Godfrey Pass 2 - Swiss Meter Gauge in the Garden - Bored, Planning, Questions!

[GWRPhil]

On 15/05/2020 at 12:42, Satan's Goldfish said:

 

Cost and practicality. It would take a lot to do the whole garden, and wildlife/the dog would be very good at damaging it.

 

So logical when you think about it. Shame I didn’t before asking

[Satan's Goldfish]

5 hours ago, GWRPhil said:

So logical when you think about it. Shame I didn’t before asking

 

I find as well, when you look at the prototype you don't notice the OLE as much, but on garden railways I've seen with it I find it very noticeable.

 

In other news, I didn't get any trains running by the weekend! Taking apart the old pond proved more difficult and time consuming than expected.

[Satan's Goldfish]

As is the way with these things, other garden and house jobs get in the way and rail progress slows down. But, I've started some more trench work to bring the line out from the back of the garden where it needs to be (I really want to get something running!) and now hit another problem......

 

 

 

...That corner that's left to dig out has a few bees living in it. They're placid enough and not caused me an issue as I've dug towards them, but I'm not digging them up and there's no easy way of diverting the track bed around them. Going to be a bit longer before trains are running.

[Satan's Goldfish]

It's fathers day so I decided to treat myself:

 

 

 

 

The trench needs a bit of levelling in the bottom before anything is permanently laid. And I've not enough track to get around where the pond is supposed to be so a quick bridge was improvised.

 

 

 

 

 

But it works and it's spent a few hours now running round with no issues. I'm just trying to resist getting any more stock out of storage so I don't upset the wife

[Satan's Goldfish]

Additional; the bees vacated themselves shortly after I found them so that issue resolved itself

[Satan's Goldfish]

I've got the breaking strain of a kit-kat...

 

 

 

 

Rude not to run a Krok really though isn't it...

 

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

It took a while, but there's finally an agreed plan with domestic authorities where the railway can run in the garden, and how to integrate it with all the other landscaping jobs I've got to do for her. It's a good couple of years gardening work, but it means track bed can be allowed for as things progress, same as it was with the workshop design.

 

 

It looks messy, but I've got 2 separate lines that can be turned into a big folded figure 8 where the scissors crossover is. There's a couple of extra joint tracks to vary operations too. The garden isn't completely flat, I may or may not need to shoehorn in another spiral behind the garden shed to bring track back down to ground level there. I've run the whole thing through in my head several times now and it ticks the boxes for 2 trains moving plus shunting options in the long run.

 

All the nice station plans I'd come up with have gone completely out the window and the main on scene storage is just 4 parallel lines squeezed into a gap! On the plus side, if should be possible to fit a few removable sidings alongside for busy operating times so if I get the urge to make a portable shed scene etc then it doesn't need to be permanently fixed to the 'layout' to be used.

 

The decking will be made with areas that hinge up to show off bits like the scissor crossing underneath, and easier access for inevitable derailments. Wife has agreed it can snake along her raised sleeper flowerbeds rather than just being stuck by the fence so that helps break up what could have been a very long straight.

 

Domestic garden work takes priority, I've got 2x garden arches, a summer house, and a bridge to build before November along with a lot of paving slabs and 12" to 1' sleepers to lay... and a pond to dig... but at least I can not block myself into a corner further down the line. Just hope there's no more bees nests.

[GWRPhil]

Was wondering how the railway was coming on. Any updates?

[Satan's Goldfish]

On 08/10/2020 at 23:01, GWRPhil said:

Was wondering how the railway was coming on. Any updates?

 

Kind of...

 

There's various domestic garden bits and pieces to do before I can focus tol much on the railway. Between weather events the last couple of weeks I've had to build 2x garden arches, a gazebo ready for climbing plants, trellis splitting the garden into 2, and today we finished off dropping in 20 new garden fence panels.

 

Bits of all this do revolve around future garden railway laying; picture below of all the new fence panels in (so no risk of rotten timber falling on the track along that side), but you'll notice the bit of trellis between the fence line and the 'arch' doesn't drop all the way go the ground so there is space for the line to run underneath.

 

 

The big pond is the next major job to tackle. The stream between the 2x ponds gets bridged 4 times so that must be dug in before any track laying happens. Picked up the big filter for that today (needs a little fibreglass repair before it can be used) and the foundation blocks for the pond walls are already laid and level. Wife has asked me to leave the brick laying until spring though so there will be a time gap before it progresses......

 

......however work is sending me to Scotland for the next 2 and a half years so progress might be a bit sporadic!

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Map

 

Why do the pictures on Faceache not show where the train set is going to be. It means I have to look on here as well as there.

 

For those who have not seen it the arch thingy don't 'alf look the dogs thingies on Faceache. Just wondering when he can install one here.

[Satan's Goldfish]

13 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Map

 

Why do the pictures on Faceache not show where the train set is going to be. It means I have to look on here as well as there.

 

For those who have not seen it the arch thingy don't 'alf look the dogs thingies on Faceache. Just wondering when he can install one here.

 

Cheers Clive, some of it should get painted today too... and not by me for a change! It has what every relaxing garden area needs; a bar top!

 

 

I really must level those slabs......

 

That pic helps show how carp the old fence was though!

[Satan's Goldfish]

It's December, the wife's not back from work yet... let's see how long it lasts!

 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

The dog doesn’t seem too sure either  

[Satan's Goldfish]

1 hour ago, PaulRhB said:

The dog doesn’t seem too sure either  

 

At least she never chases it...

