Garden Railway Forum

Old Man Aaron wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 2:13 pm Perfect - absolutely perfect workmanship.

And I'm not even close to being caught up on what you've posted so far.

Thank you.
I still have a lot to post to bring it fully up to date.

Martin

ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:35 pm The infrastructure is as well engineered as the railway

Rik

I try to plan and think things through first, does not always work out though.
The main thing, nothing is permanent and can be easily taken down and altered or the garden returned to normal.

Martin

The engine shed area took a bit of a battering!

It is a shame, if it was not for foxes and cats it would have worked reasonably well, more of which shortly.

Very tempted to rip the whole lot up and return it back to garden and just stick with indoor lines. Will give it one more go though, but if that fails, I will admit defeat and move on.



I made an error when building this railway, I had not allowed for the PVC edging strip to expand more than the metal frame and base. The consequence of this is the gap created on expansion, gravel and stones drop through and catch preventing the return of the PVC edging to flat. Gravel then washes down the gap when it rains.



I have virtually cured the problem on the front edge by doubling up the number of bolts holding it on. Also with membrane cloth and edging strip screwed down. If the PVC does bow, the membrane and edging strip stop the gravel flushing away. I had quite a session last year and made good progress with preparing the rest of the line.

Work in progress along the fence side.





Even if I did miss a bit of track and laid over it!



My joy was short lived, overnight it got ripped up.



I have had to resort to covering it in felt, until I can get the track down and ballasted.



Martin

I have never been really happy with the look of the ballast, so did an experiment with Grano dust, which is about £5.00 for 25kgs locally.

Here spread dry on a test section.



Stuck it down with SBR in the good traditional way of model railway ballasting.



It dries a darker colour. Stuck firm and lasted well when left out for a few weeks. Will do another one mixing in some of the original ballast which is RHS potting grit.

If it works this should stop any digging up and will be very easy to brush clean. The only downside is drainage, will have to leave some drain holes and maybe just fill those with loose gravel or use more artificial grass.



Martin

Along with making the track fox proof, I need to address the problem with PVC edging expanding more than metal, then allowing stones to drop through and prevent it returning flat.

I got on with the first eight feet and the railway. My start point at the beginning of the line, some of the artificial grass has been lifted.



Track unscrewed, gravel removed.



Using a 90 degree drill adapter to drill new bolt holes to prevent fascia expanding.



You can see the extra rear bolts in each recess of the base to hold the rear fascia flat. The rest of the gravel was hoovered out using an AquaVac fitted with a reusable canvas bag.



Troughs now filled with rubber I had kicking around in the shed.



Membrane (cheap weed membrane bought from Amazon) fitted, ready to be clamped down with hardwood strips.



Clamping strips and track support strips now in place.



Track screwed back down.



I will be making this change to all the points. Firstly to give somewhere to mount a Point lever, secondly I will not ballast under the tie bar to reduce the risk of any stray gravel locking up the point switch. This was an annoying problem I had with loose ballast. Rain and animals would dislodge small grains and they would get stuck in the tie bar mechanism and jam it up. Much time would be spent with tweezers trying to clear the problem before running could take place.



Never been happy with the ballast. In the middle is now my preferred version which is a 50:50 mix of the original RHS potting grit and Grano dust. Although that changes again later!



The 50:50 mix in place.



Wetted with water with a drop of washing up liquid to break water tension.



SBR neat from the can, dropped in place with a pipette.



I had a slight change of plan. Grano dust is cheaper than potting grit, so I used Grano dust to do the basic filling. When this has cured it will be topped off with the final 50:50 mix. Note the under tiebar area has been kept clear.



Glued in place just past the point.



A close up showing the difference in method. This will need a top layer of the 50:50 mix when dry.



The first eight feet took 2-3 hours to ballast to this stage. It is now covered with plastic sheet and timbers to deter our night time visitors!



Only another 150 feet to do before I reach the first 90 degree turn, this could take a while!

Martin

A productive day, stripped out a 12 foot section of track. Fixed the rear fascia, put down the membrane, relaid track with added point switch timbers.

Ballasting next on the list.





It was easier to do the point timbers on the bench in the workshop.



Membrane laid, track back in position. Interestingly some of the Peco fishplates had fractured, so they were replaced. I have moved on to using their G45 fishplates, they are longer and stronger.



This now needs to be ballasted, The signal box and engine shed have been removed to improve access. The engine shed area will have a different treatment of ballasting, of which I have not finalised how yet.

The goods yard will probably be a mix of main line and engine shed ballast, early days yet though.

Martin

I got bored ballasting with a small dropper so bought a much bigger one.



Being at the height the layout is, makes it more comfortable to sit down while ballasting. This was on a very hot day, the house kept the railway in shade until early afternoon.



Lifting more points to add switch timbers.



Some of the points relaid.



My track level checking wagon in use.



Signal box has been lifted and a holding plug has been put in while I add ground work up to it, when dry the plug can be lifted and the signal box planted back.



Signal box plug lifted, to the right of the Baguely is a plug for what will eventually be a fuelling coal/diesel stage. The engine shed has levitated down the line while the groundwork is done.



Working up the engine shed area.



Engine shed now back in place.



