Garden Railway Forum

The check rail can be pinned to the existing sleepers on the trestle. Drill out small holes along the underside of the check rail and solder brass nails to it?

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:22 pm The check rail can be pinned to the existing sleepers on the trestle. Drill out small holes along the underside of the check rail and solder brass nails to it?

Did a trail fit this morning.

If I cut away some of the rail securing tabs then the Code 205 ends up at the same height as the Code 332.
There doesn't appear to be a lot of strength in the sleepers so I may have to reinforce and build up where I attach the check rail.
Luckily I have not fixed the rail to the trestle so I may be able to put epoxy (araldite) inside the hollow sleepers to make them sort of solid so I can drill into them and use brass screws.
I had a play and if I use a small screw either side the spacing works out just about right for the flanges to pass through with out interference (spacing provided by using countersunk screws).
The drill and solder brass pins is something I will have to look at.

As the trestle is about 1.5 Metres up in the air I am really treading the cautious path here, so may end up using a check rail and a barrier (thinking post and wire fence) to stop any spectacular swan dives.
Plus the track over the trestle is one continuous 12 foot length with a joiner at the beginning on a straight section before the curve.

I am going to be negative here.
I would think that check rails will just allow more junk (twigs, leaves, gumnuts) to get caught on the tracks and you'll finish with far more derailments than you would have without them.
If you have made up a trial piece of track with check rails, I suggest you do some bench tests trying to derail a loco with twigs etc, to see if check rail does hold the loco on the track.

I have had a bit more of a play and adding check rails while possible would involve more engineering that constructing the trestle.
To get the check rails level I would have to build some sort of spacer over the top of the sleepers up to the level of the moulding that holds the rail in place, and cut the rivet detail off, all the way alongside each main rail then attach to that. I probably could use timber to simulate boards.
The trestle does have a number of neighbour's trees around it so twigs and leaves may become an issue.
Greg,
Do you have many problems with having no check rail, and do you have a description of the railing, on your trestle?

Bit more research and experimentation going on.
I have found a couple of pictures of guard rails on bridges (one full size and 1 G scale) and now I am confused on their placement and how they would work considering the distance between the running rail and the guard rail.
I would have thought that the spacing would be the same as a wing rail on points.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/07/86/3f/0786 ... c0a9a4.jpg
https://familygardentrains.com/primer/b ... drails.jpg

GAP wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 8:40 pm
Greg,
Do you have many problems with having no check rail, and do you have a description of the railing, on your trestle?

long email sent Graeme

GAP wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 11:13 pm Bit more research and experimentation going on.
I have found a couple of pictures of guard rails on bridges (one full size and 1 G scale) and now I am confused on their placement and how they would work considering the distance between the running rail and the guard rail.
I would have thought that the spacing would be the same as a wing rail on points.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/07/86/3f/0786 ... c0a9a4.jpg
https://familygardentrains.com/primer/b ... drails.jpg

A lot of people think this but it's not the case.

A 'check' rail is used to guide the back of a wheel flange away from the opposite rail, for instance to protect the gap in a crossing nose or to reduce the risk of flange climb on the outside of a sharp curve.

A 'guard' rail is provided to catch a derailed wheel and guard against the derailed vehicle straying into danger - essentailly to keep it 'upright and in line'. To achieve this a bigger space is required between the rails than a standard flangeway gap. It also makes construction easier and cheaper in the 12" to the foot world as special chairs or baseplates are not required and there is room to fasten the rail down with standard fastenings (in the worlds of flatbottomed rail this is often achieved by dogging or screwing the guard rail direct onto the sleepers).

Andrew

gregh wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 4:53 am

GAP wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 8:40 pm
Greg,
Do you have many problems with having no check rail, and do you have a description of the railing, on your trestle?

long email sent Graeme

Thanks Greg I got it.

Progress Report #1
The "High" trestle looked a bit out of place with a rocky base under it and a track on level ground in front.
I decided to lower the roadbed in front and add a "Low" trestle to continue the rocky creek bed/gully theme, this will take the gully to the layout edge.

To make the low trestle I recovered a trestle that was used on my old layout, it was made out of plastic molding and looked shiny and un-natural so I scribed "wood grain" using a razor saw and painted it grey to try and get rid of the plastic shine.

The idea is to extend the rocks under the high trestle out under the low one, which will also curve across the corner.
I have some offcuts of synthetic turf that I intend to use under half of the high trestle to simulate a grassy creek bank.

All under the high Trestle that does not have rocks will be "Meadow" as well along whole length of the line either side of the low trestle.
Under the Low Trestle the will be rocks held by mesh and chicken wire.
The pile of the turf is a bit high and if it looks silly close to the sleepers I will paint a strip of brown and yellow along the edge to simulate poisoned grass.

Progress Report #2
The benchwork that takes the line down from the low end of the High Trestle to the level of the lower line is complete.
It is a bit steep at 5% but its is a mountain line after all, so a whole heap of playing/testing will be required to see if it causes a problem for the trains.
Blog will be update in near future.

Great progress, thanks for the update.

The completed part of the upper trestle is looking great with the stones underneath it...

Cheers,

Andrew.

I had a think about the 5% grade and decided that it may be to steep, so I extended the horizontal to 6.1 Metres (20Ft in old money) with a drop of 255mm (10 inches) this gave me a grade of 4.1% which should be OK.
Because the support rails are in between fence posts I had to put in a small post between the rails, I use some galvanized C Purlin to do it.
Now that the 2 lines are at the same level they will now pass through a 180 degree 3.1 Metre (10 Ft) Diameter curve leading to a straight which will head back parallel to the lower line at the same height before turning 90 degrees.
I laid some boards out on the ground to get an idea of what I will have to do, looks like at least 3 posts to be concreted into the ground.
Now that this is finished I will be going back to the Low Trestle

Blog has been updated. https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspo ... -page.html

Good progress there. Glad you altered the gradient, it did look a bit fierce originally.

Live steam locos with Slomos love gradients!

Very original solution to the trestles and ground level. Good thinking.

Don't worry about the grade. Either shorter trains or a second loco will add to the operating fun.

Interesting to see how you go with the grades, contemplating a 1 in 29 grade against the load at the moment. About to do tests.
Grant.

gregh wrote: ↑Fri Mar 13, 2020 8:09 am Very original solution to the trestles and ground level. Good thinking.

Don't worry about the grade. Either shorter trains or a second loco will add to the operating fun.

The longest train will have a Shay on the front end so with 3 motors it should work OK.
My biggest problem is going to be how to raise the line back up to the upper level I do not have the same space to gain the elevation.
I am thinking possibly a Helix or some sort of "S" loop to take it up bit of thinking to be done.

Speaking of the Shay I have just updated my blog with a description of how it is wired for battery remote control.
I used a robotics motor controller of a type which I have found to be both economical and easy to use.
Link to the blog page https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspo ... -shay.html if you do visit please have a look around at the other pages and posts.
I will be adding descriptions of the other locos that I have and the methods of radio control I use as time goes by.

I'm enjoying your Blog. Nice work with the RC.

Really coming along nicely!
I agree with Greg re the blog. Interesting detail on the RC system

Rik