** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 10:31 pm

Sorry to hear about the knee, hope you recover soon. Thanks for the clarification - are you thinking of just wrapping the wire round the rods, or something more technical? Ideally I reckon I need something like guitar tuning pegs...

All the best,

Andrew.

Post by **philipy** » Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:15 am

I tried something similar, cutting the posts from 10mm Foamex, which is nice and easy to cut and drill. The problem again cam from trying to tension the wire.
I cut angled strain supports for both end and notched them into the end posts, and then set them both in a block of Postcrete. That worked fine, but the Foamex itself is too flexible and just bends as soon as any tension goes on. So I think the answer has to be to make the end post and support from metal ( I think I'd be tempted to use brass rather than ali because I can solder it ).

However it still needs a way of applying tension, and as soon as you solve that then I suspect that the amount of force needed to straighten the wire is going to be much more than the posts can stand going round curves and the whole thing will 'straight-line' !

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:56 pm

I did wonder about using the rods as pegs but more inclined to wrap the wire around the rear of the post and see if I can get a tidy wrap over on it self and then the same at the other end. Perhaps I could cut some odd track lengths to make 45 degree post supports if needed.

Sorry Philip, missed the above post. I have plenty of aluminium angle that might also act as a tensioning post beyond the first and last posts.

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:02 pm

Spent Sunday removing this bridge and then rehoming it on the forum. I am thinking about replacing it with something like this although yet to work out how to work the girders.

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 5:09 pm

At last! After 3 months and two sets of parents moved I've finally had a spurt and filled the gap I created in September. I will be adding a pier in the middle but frustratingly a full size house brick is too tall by the width of the bottom aluminium angle -1/8"....
Next job is to add some more wagons to the fleet. A trip to steam in Beds has added an Atropos corris brake and a Jims models shunters match truck.

bazzer42 · Post by **bazzer42** » Mon Dec 08, 2014 3:06 pm

Does everyone remember their first binnie tipper? They really are lovely kits to build, a bit of iron dust and some vinegar and hey presto. A little singe with the blowlamp helps. If ever I get round to an indoor layout I can see these wagons featuring.

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