Breaking Ground - Finescale - of a sort

[Peter Insole]

According to the news, it finally looks as if this seemingly endless, gloomy, wet and windy weather is coming to an end!

The permanent way has taken an awful pounding this year, and we have been fighting something of a loosing battle - with the formation being notably disturbed in all areas with more moss, weeds, grass and all sorts of other unwanted herbage than previously experienced!

Grandchildren: Master E., and Miss L.R., came round for the day on Sunday last, but with the garden in such a state I feared that having some time on the trains was probably not such a good idea! They didn't appear to be that bothered, but just before they were due to go home, young E., put on the meekest countenance he could muster, and pleaded to "see" the line!

Relenting rather too easily, I unlocked the gate and let them in. Miss L.R., headed straight into the long grass towards the swing, while Mr. E., spent the whole time solemnly pacing up and down the entire length of track!

What a dreadful old meanie I really can be eh?!

The following day turned out warm and dry, and spurred on by a terrible sense of guilt, I grabbed all the tools and set to!

By later in the afternoon, a works train was finally able to reliably run...



...and full use made on transporting loads of broken concrete slabs from a pile behind the potting shed!

These will be used shortly for shoring up the formation of the new track extension!

Pete.

 

[ovener]

Thank you Pete. I always enjoy your entertaining tales from down the line. Although I only have room for a small RTR 2mm layout around the edge of my work room (a lockdown sanity saver), and a 4mm shunting plank on a shelf, I have idly daydreamed about a small garden railway here. I don't think Mrs. O. would approve anyway but unless it was about the same gauge as yours, I fear the rats, squirrels, moles and badgers and the general jungliness would probably destroy the pway in short order! As it is the spiders and flies are quite disruptive to the 2mm layout...Just noticed the poor railway cat seems to have expired near the loco bothy More power to your elbow sir.

 

[Peter Insole]

Oh dear, what an awful long time has passed by since I last posted on this thread!

Calling last year a washout is something of an understatement, and engineering, let alone playtime was severely restricted. Quite apart from the general unpleasantness of working in almost continuously damp conditions, saturated soil becomes damned heavy and difficult to shift!

Although the ground is still cold and wet, the weather during this last week has been distinctly Spring like, encouraging me to start thinking seriously about the rapidly approaching season, and the enormous backlog of tasks to undertake on the railway before services can resume.
I do confess that for the first few days I would go down the garden, turn around and shut the gate again, with a despondent feeling that it was all way too much for me to cope with!

Mr. O. had a day off work on Friday, and was keen to start tidying up, so I grabbed the opportunity for some moral support - plus the possibility of being able to make use of some youthful muscle!

One long overdue job was to put up a trellis for supporting a thriving, climbing rose... before the stems get too thick!



I had been considering how to build up a framework on top of the concrete wall, but was not sure of the best method. One detail, that can't be seen in the photos, is that there is a bolt hole moulded centrally in the top edge of each panel, and Mr. O. had jammed a line of sticks in them to temporarily support of the growing plant.

Unfortunately, or otherwise as it turned out, the earlier wooden rose arches had both failed too soon as a result of poor design of the top sections, and had been stored since in a dismantled state beside the potting shed. Mr. O. willingly agreed to a salvage and repurposing job, and so the existing, and still perfectly sound framework more or less determined the method of attachment.

I cut six short lengths of varnished steel angle, then drilled and attached them with stainless coach bolts to the concrete panels - and they in turn were screwed to the bottom trellis rail.



In the above image, Mr. O. can be seen fitting flat steel "L" (repair) plates at the corners for added structural strength.

While the finished job is quite firm as it is, I intend to fit a couple of extra steel angles running up to the top rail at either end, utilising spare threads projecting from the wall attachment bolts.

Carefully (!) threading "Rosie" through the geodetics, with her precious and very delicate buds, but also armed with a myriad of vicious defence weapons, and a seemingly vindictive temper to match, was an "interesting", four handed trial!



Our hope is that in time, the plant will continue to prosper, and grow on to go some way towards obscuring that dreadfully sad, utterly pointless standing section of corrugated iron on the adjacent waste ground!

Not only was the overgrowth dealt with, but the near abandoned seasons worth of undergrowth was cleared as well, revealing again the full length of the permanent way...



With an added surprise:

The Primroses are escaping!




It is such a crying shame that the offspring are all travelling in the precisely the wrong direction, and will have to be taken out!

The flowers might be delightfully dainty, but the plant bodies themselves will become quite bulky, tough, fleshy and persistent throughout the year. Running over them with flanged wheels would get bumpy, horribly messy, and is simply not an option!

It is going to be a bit of fun trying to rescue and "persuade" as many as possible of the little babies to settle down somewhere else?!

Pete.

 

[Peter Insole]

With the new season rapidly approaching, work on the railway is taking precedent over everything else.