 

It's got to come up before I go back to work next week lol

[Satan's Goldfish]

Going back a year to the biscuit on the train incident; I think Shitwolf needs to watch and learn.

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

As happens when working away from home, sometimes life goes on without you. One side of the garden is planned to have raised flower beds along it and permission was received from the domestic authorities to run a single track along it through the plants. While I was away, my mum decided to visit and help my wife with her flower beds by clearing a section (of weeds) and putting the first plants in. Unfortunately this means there was no prior discussion about where the line would run, it wasn't filled with soil to the level it was supposed to, and now I'm having to improvise hard!

 

This stint while at home, I've cleared the rest of that part of flower bed and cut the weed matting to size.

 

 

I still need to add a lot of soil under the matting to get it to the correct level, but instructions will be left on where NOT to plant things until I've topped the soil levels up.

 

Next was to work out where the line would/could run without disturbing the greenery already planted. Track is upside down for a reason that will become clear shortly...

 

 

Once the route was figured out, a black spray can has hopefully made it difficult to miss so no plants appear in the permanent way.

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

The plus side to this obstacle is it has meant the track can't just follow a straight line now and does weave about as it would if built on a mountainside. Unfortunately, even taking the clearest route through, 2 of the plants are too close together and will need moving, which will be difficult to do without upsetting the wife.

 

 

 

 

I now need to get soil under the matting at the far end to bring it up to near sleeper level for running the track into the next bed along. Especially as I believe more plants are turning up on Tuesday......

 

 

 

 

I've been told the roll of white weed matting I've got is the same as that used by network rail under the tracks, seems fitting for use under LGB then. I'm going to start stockpiling old planks from work for the track bed as well, hopefully that means there's a level surface and no severe gradients when track is finally laid properly. 

[Satan's Goldfish]

It's been a busy couple of weeks between other commitments. 

 

The sleeper flower beds are now all full of soil and have their weed matting laid. My soil pile ran out so I had to start digging the big pond to get more, always a fresh distraction! A couple of the plants that had been put in the way were also moved to create more space for track.

 

 

 

 

Next up was marking out the track route. With the plants moved the track could be moved back towards the fence line. This curve is mostly R3 but has a 15 degree section of R1 in the middle of it, it'll work for now but I'd rather get some R5 to transition into the R3 and get rid of the R1 completely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's also 30 degrees of R2 where the line heads back towards the fence here. Acceptable for now, but again I'd rather change it for R3 with an R5 transition from the fence line to keep everything smoother.

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

Overall I'm happy with how that flows, it just doesn't look very alpine!

 

 

 

 

 

The other end was much easier to plan as there's no plants in the way... yet...

 

 

 

 

 

And then track bed painted plus some planks laid in a hope that I don't come back to plants on the line again.

 

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

While digging out pond for more soil, I got distracted by digging out more stream as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Still a bit more to go, and roots to cut and block from puncturing the liner, but the main bit of civil engineering can't get started until the stream is finished. In the picture below, if we call the stream 0 degrees, the concrete blocks have been dug in to support a 2 track bridge at 45 degrees. I've got some 12inch cable tray to build this, side girders will support another piece of cable tray upside down above the track with 10inch clearance for the trains. At 90 degrees to the stream (the paving slab path) there will be a foot bridge that goes over both the water and the tracks that will have to attach to the upside down cable tray, because at 135 degrees there will be a single track level crossing with the path in the middle of the bridge (the track will sit on and cross the upside down cable tray at 90 degrees). This is where clearance and spacing becomes crucial because the upper track does a 270 degree turn around the big bush next to the stream to get to the lower 2 track bridge but the gradient can't be too steep.

 

I probably need to draw a picture of it all, but I've no idea where to start drawing! The plan works in my head, hopefully it will work in practice.

 

 

 

 

Slowly getting various bits of track bed sorted; the trench at the bottom of the garden, the sleeper flower beds, and now the bridge over the stream. Maybe in a couple of years there will be enough to join some track up

[Satan's Goldfish]

Updated the garden plan with a couple of little amendments. Track is the purple lines, everything is a minimum of R3 apart from the turnout locations labled R1 in the workshop and the siding at the scenic station outside the garden shed. The siding labled T at the end of the 4 inset tracks by the pond will have a removable buffer so extra tracks can be connected laid on the garden path for train storage, or loco sidings etc.

 

It also kind of shows how everything crosses on the stream/path/railway bridge. Every now and then I try to think to change or simplify the layout, but it always comes back to this in my head which is probably a good sign. Lots to do.

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

Overall garden plan has been altered slightly. Of note for the railway is the 'scenic' station at the bottom of the garden has been chopped and there will just be allowance for a future passing loop instead. The stream has been shifted back slightly too so the station building might slip in there instead... maybe!

 

[GWRPhil]

How goes progress in the garden?

[Satan's Goldfish]

13 hours ago, GWRPhil said:

How goes progress in the garden?

Weather pending, and as I got home late Friday night, I'll try and sort an update over the next couple of days (fitting and plumbing a new boiler takes priority this visit home... can't think why the wife wants that doing sharpish...)

[GWRPhil]

22 hours ago, Satan's Goldfish said:

Weather pending, and as I got home late Friday night, I'll try and sort an update over the next couple of days (fitting and plumbing a new boiler takes priority this visit home... can't think why the wife wants that doing sharpish...)

Understandable. Freezing home never good. We had to do ours last year. Never a economic thing to do. We did get ten years warranty on ours which I thought was good.