A Garden Railway Pipedream: the odyssey continues

adrian

Flying Squad
and that would leave a minimum of 2cm clear over the highest root. I would hope that this space would allow for growth and movement,
It's great to see the progress on this outdoor adventure - although I'm not sure that nature plays by those tolerances.

The ash is a mature tree, but if someone can suggest any other/better approach, please let me know.
I seem to remember when my Mum had problems with tree roots near her house foundations the recommendation was to dig out under the root and fill it with mulch/wood chips/compost etc. i.e. encourage the tree to get the required nutrients from lower down. Other than that my only other suggestion is to nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure! [ sorry different meme!]
 

Simon

Flying Squad
I wouldn't worry too much about it, I suspect things might move slightly, but not quickly or catastrophically.

I think the best advice I can offer based on my experience is to try and make your track base so that it will allow for movement, which may mean in your root case having the sections of track base either side of it less "monolithically" founded so that any variations spread along the track rather than concentrating in one place.

Your cable trays are a really good idea I think, as they will cope with and allow for movement,

One thing I would be wary of are bridge sections, only put them in where and if absolutely necessary as it is here that I predict you will see movement. As regards your roots, I'd run track base straight over with no bridging.

The great thing is that you are actually doing it rather than just thinking about it, the pleasure you will all get from your line will far outweigh any future issues - movement, bird poo, slugs, rain, I expect there are others!!

Keep building:D

Simon
 

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Ash tree roots are quite notorious - best have a selection of these ready for the first signs of uplifting and progressive deterioration!

Sign.jpg

At the risk of being strung up by the tree huggers, you might get away with chopping a couple of roots if they are not too huge.
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
At the risk of being strung up by the tree huggers, you might get away with chopping a couple of roots if they are not too huge.

Thanks, the root in question is a minor one. The main roots are somewhat lower. I will excavate further! We do have someone who looks after the trees in the garden, and I will ask his advice.

Richard
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
Like your idea of scaffolding jacks and would like to look into using the same myself, but they are not cheap. Who did you find was the cheapest supplier?

Mike
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi Mike,

I used Delta Services (GB) Ltd, who trade through www.scaffolding-direct.co.uk. £6 incl VAT each. I got the cut scaffolding from them as well. A very good service. 43 accurate cuts to spec. The only downside was the carriage which was horribly expensive, but it wasn't practical for me to collect, and our location precluded the usual large van.

Richard

There's a post script to the work shown above. I had sited the poles to make maximum use of the cable trays at just under 1.5 metres spacing. Hardie Backer Board cannot be obtained in larger sizes than 1.2 m. I am going to have to uproot 4 of the 5 posts shown to relocate them at 1.2 m centres. That will be an interesting exercise. It's a good job they weren't concreted in!

R
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi,

The rain stayed off today, so we managed to get a full day in on the garden railway.

First off, we did manage to get the 4 posts at the wrong centres out - 2 very easily, just by rotating and pulling, and 2 with a little more difficulty. Next we investigated whether we could get any poles in at appropriate centres to carry the root system. We could and did, so a major accomplishment there.

P1010364a.jpg

In the afternoon we laid out the return loop this side of the ash tree.

P1010363a.jpg

P1010365a.jpg


In the final image, you can see the markers going round the bed and appearing the left hand side to go round a further bed on the other end return curve.

P1010366a.jpg

Richard
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Excellent progress Richard :)
Looks like there will be some really nice photo opportunities with all the plants in the background - I'll keep my fingers crossed for better weather so you can spend more time outdoors!
Steve
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Thanks Steve,

Whatever you did worked; we had glorious weather today, not as hot as yesterday, and made further progress.

We completed the scaffold pole loop round the second bed,

P1010373a.jpg
marked some of the way round the third bed,

P1010372a.jpg

That was tricky as we couldn't put a radius post in the mature flower bed, we had to rely on (hopefully) accurately drawn and cut templates.

We also started to fit the cable trays.

P1010371a.jpg

P1010374a.jpg

Weather permitting, we are having another work day Saturday when we might try to fit some top boards.

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Sun cream......check
Iced water......check
Sun canopy out.....check

And so began another sunny day in the garden. Only Tony had any sense doing some wiring inside on Heyside. We are still working on Heyside, having 2 teams working outside and one team working inside.

We set a few more posts, getting as far as ground level round the third bed, and cut a few more sections of cable trays. We have a couple of snagging issues, expansion and a delivery ' bash', to deal with, but it's all pretty much going to plan. So far, the minimum radius is just over 10 ft.

P1010376a.jpg

The run from far left to far right is about 20 metres, or just under 1/3 of the infrastructure.

Richard
 
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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Richard
Thanks for that. I did look at the site and see that they only seem to supply 1200mm x 800mm sheets. I suppose that's not really a problem as full size sheets of anything can be difficult to handle and cut.

Jon
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Richard
Thanks for that. I did look at the site and see that they only seem to supply 1200mm x 800mm sheets. I suppose that's not really a problem as full size sheets of anything can be difficult to handle and cut.

Jon

Jon,

The size is a little bit restrictive - I have a lot of waste on the cable trays, and need more posts and jacks. But, I guess that 1.2 metre centres will minimise any tendency to bow. I get 2 baseboard tops out of each piece of Backerboard....and they are heavy enough as it is without being bigger.

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
We managed some more work outside on Wednesday.

The gaps in the cable tray run were filled in and the run extended near the ash tree.

P1010377a.jpg

2 of the top surface boards were bolted in place.

P1010378a.jpg

A near ground level view showing the potential for some nice photography in a while!

P1010379a.jpg

And we are only 3 cable tray sections away before we get to the concrete groundworks.

P1010380a.jpg

Cheers,

Richard
 
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