Major revamp of the Elderbury & District
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 8:28 am
In a number of ways Mother Nature has been conspiring against my railway for several years and I'd even got to the point of seriously considering junking the whole lot. 
There are a number of problems, but biggest one is trees, and specifically Ash trees, of which there are three big ones along the bottom of our garden. They weren't planted, they just grew from seeds and we have a constant battle in pulling up seedlings all over the garden, however I digress. The RH one of the three is the youngest and when I built the line it was clear of the raised trackbed. After a few years it had increased in girth to the point where it was pushing the trackbed out of alignment, so I altered things to clear it again. A couple of years later and the same thing had happened again and by the beginning of this year the trackbed was tilted by getting on for 45 degrees! So I took that section out whilst I made up my mind about the future. The middle tree of the three isn't causing any problems but the LH one is a major headache. By pure chance it sits right in the corner of the garden, against the fence on 2 sides. For a number of years one of our neighbours has been moaning about it shading his garden ( with some justification I have to admit!), then last year I noticed that it was pushing the fences out of vertical, and also there is an upwards bulge in the adjacent public footpath which is getting potentially dangerous.
Last week I called in a tree surgeon for some advice and whilst he was here and looking at them he dropped the bombshell that he thinks all of them are showing the first signs of Ash Dieback disease, which he said is fairly rampant in this area! His estimate is that all 3 will have to come down in about 5 years time.
Sooo... he said he could prune back the big one now to reduce its height and remove overhanging branches but in his view it wouldn't be worth it, given that he will have to take it down completely in a few years time. So we reluctantly decided to get him to take it down completely now. However, to do that, I will have to take out a fairly long section of the railway to allow them working access to the tree, which will mean I then have TWO 3metre gaps in the line.
So I said to SWMBO that I didn't know what to do and might rip it all up. To my surprise she said, "No don't do that, can't you just cut it short? What about taking down the old shed that you've always talked about doing?" . Just cutting it short doesn't really work, I'd just be left with a 10metre long siding! However there is a large Forsythia bush in just the right place to put a loop round - the straight track runs behind it at present and adding a 4ft radius loop goes round it nicely.
So thats what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks: Shed taken down and disposed of, a lot of vegetation trimmed back, the guttering on the end of the garage altered, holes dug for track supports, decking boards cut up and screwed together and roofing felt fixed to the top. So now I'm about ready to start tracklaying!
That is of course why I was asking about sprung points in my other recent post.
This might make my ramblings a bit clearer!
Still a lot of tidying up to be done of course.
This is Phase 1, because of course I no longer have a continuous run - although in practice I haven't had one for several years because the track distortion made it impossible. However, Phase 2 involves some major civil engineering at the other end of the line and the plan is to raise Lower Bench station to the same level as the rest of the line and join it back on, to create a loop at that end as well. Watch this space, but not too closely!
There are a number of problems, but biggest one is trees, and specifically Ash trees, of which there are three big ones along the bottom of our garden. They weren't planted, they just grew from seeds and we have a constant battle in pulling up seedlings all over the garden, however I digress. The RH one of the three is the youngest and when I built the line it was clear of the raised trackbed. After a few years it had increased in girth to the point where it was pushing the trackbed out of alignment, so I altered things to clear it again. A couple of years later and the same thing had happened again and by the beginning of this year the trackbed was tilted by getting on for 45 degrees! So I took that section out whilst I made up my mind about the future. The middle tree of the three isn't causing any problems but the LH one is a major headache. By pure chance it sits right in the corner of the garden, against the fence on 2 sides. For a number of years one of our neighbours has been moaning about it shading his garden ( with some justification I have to admit!), then last year I noticed that it was pushing the fences out of vertical, and also there is an upwards bulge in the adjacent public footpath which is getting potentially dangerous.
Last week I called in a tree surgeon for some advice and whilst he was here and looking at them he dropped the bombshell that he thinks all of them are showing the first signs of Ash Dieback disease, which he said is fairly rampant in this area! His estimate is that all 3 will have to come down in about 5 years time.
Sooo... he said he could prune back the big one now to reduce its height and remove overhanging branches but in his view it wouldn't be worth it, given that he will have to take it down completely in a few years time. So we reluctantly decided to get him to take it down completely now. However, to do that, I will have to take out a fairly long section of the railway to allow them working access to the tree, which will mean I then have TWO 3metre gaps in the line.
So I said to SWMBO that I didn't know what to do and might rip it all up. To my surprise she said, "No don't do that, can't you just cut it short? What about taking down the old shed that you've always talked about doing?" . Just cutting it short doesn't really work, I'd just be left with a 10metre long siding! However there is a large Forsythia bush in just the right place to put a loop round - the straight track runs behind it at present and adding a 4ft radius loop goes round it nicely.
So thats what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks: Shed taken down and disposed of, a lot of vegetation trimmed back, the guttering on the end of the garage altered, holes dug for track supports, decking boards cut up and screwed together and roofing felt fixed to the top. So now I'm about ready to start tracklaying!
That is of course why I was asking about sprung points in my other recent post.
This might make my ramblings a bit clearer!
- Screenshot 2023-06-29 07.58.07.png (76.64 KiB) Viewed 4585 times
- DSC_0037.JPG (359.6 KiB) Viewed 4585 times
This is Phase 1, because of course I no longer have a continuous run - although in practice I haven't had one for several years because the track distortion made it impossible. However, Phase 2 involves some major civil engineering at the other end of the line and the plan is to raise Lower Bench station to the same level as the rest of the line and join it back on, to create a loop at that end as well. Watch this space, but not too closely!
