Garden Railway Forum

A brief hailstorm blew through the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday evening. Plenty of trees and some fences down, and around 9,000 houses without power, including ours for six hours. Sections of the local shopping center's roof partially caved in. We escaped any real damage, though the back patio was strewn with upturned potted plants.
Scum Class Works (the caravan) leaked quite badly around the front window, due to a water-runoff design flaw that I wasn't aware of.
The Works' test tramway was lucky that the three or so minutes of quarter-inch hail, did very little damage.

Wednesday night, after the power went out.


Between the hail and mulch washed into the gully, the bridge looks almost superfluous.




My hammered-in steel spikes, and bricks stacked on the umbrella's base, (umbrella was of course already closed) did little against the wind. The Imperial Hotel had only been plonked outside on Saturday, awaiting a cement road in front of it, before I could call it complete. Very lucky the umbrella didn't undo those two years of work - or the side-access glass sliding door of the house.


All my rooves are bound to be dented by hail sooner or later, but even my pessimistic a*se didn't expect it to happen within a week of completion.. I've noticed when looking at the pub as a whole, the eye seems to overlook the large unsightly dents, and the pub takes on a more "lived-in" and realistic appearance. That's how it looks to me, anyway..


I'm not surprised at the damage to the railings, either; they're quite fragile in any case. Nothing's missing, and it'll be an easy repair when I get round to it.


The bank is virtually undamaged, besides looking like a riot passed through. The other buildings have only very minor roof denting and dirt splashing..


The track is messy, but undamaged. Besides the patches that turned white, (because I used too much glue during construction 9, months ago) I'm very, very pleased with the ballast's long-term performance.


The plants however have taken a beating. I'll have to fertilise everything to encourage new growth, though it's unlikely to happen any time soon, as we're rapidly heading into Winter..




Since these photos were taken on Thursday, I've already re-mulched the garden, and the pub and road will be done in the coming days.

That looks to have been quite an event!
Glad there was no really significant damage, and as you say the roof dents just add bit of character and stop the hotel looking too pristine. The damage to the balcony railings actually just serves to make it look a bit more aged and peronally I'd tend to leave it as it is, but thats up to you of course.
Edited to add that I meant the missing palings, not the whole displaced sections!

Wow! That was some storm! I think the bank manager needs to find a more secure way of protecting his premises

Rik

Oh Aaron, after such hard work - it's heartbreaking We've had similar weather earlier this week, but it's not too unusual here and thankfully the hailstones stayed sub 1/4 inch size, although we had a power cut too. Only brief for us, but the next village along lost power for over 3 hours. It's definitely the plants that suffer the most, and it always happens just as most species are blooming or generally looking their best. I hope you get everything sorted soon, including your leaky window

I have delayed the repositioning of my buildings on the railway as we have been experiencing severe weather conditions here too. The wind has been strong enough to fold my greenhouse frame (fortunately minus its glass during repositioning) and blow an industrial cement mixer over....

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 1:01 pm I have delayed the repositioning of my buildings on the railway as we have been experiencing severe weather conditions here too. The wind has been strong enough to fold my greenhouse frame (fortunately minus its glass during repositioning) and blow an industrial cement mixer over....

Ooh, hate to see it. Can the frame be repaired, or is it too mangled?

Yes, a number of plants here appear to be dying, though it could just be the damaged leaves. Time will tell.. I did briefly consider leaving a couple of palings out, but these pubs seemed to have always been well-maintained - or at least the sides facing the busy streets..

The yard was cleaned up the next day, re-mulched, the buildings repaired and the aforementioned road poured. Pictures here.

Thanks Aaron, it looks worse than it is and luckily the bolts became loose and allowed the frame to move before bending. Since then we have experienced more storms so I have delayed the return of my village until later. At the current rate that will be sometime in October!!!!

When we get southern gales the wind is so strong here that we get plants shaken so much that the roots either loosen or break.
Don