Garden Railway Forum

My 'train room' is called 'Termite' and is living up to its name again.

Four years ago I had to replace a small section of wall due to the little termites eating it out.
Now I have about 15 feet of wall which needs to be replaced - the pine studs are totally eaten out. The baseboard table supports MAY also need some work - when I get access I'll be able to tell if they are in there.

Now I have to move 30 locos and 60 wagons 'somewhere else' as well as a lot of the other junk like paint tins, power tools, pieces of wire etc etc , demolish the shelving and drawers attached to the wall, before I can tell the total extent.

My grandsons came to help me get started lifting the track and moving the stock yesterday. I have to get it all cleaned out by next wed so the pest man can work his magic and tell me the bad news.

It will be quite some time before trains run again.

Wow, that is terrible! To think I moan about the anthills on our lawns!

philipy wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:44 am Wow, that is terrible! To think I moan about the anthills on our lawns!

Very true! Mother Nature's very kind to us Brits in comparison - good luck Greg, I hope it's not too awful...

Andrew.

Bad news Greg.
I have a termite inspection carried out annually, last visit they found 'active ' termites and treated them with "Termidor" which kills the nest, next visit this month.
The termite man can provide a barrier for the whole house which at last quote 18 months ago was $2700, it is good for 5 years.
If/when you replace the wall use the blue stuff from Bunnings its treated timber.
Guess this is what we get from living on top of the worlds largest termite nest.

Sad news, Greg. The little blighters clearly have a taste for your timber. Let's hope they've not progressed upwards into the main structure of the house....

Rik

All the track has been removed and the pest man has been and sprayed all the timber in the house above. Luckily, the termites have not got into the house.
But the train baseboard will have to be completely removed and rebuilt as well as the one wall of the 'train room'.
A few weeks ago I said to a mate I had nothing to do. Now I do!
The baseboard is built over part of the big rock ledge that is such a defining part of the outside railway. Here you see the red and black plastic covering the rock to stop moisture. Still plenty of wood to remove after the poison all dries out.

Heart breaking Greg, but looking on the bright side, I'm sure that more than once in the past you have thought, "I wish I'd done this or that" . Now you will be able to.

As Philip says, maybe some good will come out of it. Really annoying, though. I suspect the treatment ain't cheap.

Rik

philipy wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:37 pm Heart breaking Greg, but looking on the bright side, I'm sure that more than once in the past you have thought, "I wish I'd done this or that" . Now you will be able to.

On some days I ask myself why I want to rebuild the inside room. I know I have so much work to do on the track and bridges outside, is it all worth it? I imagine I have only another 10 years or so of playing trains. Maybe I should just concentrate on the outside layout and accept a reduced layout just outside. Means I'd have to carry my trains in and out.

But I have started sketching out the new inside track arrangement! I will post some ideas for comments someday soon. I need to find more storage space, that I can reach easily, so that I can actually build some more trains.

gregh wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:32 am

philipy wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:37 pm Heart breaking Greg, but looking on the bright side, I'm sure that more than once in the past you have thought, "I wish I'd done this or that" . Now you will be able to.

But I have started sketching out the new inside track arrangement! I will post some ideas for comments someday soon. I need to find more storage space, that I can reach easily, so that I can actually build some more trains.

Intriguing! I hope you won't sacrifice the line and its wonderful trestle and rock cuttings up to Termite.

Rik

Greg,
Those brick piers would make really good anchor points for steel bearers.
Have you looked at getting some steel purlins similar to what Andrew and I used in Bomaderry as the framework for a treated base board or even some steel house framing ?
I would look around at recycled building material suppliers for steel framing, as alternative to treated timber.
A few dynabolts to anchor to the piers and some steel brackets dynabolted into the rock and the baseboard will not move till you are finished with trains.

Thats a great suggestion by Graeme... It's a real shame that those little monsters have done so much damage to what looked a brilliant inside line.
Sometimes I also think should I carry on with 16mm, but then I see what I have done over the few short years of being involved with garden rail and I then realise what I would be missing. There is nothing to compare with our hobby that has so many helpful people who are willing to give their time and expertise to help others.

Hope you can enjoy your trains for a lot longer than 10 years though Greg....

A big family day saw all the baseboard ripped out and all termite damaged wood removed. Now all is clear for the rebuild and time to order the timber.
Three views of the stages that it went through over the last 2 months.
The reason for the orange plastic becomes clear in this pic - it covers the big rock ledge. You can even see where I started to jack-hammer the rock all those years ago, but gave that up as a bad joke.

That is some area to clear out Greg. Rather you than me, I'am afraid....

It's amazing how much havoc tiny creatures can wreak.

Rik

Must be heartbreaking Greg. I would be tempted to use lightweight blocks to make support pillars for the layout and look for some of the steel angle they use for racking some if like giant meccano pieces.
We can have problems over here with wodworm. I bought a run down cottage to do up. All the rafters were so riddled with worm they had bowed a were lighter than expanded foam. Mind you the main timber the wall plates, purlins, and his were barely touched being Oak heartwood they would blunt the worms teeth. Would anything stop the termites?

Don

DonW wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 2:12 pm Must be heartbreaking Greg. I would be tempted to use lightweight blocks to make support pillars for the layout and look for some of the steel angle they use for racking some if like giant meccano pieces.
We can have problems over here with wodworm. I bought a run down cottage to do up. All the rafters were so riddled with worm they had bowed a were lighter than expanded foam. Mind you the main timber the wall plates, purlins, and his were barely touched being Oak heartwood they would blunt the worms teeth. Would anything stop the termites?

Don

So you have wood problems too.
The termites did not come from the rock but from the wet outside soil, somehow. Actually, very little of the baseboard supports were touched by the termites, but I decided to replace everything with termite proofed timber anyhow.
I'll be using old bricks or similar for the small supports on the rock ledge. They are only 20-30cm high.
My main aim is to ensure that none of the new work touches the main house timbers or piers. The problem was that I had butted the baseboard up against the house brick piers. That meant the termites could build their track up between the two and were invisible.

Greg

these days in the UK all the structural timbers have to be pressure treated wood, things like skirting and architraves are not included. Also the humidity of modern houses is much lower than in old cottages and that discourages wood worm. The other problem is dry rot which is a fungus. There is always something. You sound as though you have it sorted now.

Don

Hell of a job, Can't envy you that. Would offer to come help if I lived in Sydney. Some well thought-out design changes though.

It's been 4 months since I ripped out all the termite damaged timber and for a number of reasons I have not been able to get back to replacing any of it.
But I have now decided to do some tidying of the electrical wiring. Tidying means ripping most of it out in this case.

Back in the bad old days there was track power! Thanks goodness I went over to RC and battery about 2005. But before that I had used home made Radio control of fixed track power controllers.
I had 4 RC controllers each with its own transformer and RC system. And there were 4 single line track sections so I built this selection panel to be able to connect any section to any controller by the use of plugs. You can see one of the plugs in the top right.
Today I ripped it all out!

There were also local controllers at each of the 5 major stations. To supply these I ran a +/- 15Vdc supply around the yard. One of the rails was 'common' for all track supplies, and the +/- supply made direction control easier. The general auxiliaries like lights and turnout motors were supplied from this supply too.
Anyhow, without the station controllers, the power requirements of the +/- supply was reduced. So I have rewired the main power supply with smaller transformers, added better short circuit protection and tidied all the wiring up.
A small step in the rebuild process.