Garden Railway Forum

All looks very good Phil.
Just one comment if I may, from personal experience. I did something similar on part of my line, but because there is only one fixing screw on each post, they tended to neatly fold themselves down if nudged . Also, I dunked mine in Creocote for about a week after drilling then left them to dry for a couple of months, but after 3 or 4 years outside the screw holes are starting to rot and enlarge. You may have more success than me, but keep an eye on them.

Thanks Philip,

I’ll have to see how they last. The wires are fixed at the ends so maybe they won’t be able to fold down and the wires are quite stiff.

At least I can hope that rolling stock doesn’t fly over the edge!

Phil

Posting this video from Phil on his behalf - Phil, quote this post and give us the context

Many thanks Simon, I have no idea how to get a video on this site but I know a man who does!

Having put the first fence up yesterday whilst Storm Antoni blustered round and about and occasionally dropped ash twigs in the middle of the layout I ran a test train this morning to check clearances and try out the joints across the lifting section with a bigger engine than Clara and some vehicles. After fitting a brass bolt for alignment at the end of the bridge and adjusting the level of one rail at the crossing onto the table all was well and a fairly fast train behaved itself.

This video is a demonstration of the first passenger train to use the layout though not the first train since Clara did some circuits light engine a few days ago.

Phil

Thats great, what a nice line that is. You have done a good job with the posts and hopefully you will have no mishaps.

Has for putting a video onto the forum, it's fairly easy once you get the hang of it.

1. Go to YouTube and click on this.


You need to click on ( Copy Link )


2. Click on this video icon.

Then open the two inverted videos by just clicking your space bar a few times, otherwise the video will go to the end of it.


[video] [/video]



3. Paste you video in the space and Preview it.


It should then show it has loaded onto the forum.





I hope this helps you Phil.

Phil,
If you need to know how to do pretty much anything on the forum, we have a fairly comprehensive "How to .." section. https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=62

For posting video's it is at:
https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=9208

I've now added Rod's detailed instructions to that How to ..... Section

Rik

Thanks all for the advice. I don't post anything on Youtube myself or use any other hosting sites which is why I got Simon to help me out.

Phil

Sometimes it takes a few goes to work out the best way of doing something. Today I did the fences on the other end and eventually I worked out that using cramps to prevent the posts from tilting whilst the wire was inserted made life much easier:-
luckily I have lots of cramps!

The end result was much better too, many fewer kinks:-
Phil

PS a worrying aside. I wanted to make some adjustments to the lifting section which involved removing the six screws from one side of the hinges. I found that three of them had snapped off. These were goldscrews, I think 3.5mm diameter. I have used lots of them around the construction.

gilfachphil wrote: ↑Thu Aug 10, 2023 8:58 pm
PS a worrying aside. I wanted to make some adjustments to the lifting section which involved removing the six screws from one side of the hinges. I found that three of them had snapped off. These were goldscrews, I think 3.5mm diameter. I have used lots of them around the construction.

I've seen that problem ( not specifically with gold screws) where the pilot hole was on the tight side to begin with and then the wood gets wet swells and grips the screw even tighter, and ....!

Thats a brilliant and well thought out solution Phil.

I am going to have borrow that idea if I may.

A dry and sunny day so a first time to have both scenic sections out and do some testing with more rolling stock. This shows the lunchtime break position:-
The skirts on Trevor would not pass across the hinges of the lift up section without lifting him off the rails! It would be difficult to reset them far enough apart so I have ordered a pair of backflap hinges which I hope will allow me to solve that problem. The alignment of the other end of the lifting bridge still needs sorting. The brass bolt I tried does not have close enough tolerance to keep the rails aligned properly. I then tried using a loose pin hinge but could not really get it positioned suitably and by then I was making too many holes in the wood so stopped playing. My thought at present is to use a piece of aluminium channel with a piece of solid aluminium which is a good fit inside, this should allow me to use more length and so get fixing screws away from the ends of the two pieces of wood and at the same time give a much better tolerance of alignment. Comments welcome on this!

Apart from these two issues all ran well and I was pleased that a wide variety of stock with different wheelsets passed happily in both directions across points.

Phil

gilfachphil wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 1:55 pm Thanks Rod,

yes, the Cliff Barker track is good VFM. I was mighty pleased to see that I had got my order in just before a price rise!

Phil

I have just put an order in for some Cliff Barker stuff, but for some reason it won't let me add the ballast.... Any thoughts..

Phil

You have made remarkable progress since I last looked. It looks brilliant.

Very impressed.

Trevor

FWLR wrote: ↑Sat Aug 19, 2023 9:37 am
I have just put an order in for some Cliff Barker stuff, but for some reason it won't let me add the ballast.... Any thoughts..

Perhaps it is out of stock, but not telling you that?
Or,
Perhaps it is 'collection only' if it is a weighty item?

Can you phone him?

Phil.P

Phil.P wrote: ↑Sat Aug 19, 2023 10:01 am

FWLR wrote: ↑Sat Aug 19, 2023 9:37 am
I have just put an order in for some Cliff Barker stuff, but for some reason it won't let me add the ballast.... Any thoughts..

Perhaps it is out of stock, but not telling you that?
Or,
Perhaps it is 'collection only' if it is a weighty item?

Can you phone him?

Phil.P

I will try later on. Thanks Phil.

Thanks to my good friend and neighbour, Colin, I now have a serious bolt to align the lifting bridge section with the fixed part. He made it from stainless steel oddments he had and it has much less waggle than the commercial brass ones I have. Fitted and adjusted with packing spacers it brought things into much better alignment:-

However Mr. Sod had to join in the game, there was insufficient clearance for Trevor and his skirts:-
The answer was to lift the track and move it over by around 15mm away from the bolt! This was a positive step in the end as bringing the track nearer the centre of curvature also shortened it slightly and so I was able to decrease the gap at the joint and also improve the flow of it. Trevor will now run fast in both directions across the joint with almost no hiccups and is well clear of the bolt, he’s just a bit closer to the fence but if I need to move a fence post that will be quite easy.
Phil

Good job that Phil, pity you haven't used thicker boards, then you could have put it on the side. I use packing pieces all the time. You won't see them once ballast is down.

Thanks Rod,

I'm not planning on doing any ballasting on this layout, it's all about having fun rather than trying to create a railway in a garden environment.

Colin and I spent ages trying to work out how to get the alignment reliable, it's particularly awkward where boards meet an an angle like this. I'm happy with this method and hope it proves to be reliable.

Phil

Your so right there Phil, I always enjoy our line, just not when I am building it. It's all the little things like you have had with that bolt, that I don't enjoy..