I stained the Grano Dust with this cement dye.



I got bored with ballasting, so played trains instead!



Martin

I cannot warm to super shiny stock on the railway.



So made an initial start on toning down this one.





It did a bit of evening shunting with some ballast wagons.



I will be working on this one in the winter evenings, as and when the mood takes me.

Martin

Oh, the joys of garden railways.....

Touch wood, I don't have a fox problem like yours. For some reason, a hedgehog really likes using the trackbed as a latrine. At least, I think it's a hedgehog. Not caught it in action yet. My ballast has always been glued (or bonded) into place so I've not had your problems, though I always have to clear the points (tie bars, blades, frogs and check rails) before every running session. Even bonded ballast works loose, it would seem.

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 8:59 am Oh, the joys of garden railways.....

Touch wood, I don't have a fox problem like yours. For some reason, a hedgehog really likes using the trackbed as a latrine. At least, I think it's a hedgehog. Not caught it in action yet. My ballast has always been glued (or bonded) into place so I've not had your problems, though I always have to clear the points (tie bars, blades, frogs and check rails) before every running session. Even bonded ballast works loose, it would seem.

Rik

It did get to a stage when I seriously considered giving it up and taking it all down.
Giued ballast has been a game changer, along with discouraging the foxes from living in our garden, down to just one now, but not seen that for a few weeks.
The neighbour's cats have wondered where their giant cat litter tray has gone as well!

Will we be due a new Rik video? Need a Peckforton fix.

Martin

No plans for a video imminently. Some remedial work needed on trackwork and a bit chilly out there. Might be tempted if there's some snowfall before the winter leaves us, though.

Rik

Be careful what you wish for, Rik..
There is the faint chance of snow, even here, this evening?

Phil.P

ge_rik wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 7:56 am No plans for a video imminently. Some remedial work needed on trackwork and a bit chilly out there. Might be tempted if there's some snowfall before the winter leaves us, though.

Rik

Perhaps a new loco then? I've always wondered what a 15mm scale Fletcher Jennings A class would look like (I can give primary dimensions from my F&BR book)...

I have moved the site for the yet to be built goods shed, for which the drawings are already done.

It has moved about 10" towards the engine shed, for no other reason than when I sit in the conservatory having a coffee, I will be able to see the cattle dock without it being obscured by the goods shed.

The plastic wrapped bits of MDF represent the building's footprint, the sidings are yet to be shortened.





I have never liked the inner curve on the far side by the bush, it never looked right. I think I rushed it using what track I had to hand at he time, rather than cutting a better fit piece. Plus the bush at the back was getting ever nearer the track.



The track has been completely lifted and plonked across the grass while I sweep up the ballast.



Here using my track spacers to set the new route.





I use a small hand mirror to 'eye in' the curves.



Martin

November 2023...

It is that time of year when the garden railway modelling moves indoors. I cannot guarantee the weather will be dry and warm enough to do anymore trackwork, except for the crossing sections which will done in the workshop as units.

I have yet to make space in the main workshop to accommodate the indoor section of the garden railway, otherwise I could have started that, but the 'First Sunday in June' layout is taking up that space.

Thoughts have turned to rolling stock and the pile of started and yet to start kits.

This one is an IP Engineering brake van kit, which I began an embarrassing 13 years ago!





Roll on 13 years...

I have now added rivet detail. Seen here next to the standard gauge grounded van body.



The roof is a thin piece of ply, I wanted this removable to aid interior detailing.



I laser cut from ply, a subframe to to hold the roof to shape and locate it in the body frame.



From 2mm MDF, I laser cut a gluing jig, the ribs coincide with the roof subframe ribs.



This made gluing the subframes to the roof top a simple process.



Using some very thin strip wood, I glued on rain channels.



Martin

The IP Engineering kit is a good basic base to detail up.

Next I wanted to glaze the end windows, so laser cut some frames from PolyBak. Each window uses two of these frames and sandwiches the glazing between. The glazing I cut from an old CD case cover, for no other reason than I had a load of empty cases kicking around.



Enough frames for the two end windows.



Here can be seen two frames with a CD case sandwich.



Installation testing before painting. Painting is very easy before final assembly, then glued in with the glazing, no masking required.





I did not like the step boards that came with the kit, I felt they were too short. New ones were laser cut along with a drilling guide.



The drilling guide was clamped in place and a pin vice used.



All four in place using nails as supports, just need painting and refitting.



The W irons were bolted on rather than glued.



Finally I sploshed some paint on. This will do for now until I get enthused to add some more details, lettering and then weathering.





Martin

Can't beat a small mirror for tracklaying.

Ever thought of connecting a cowfence power supply to the rails when the layout is not in operation?

Scrat wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 2:04 pm Ever thought of connecting a cowfence power supply to the rails when the layout is not in operation?

I really like that idea but I'm skeptical that the rails wouldn't just ground themselves to the ballast, since the electric fence relies on the wire being insulated from ground. If I ever again find myself on possession of a spare fencer box, I might just give that a try to keep the squirrels off.

Scrat wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 2:04 pm Ever thought of connecting a cowfence power supply to the rails when the layout is not in operation?

It has been tempting at times.

Martin