A major issue that has been blocking the extension of rails beyond the station platform is the top of a concrete step that was installed in 1989 for access to my former art studio.

Back then, the original sloping, "allotment" ground level at that point was almost one foot lower than it is now. In around 1991, my then neighbour built an enormous, brick and block on slab garage and a similarly constructed summerhouse on his property, and spread the arising topsoil along the remaining length his garden, thus significantly raising the level. He then installed a fence and gravel boards to contain it, so to prevent my old path from becoming something resembling a canal in wet weather, I decided it was necessary to shift over and backfill several tons of my own soil to form, for the first time, a reasonably level garden! The step was redundant from then on, but being a large lump of massed concrete, I didn't consider it worth the additional effort of removal, and just laid a new path up to it!

The new railway formation has had to be set slightly lower than the top of those gravel boards in order to try and avoid ballast getting spilled over, but that put the rail heads slightly below the old step.

During the recent construction of the loop, the main line had to be jacked up, and temporary plastic track panels were "humped" over the step for ballast train working:



That step has got to go!

Whilst it might appear to be obvious that I enjoy a very high degree of freedom when it comes to matters of civil engineering and the permanent way, there are limits!

Back in '89, and while the cement was still fresh, I picked up my very young son, Tom, and firmly planted his feet in one corner - as a humorous memento! However, when proposing imminent destruction, along with those little boot prints, my good lady wife objected in no uncertain terms!

That was that, and there the matter lay... until last week:

During the dry spell, I was able to obtain a reasonably decent cast of the relevant section, and the local "Authority" has declared her complete satisfaction with the result... so the way was at last clear for progress!



With some help from Mr. O., and a few good sledge hammer and mattock whacks, the dreadful lump started to break up fairly easily - at first anyway!

Two things have been revealed however during this exhausting process:

The mix was terribly weak and sandy, (I cannot remember, but assume it most likely that I was running desperately low on live cement?) so should break up fairly easily, you might think?

Nope!

Instead of cracking and splitting into chunks, the soft stuff seems to absorb every impact, and the further in from the edges, the slower and harder it gets!

During this herculean effort, the second feature came to light:

I knew it was there all along, but was unsure of it's precise depth or alignment... until it started to cave in...



'89 was a momentous year, for thanks to a legacy, not only did I manage to avoid bankruptcy during the infamous "boom and bust" era - by a mere cat's whisker, but built a new studio, and started out, (subsequently to become a profession of sorts) in 16mm scale!

That first outing was an extremely ill judged, ground level line, and was not at all practical. Relatively few trains were ever run on it before the aforementioned landscape changes forced early abandonment!



The PW was laid complete beneath the formwork, with wooden sleepers pinned to a hardwood strip, but due to the dimensions, only the brass rails could be drawn out and retrieved when the tunnel was finally buried with earth and rubble at either end. Curiously, during the intervening years, all the sleepers, plus most of the "plank" have rotted away... but only in the hollow space between the infill.



Who could have possibly imagined back then, after such a long period of time had elapsed, that a proper, passenger carrying railway would be laid above, and on pretty much the same alignment?!



After making a complete photographic survey of the surviving archaeology, the remains have been carefully, and fully backfilled with the broken up muck.

It was then a slight advantage that the awful stuff is so sandy - and would make a perfect foundation!

Pete.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

During the recent construction of the loop, the main line had to be jacked up, and temporary plastic track panels were "humped" over the step for ballast train working:

That step has got to go!

Your version of a step plate junction?

 

[ovener]

I was wondering if you were going to make your very own tube line there! Or perhaps something a bit unusual like the underground Post Office line...
Richard

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

That first outing was an extremely ill judged, ground level line, and was not at all practical. Relatively few trains were ever run on it before the aforementioned landscape changes forced early abandonment!

You should have created a miniature workshop or 'war rooms' or a Central Line station, carefully sealed it and included an access pipe in which to drop an endoscope.

Could have offered Pete's Hidden Hainault tours

 

[Osgood]

You could have tunnelled across to your cellar - just saying.....

 

[Peter Insole]

I swear I could hear the ghostly, echoing cry: "Minardor"!

It might be handy having a tunnel under the road from the basement... I could jump on a train and escape when they come to take me away?!

Pete.

 

[Peter Insole]

There is quite a lot to catch up with now, as work has been going on with the essentials for the new extension.

A rough sketch shows the planned priorities:



Admittedly, it is not an entirely satisfactory arrangement having a set of left handed junction points leading directly off a reverse curve from the straight platform road. There are however two significant factors affecting the final layout:

It should be noted that as a result of the restricted width of the garden, the trackbed has, for the most part, to share the footways. A low profile rail and built up ballast suffices to an almost (!) acceptable extent thus far, but that degree of tolerance has reached its limit, and I am under very strict instructions to leave the concrete slab path intact and undisturbed from the front gate as far as the "station"! The platform itself is an existing structure - that has already proved incredibly difficult to modify in any way. The line must therefore be "joggled" in an uncomfortably short space, and thence run on it's own separate formation along the south side. The sidings leading from the junction also need sufficient length for shunting stock before reaching the proposed "engine shed".

