Going through the books today for the costs and materials for the construction of the Hollywater Line. Quite a lot has gone into it all.
Basic Construction.
35 Hardibacker Cement Boards
70 Scaffold Poles
70 Scaffold Jacks
360ft 4"x 2" Treated timber
500 Woodscrews
200 Aquaboard Screws
2 Titanium Tipped Jigsaw Blades
Quite a few expletives
Several gallons of tea
1 Cream Tea.
Track Laying.
260 yards of rail.
4,680 Sleepers, 2,160 Gauge Widened and 2,520 Standard.
11 Points.
1,000 Track Pins.
5 Hacksaw Blades.
400 Super elevation wedges
5 Buffer stops
2 Track Curves
1 Straight Track ruler
1 Track Gauge
1 Track Distance/Spacing Tool.
360 Fishplates
Lots more tea.
There is also a magnificent bridge yet to arrive which is 1250mm long.
I can remember every one of those 4,680 sleepers having to be slid onto the rails that they are supporting. It also feels like I bent 500 of the 1000 track pins trying to get them into the boards. I can look forward to adding approximately 50kg of ballast to the line in the near future too.
It has been great fun really and I have taught myself a few new skills along the way. Still working on learning patience though
.
Cheers,
Keith