michael mott
Western Thunderer
Lord Montague is discussing the state of the track on the Estate with the Groundskeeper cum everyman on a warm day in early May 2020
Lord Montague likes to ramble around the estate in his Carriage, only putting up the hood during inclement weather.
When I was about 5 I went to Beckonsfield model railway and it was a dream from then on to one day have a garden railway. Jump ahead 55 or so years and retirement allowed me the time and funds to build a garden railway. My first one was at an Acreage by a lake about 10 years ago.
A move back to the City in late 2017 gave me the opportunity to build a second one, just a small dogbone that I could run a Narrow gauge loco (Accucraft Bagnall) and dream up some fun to share with the grandchildren.
It had to be 45mm so purchased enough narrow gauge Llagas Creek 45mm narrow gauge track to make a 100 foot loop in a raised flower bed. Which still had to be built. During the spring of 2018 I built the planter with a view to having an easy reach to all the planter for weeding and show of colour in the flowers. A standard city lot is pretty limited in the scope of what is achievable on a limited budget, but a lot of time spent in the garden meant that it had to look nice and colourful.
I made all the mistakes that one can make when doing something in a hurry, the worst one being a novel way to set the track, I used cedar stakes driven into a tamped bed of sand then about 2 inches of limestone fines then pinned the track to them. Our weather here goes from max 30 degrees C in summer 2-3 months to -35 degrees C in the winter with little appreciable transitions Spring and fall are usually a couple of weeks each.
The track did what all track does it moved (all over the place) a lot of it was up out of the limestone fines, Floating is the word I believe. The first summer was fun learning how to run a live steam loco, not sure how far along that curve I have come yet.
Second summer saw a lot of hair pulling and fiddling with constant leveling and adding more limestone fines, the heavy rains did not help the situation much (where did all those fines go).
This spring 2020 as we all know was very different and I decided to rip up all the track fill the small pond and start over, I buried 3 foot lengths of 3/4 inch galvanized water pipe with cast iron galvanized flanges to ground level and had 9 inch length of 2x4 screwed to them with brass screws. Then I used a double layer of pressure treated 1x6inch fence boards to create the track bed this was treated with a preservative where all the cuts were made. I had salvaged a lot of the fines and had run it ll through some sieves to sort sizes and put that back onto the newly laid track. I took the opportunity to change the position of the track to be able to add some extensions down the road. More heavy rain took care of the fines and washed it off the track, I knew this would happen but figured that it would wash into the surrounding space next to the track bed.
Which brings us up to date. A few days of warm sunny (hot) days is giving me the opportunity to put down some more fines and to fix them with some diluted PVA washing up liquid formula. the following pictures show a little progress along these lines.
first a long shot of the planter taken last summer.
The new fines being placed.
and in the other direction
Using the eyedropper method to apply the glue, about an hour's worth of work.
looking toward the new water feature, a small creek. the tree at the end is a miniature birch.
A low shot where the creek tumbles into the re circulating tank, which gets emptied before the freeze up.
I was inspired to share my garden railway because it was just too nice to be inside yesterday.
Michael
Lord Montague likes to ramble around the estate in his Carriage, only putting up the hood during inclement weather.
When I was about 5 I went to Beckonsfield model railway and it was a dream from then on to one day have a garden railway. Jump ahead 55 or so years and retirement allowed me the time and funds to build a garden railway. My first one was at an Acreage by a lake about 10 years ago.
A move back to the City in late 2017 gave me the opportunity to build a second one, just a small dogbone that I could run a Narrow gauge loco (Accucraft Bagnall) and dream up some fun to share with the grandchildren.
It had to be 45mm so purchased enough narrow gauge Llagas Creek 45mm narrow gauge track to make a 100 foot loop in a raised flower bed. Which still had to be built. During the spring of 2018 I built the planter with a view to having an easy reach to all the planter for weeding and show of colour in the flowers. A standard city lot is pretty limited in the scope of what is achievable on a limited budget, but a lot of time spent in the garden meant that it had to look nice and colourful.
I made all the mistakes that one can make when doing something in a hurry, the worst one being a novel way to set the track, I used cedar stakes driven into a tamped bed of sand then about 2 inches of limestone fines then pinned the track to them. Our weather here goes from max 30 degrees C in summer 2-3 months to -35 degrees C in the winter with little appreciable transitions Spring and fall are usually a couple of weeks each.
The track did what all track does it moved (all over the place) a lot of it was up out of the limestone fines, Floating is the word I believe. The first summer was fun learning how to run a live steam loco, not sure how far along that curve I have come yet.
Second summer saw a lot of hair pulling and fiddling with constant leveling and adding more limestone fines, the heavy rains did not help the situation much (where did all those fines go).
This spring 2020 as we all know was very different and I decided to rip up all the track fill the small pond and start over, I buried 3 foot lengths of 3/4 inch galvanized water pipe with cast iron galvanized flanges to ground level and had 9 inch length of 2x4 screwed to them with brass screws. Then I used a double layer of pressure treated 1x6inch fence boards to create the track bed this was treated with a preservative where all the cuts were made. I had salvaged a lot of the fines and had run it ll through some sieves to sort sizes and put that back onto the newly laid track. I took the opportunity to change the position of the track to be able to add some extensions down the road. More heavy rain took care of the fines and washed it off the track, I knew this would happen but figured that it would wash into the surrounding space next to the track bed.
Which brings us up to date. A few days of warm sunny (hot) days is giving me the opportunity to put down some more fines and to fix them with some diluted PVA washing up liquid formula. the following pictures show a little progress along these lines.
first a long shot of the planter taken last summer.
The new fines being placed.
and in the other direction
Using the eyedropper method to apply the glue, about an hour's worth of work.
looking toward the new water feature, a small creek. the tree at the end is a miniature birch.
A low shot where the creek tumbles into the re circulating tank, which gets emptied before the freeze up.
I was inspired to share my garden railway because it was just too nice to be inside yesterday.
Michael
