Semi-scale BR: The Modernisation Plan

[philipy]

Depends. Was there a crock of gold at the end or a crock of something else?

Rik

Dunno,. The water was too cold to go diving down to find the end of the rainbow!

[BertieB]

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Southern Region extension to Scotland underway

I’ve cleared a load of decking and anything that might get in the way and started on the trackbed, reusing some of the redundant decking, despite my previously stated commitment to avoid wood. It’s being supported on recycled plastic posts and not actually in contact with the ground. I think that’ll be OK for a few years. Height above ground will vary with the terrain.

I’ll cover it with cheapo, thin, roofing felt and screw painted UPVC window trim (it’s way cheaper than wood and doesn’t rot) along the edges to secure the felt and contain the 6mm chippings to be used as ballast, as before. It hardly represents realism, I just think it looks better than ‘bare track’. For curves I’ll use R5 and R3 recycled plastic boards, mainly from the previous garden (and no felt).

This will be stage 1. Future stages will be:
• a long, not at all photogenic incline to the other part of the garden
• figuring out what to do once we’ve got there
• planting loads of stuff to make it appear that the railway was a deliberate, integrated part of the garden plan — and not just arbitrarily plonked across it.

Cheers!

[LNR]

Good to hear you are off and building again Bertie

figuring out what to do once we’ve got there

I like that!
Grant.

[BertieB]

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Test runs with the smallest, most forgiving loco

Inevitably, things haven’t gone entirely to plan, though I’ve done much of the track laying in ‘stage 1’, the raised bed area of the garden. I now have to do some brick laying (not one of my core skills) to reinstate a step into the raised bed (for weeding and track access) and then knock up a simple lift-out bridge to run across it.

It was forcefully suggested to me, by a (relatively) younger member of the family, that the opportunity for continuous running had to be an absolute priority, even if it could only be achieved with small tank engines and short rolling stock. So return loops would be necessary at both ends of the (as yet far from complete) relocated, garden railway. I’d thought that within the limited space available at the raised bed end of things, it would just look too tight and too naff. I’ve had to concede however and include a R2/R3 return loop. I’ll have to attempt to camouflage it with judicious planting, which is desperately needed anyway.

An unexpected annoyance has been the volume of bird droppings ending up on the trackbed, which is messing with my planned ‘loose ballast’ notion. It would make cleaning it off unpleasant and difficult. Not yet sure what to do about that.

And let’s hope the weather forecasts are overly pessimistic and it isn’t actually going to rain daily till the end of time…

[philipy]

Looking pretty good so far.

[ge_rik]

I took have a problem with bird droppings under an apple tree which birds use as a staging post to and from the bird feeder. I've named that section Guano Junction ......

Rik

[Scrat]

I also had this problem.
Had a bird feeder at the corner of the shed.
Some birds only wanted the sunflower seeds and just threw the other stuff down...right into the blades of my 5" geuge point.
Out-of-scale seeds can jam 5" gauge point blades.
I had to move the feeder to the far corner of the garden.

[Preseli Chris]

I do like your representation of the little pannier tank locomotive, you have captured it so well .

Chris

[BertieB]

A short ‘trundle round the track laid so far’ video (a few more shots than the GIF above). And thanks, Chris — it’s my oldest surviving loco. Needs a spring clean!

[Preseli Chris]

HiBertie.

Nice video of 1378 running on your new line. I would like to see your take on a Riddles 9F.

Chris

[Lonsdaler]

Good to see you getting going again. I'm looking forward to seeing the old (or should that be auld?) favourites running again, as well as whatever you dream up next!

[BertieB]

Thanks very much. I can’t imagine I’d be able to cope with a 9F! I saw a beautiful gauge 1 example recently and that looked enormous. I wonder what minimum radius curves you’d need. As it is, I’ve found that, not unexpectedly, some of the larger, ‘auld favourites’ (Thank you, Phil) aren’t too happy on the recently installed ‘return loop’ (described above). I’ve also discovered that many of my couplings are fixed too low and foul the point blades. Great.

I’m almost done with track laying in this raised bed bit of the garden; just need to build a lift-out bridge. Given how much time I’ve spent on this so far (and how many mistakes I’ve made) the next stage can wait a while.

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[Old Man Aaron]

I feel for you on that list of things to tweak and fix, but I've no doubt you'll get there..

[BertieB]

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Now there’s (temporarily) a bright yellow bridge too!

And at last I’ve got round to coupling the coaches a little closer together — after five years of moaning about it.

[ge_rik]

I’m almost done with track laying in this raised bed bit of the garden; just need to build a lift-out bridge. Given how much time I’ve spent on this so far (and how many mistakes I’ve made) the next stage can wait a while.

No doubt you will be thankful for the time spent on laying the track in a few years' time.
And as for mistakes ........ and I still keep making them.

Rik

[BertieB]

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A bit like a BR Standard (but not too much)

A few months later, I’ve at last got round to painting it (I was busy) and, after several failed attempts, getting a set of DIY waterslide decals that worked. It took ages to figure out it was the spraycan acrylic varnish at fault (wouldn’t cure?), not the new inks or decal paper. A new can and it was all OK.

I now have to somehow secure the battery in the smoke box and then screw it all together. Somewhere I’ve got some suitable crew too — I boxed them up 18 months ago, before the recent house move and haven’t yet stumbled across the right box.

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I’ll do the glazing when something arrives in appropriate packaging. Hopefully, a cake

[ge_rik]

Wow!!! That looks brilliant. The finish on the paintwork is perfect.

Rik

[BertieB]

Thanks Rik. My guilty secret is spraycan Railmatch Matt Enamel Varnish on gloss paint (mind you, I don't show the scruffy bits that don't look so good).

[Lonsdaler]

That's all looking good Bertie. The close coupling is worth the hassle too. I've printed my own decals previously but the quality of the paper I used changed, and they all seemed to break up. What brand do you use?

[BertieB]

“I've printed my own decals previously but the quality of the paper I used changed, and they all seemed to break up. What brand do you use?”

I’m afraid I can’t recommend my preferred decal paper as it appears to be no longer available, so I recently bought a few small packets from different manufacturers to try. Unfortunately, I also bought new, not-OEM inks and new spraycan varnish. When it all went horribly wrong it took a while to arrive at changing the varnish (and being super conscientious about applying it). The paper that then worked happened to be from Hayes Paper Co — but I don’t know about the other ones yet.