A stream for the Elderbury & District Light Railway - The saga continues

[philipy]

I have always wanted a stream and every time Rik posts something about his, I think, "I wish..."

Planning Consent was granted a long time back ( "You can do what you want as long as it doesn't spoil the garden" , plus, she loves running water so that's a winner ), but getting contractors to quote, raising the capital, not to mention finding the Oomph for major civil engineering works, has delayed and delayed things. However, for some reason, yesterday all the stars aligned and a start was made. This will not be a quick project, at the moment the ground is diggable with reasonable ease but once it starts raining the clay will turn into a glue which is stronger than SRB and Gorilla combined! ( for the last few months it has been so hard that a Kango would have been needed for excavating).

Since Rik has so beautifully described his stream construction and we've all admired the results, I see no need to reinvent the wheel and I shall broadly follow his method, adapting things as required ( thanks once again Rik).

There really is only one location where the stream is feasible and that means cutting a gap in the concrete slab trackbed and then threading between track and an apple tree and then between track and a Camellia bush. When I poured the track bed originally I did this section in two goes with quite a long time gap between and the join subsequently cracked, so the plan is to make use of that by widening the crack sufficiently for the stream and a bridge.

This picture shows the planned route at the start.

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This shows the future location of the lower end, the sump will be just in front of the roof tile ( I have a number of theses dotted around the garden to give me somewhere to stand and get at the track if necessary). The leafy green lump at the LH side is a Lonicera Nitida tunnel.

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As I said, I made a start yesterday by excavating a small trench from the lower side of the bridge to the sump position and a sump hole. These are just to check the viability before I irrevocably attack the existing trackbed and will need enlarging in due course to make room for the bank rocks, etc. So far all seems OK.

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I think the next step is to cut the concrete Watch this space but don't hold your breathe!

[Lonsdaler]

Bravo Philip! Who doesn't love running water? I look forward to seeing you progress. I was similarly tempted by Rik's example when I planned my railway, and the River Greta exists (my new plate bridge crosses it) - but I bottled it when considering the engineering involved, and have laid a bed of blue slate instead. But one day
In the meantime, I have the pond (sorry, I mean River Lune), with an aerating waterfall for moving water.
I'm really looking forward to this project - garden railway building by proxy

[SimonWood]

This is going to look great. Can't beat running water and that's a lovely location for it.

[bazzer42]

I agree with the above comments that you can't beat running water. it looked a photogenic spot before so should look good when it's done.

[ge_rik]

Good luck with the build. Looking forward to seeing how it works out. I hope it all works out OK - if not you'll have to blame me .....

Rik

[tom_tom_go]

Regardless of the river project being a success or not those pics of your railway show how well it blends into the garden which is what I would like to achieve one day...

[philipy]

Thanks chaps. Well about 4 hours hard graft got the concrete track bed chopped through. I dunno which idiot mixed the concrete for it but it would take a block of flats!

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Rik, no I won't blame you if I can't do it, not your fault.

[tom_tom_go]

Job done Phil, fill her up!

[invicta280]

Are you putting in any kind of liner? Maybe that glutinous midland clay means it won't be necessary.

As has been said above the railway blends into the garden well.

[philipy]

I was similarly tempted by Rik's example when I planned my railway, and the River Greta exists (my new plate bridge crosses it) -

Phil, How is your bridge install coming on? I'm debating what sort of bridge to build for mine and keep changing my mind, so I'd be interested in seeing how yours looks in situ.

I've just been re-reading your Refurbishment thread and looking up Stixall which I'd never heard of 'til you said. I found this link to Everbuild https://www.everbuild.co.uk/wp-content/ ... ow-res.pdf
which interestingly suggests three of their products for sticking Brick, Block and Stone to Brick, Block and Stone and they don't suggest Stixall for this application!

Having said that and reading their own description of the products, Stixall still sounds best for round a watery environment.

[philipy]

Are you putting in any kind of liner? Maybe that glutinous midland clay means it won't be necessary.

Yes, I'm putting a liner in, although you're right, it might not need it in theory but in practice it does drain away slowly.