Ideally, having a right hand point, with the straight line running directly into the yard, and the curved exit forming the reverse of the through route would be the simplest, most obvious, and by far the neatest solution. Inevitably though, there is an awkward problem with that idea...

The thoroughly tried and tested "loop" junction points are entirely self-acting, but being constructed as an (albeit unequal) "Y", the result of motion dynamics ensure that the point blades are always pushed fully over by the wheels and flanges, regardless of which direction the train is travelling. A straight running line is however unlikely to provide any such positive action, so the new points would require a weighted or sprung lever to operate reliably. Such a device - with or without any other linkages cannot be placed where they are likely to be an obstruction, or cause injury to pedestrians! Placing the points and attendant lever immediately on the "yard" side of the platform access crossing might make traversing the road seem like a wriggly worm ride, but all the dodgy, hazardous bits should hopefully be kept well out of harms way?

Being a glutton for punishment, or maybe that could be some form of self-abuse (?!) in between bouts of concrete bashing, I decided that for a break I would indulge in some aluminium bending and grinding instead!




I had completely forgotten how horrendous wrenching flat bottomed aluminium rails into a set of points and crossings could be!

Under normal circumstances, there is generally some truth in the notion that it is easier to make multiples of anything at the he same time, but frankly, having started on this, the second set of three required, I am rather too glad to leave the final one for later. Hopefully, by the time that becomes an absolute necessity I will have forgotten most of the pain again?!



It was such a relief to get back down on my knees, and wield the hammer and chisel again outside!



OK., I confess to stringing you all along... The whole time it has been Hornby O gauge tinplate...



We are just very small people in this particular part of Suffolk!





Nah, not really!

The first try at bending was an absolute disaster - from whichever way it was viewed...

So I decided to sleep on it.

It has to be said that it neither improved the shape, or indeed for that matter, my slumber... but by dusk on the following day it did get more satisfactorily sorted!




It might at the moment be only a single, utterly exhausting, 1.25M length of rail heading further west...

But for us it represents an absolutely massive, and for a long time, a seemingly impossible breakthrough!

Pete.

 

[ovener]

Lovely work Peter, as always.
HS2 eat your heart out.

Richard

 

[Peter Insole]

Thank you Richard, and to everyone who added your "likes", it is most appreciated!

The workings are still a dreadfully messy building site, and all the recent images seem to have a uniformly dull grey-brown ambience, but hopefully it will all look a lot nicer as the season progresses?!



Quite apart from having to shift a load more topsoil, (!) several more of the path slabs will need to be raised, levelled and re aligned.

Two have been done so far:



As previously mentioned, the use and position of these slabs is far from ideal, as is the new requirement to introduce a consistent gradient right up to the driveway, but that I'm afraid is the way it has to be!

I am quite looking forward to the prospect of riding on a train running through a built up area and along the edge of a "road" though.

Not quite the Silvertown tramway of my childhood, but as close as I can hope for!

Pete.

 

[Osgood]

....
Not quite the Silvertown tramway of my childhood, but as close as I can hope for!

Pete.

Ooh - are you going to have a scrapyard too?

 

[Peter Insole]

I'm afraid I can't do red trolleybuses swishing past, a myriad crane jibs or ship superstructures looming above the terraced houses either... but hey, ho!

Pete.

 

[simond]

Given that bloke in Headington had a bloody great shark in his roof, I think this is a disappointing lack of ambition

 

[Tom Insole]

Sun was out today on my visit today which quickly turned into the first little test of the extension. Including the bonus of two locomotives in traction today!

What a lovely treat that was...

I must add that I will be feeling the effects tomorrow of the mode of transport I chose to come visit the branch line. Totting up a grand total of 30miles of hilly inclines on a bike far older than me!


At this point the speeder was already out in service running a light load test.
It wasn't long before play got exciting when dad announced "I think I'm going to get the other one out!"

I couldn't resist recreating a light fire (no battery operated locomotives were harmed in the making of this image!)

Dad was soon chuffing up and down, we did a few shunts and loops swapping forward and backwards, who pulled the rolling stock or went first!

As you can see lots of swaps were made....

And even two locomotives out at once!



Bloomin marvellous. Roll on the next bit of rail being laid beyond the points!

Tom.

 

[simond]

Brilliant!

enjoy!!!

 

[Giles]

I love it!

 

[timbowales]

Wonderful stuff!

 

[Mike W]

All of this inspired by a childrens toy. Just wonderful.