We had a problem with the waterfall in the pond a couple of years back. We were away on holiday and when we got back there was obviously something wrong with the pond but couldn't work out what. The water looked incredibly clear, the bottom appeared to be only a 3 or 4 inches below the surface. Eventually realised that the connection to the top of the waterfall had leaked and the water had run down underneath the pre-formed waterfall and back into the pond hole underneath the liner. The water just sat in the hole and the liner floated up as high as it could, only held down by the plant pots, which was fortunate because at least that gave the fish enough water to stay alive!
I put a small pump down under the liner and pumped the water back up on top.

[Lonsdaler]

Phil, How is your bridge install coming on? I'm debating what sort of bridge to build for mine and keep changing my mind, so I'd be interested in seeing how yours looks in situ.

I've been a bit under the weather Philip, which has slowed things down a bit, but it's in position now - I'll post an update later.

I've just been re-reading your Refurbishment thread and looking up Stixall which I'd never heard of 'til you said. I found this link to Everbuild https://www.everbuild.co.uk/wp-content/ ... ow-res.pdf
which interestingly suggests three of their products for sticking Brick, Block and Stone to Brick, Block and Stone and they don't suggest Stixall for this application!

Having said that and reading their own description of the products, Stixall still sounds best for round a watery environment.

I've never seen that guide to their products before. I've got 2 tubes of pink grip, on recommendation from a friend in the building trade, but then he put me on to Stixall for it's grab in water properties. Once I tried it, I've just kept using it - as that leaflet says - it will stick anything to everything!
Anybody want 2 tubes of pink grip?

[philipy]

Anybody want 2 tubes of pink grip?

Hmmm, Riks stone is pink, maybe he could use it?

[philipy]

Some slight progress yesterday.
I've had a redundant pond pump in the garage for years as a spare/back up for the garden pond, which I have been planning to use for this project. Just to check the volume and flow I temporarily laid the liner roughly into the stream bed and ran the pump for a couple of minutes. Happily it seems as though it's going to be OK. I wasn't too sure that the volume might not actually be a bit much, although I can always fit a restrictor if necessary, but more importantly, the Planning Inspector pronounced herself happy with it!

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[tom_tom_go]

Bang on Phil, fast progress!

[Lonsdaler]

Running water - what's not to like? Should be done by Saturday then?

[philipy]

Running water - what's not to like? Should be done by Saturday then?

No, unfortunately not. Currently waiting for the arrival of a dustbin for the sump hopefully today or tomorrow, but more importantly, the old apple tree near the bridge is leaning significantly and is due some major surgery above the track to reduce the weight on this side. The tree surgeon is booked for 18th October and I don't really want to have done all this and then they tread on it, drop a heavy branch, or whatever, and wreck it. So nothing much more until after then.

[ge_rik]

Looking good so far. At this stage I double checked the water actually flowed from top to bottom with a watering can before committing myself.

Rik

[philipy]

Good idea Rik, thanks, although it's not quite at that stage yet. The trial pumping was just that, a trial, and the liner is back in storage now.

The 50 litre dustbin arrived from Amazon at about 7pm yesterday. It was raining at the time so I couldn't go and check its fit. It looks bigger than the hole I've dug, even though I aimed for the dims in their advert, but I did expect to have to fettle the hole somewhat, so I'm not too bothered. Once I've got that sorted, I think the next step will be to sort out the sidewall rocks so that I know how wide to excavate the the stream bed and the gradient will get sorted at the same time.
I have got some rocks which will need splitting into thinnish slabs, but I'm not sure if I will have enough (I suspect not, so that will mean another 20 mile round trip for some more), or how easy it will be, because I don't really want to use the angle grinder and get obviously cut faces .

Hey ho and on we go

[ge_rik]

I have got some rocks which will need splitting into thinnish slabs, but I'm not sure if I will have enough (I suspect not, so that will mean another 20 mile round trip for some more), or how easy it will be, because I don't really want to use the angle grinder and get obviously cut faces .

I'm fortunate that the many of the chunks of local sandstone that I use will happily cleave with the 'gentle' persuasion of a cold chisel and hammer, so I can often get two or three pieces of thin stone from each chunk. Some cleave more readily than others though. I suppose it's because sandstone is sedimentary???

Rik