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The McMullen Coal Company Light Railway


Owd Bob
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It's lovely if you can stay in the Sun but it's chilly if not, i think they said it feels like 5 degrees in the shade around here, :sungum:  i saw the forecast for France & the continent last night on the Beeb Mike and i thought it was going to be snowing over there?...maybe it's not started for you yet, :no:  life's too short as i know so well, so i do make the most of every second these days, especially if its dry, i just wear more skins than an Onion. 

       The test runs are over and i used the worst, lightest and most awkward & fiddly running of the home made wagons i have, a few derailments helped me find high and low spots on the track, but all were solved, and until i can get the ballasting done, all is fixed by sliding more slivers of slate of varying thickness under the sleepers. There will have to be another lift out bridge made sometime for up near the old pond top corner area, i'm hoping to widen the curves up there and at least get a straight length in wide enough to fit a bridge in. I think i'll put the fences, animals and most of the buildings back out later this week, well i have to do something....even on the wettest of days :jester:

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I'm using this old single bed end frame as an handrail over the track, swmbo cut some framework away then i've filled it with old engine oil to soak into the cheap metal, and i will also fill it with concrete, before concreting it in here beside the steps.

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Edited by Owd Bob
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Good idea with the slate levellers - I had been saving the little slate I have for wagon loads, but maybe I will have to bite the bullet. I had been using used, wooden lollipop sticks, but they move too easily as you work on the next section. Hmmm...

 

Meantime, indoors with a roaring wood fire, I have got out my old station buildings to assess what repairs and strengthening I need to do. Plus a few new kits I picked up at Bradford. Managed to clean them up and left to dry. All set for a productive several hours tomorrow.

 

Looks like perhaps some sleet overnight and in the morning, but no snow here.

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All looking a bit of mess yet Ian with rubble and blocks all over the show, just had two days off because of the frost but managed to get the base for the coal yard pit area laid on Sunday. Just a case of getting more sand and cement bought in today and then dodging the showers for the rest of this week and the weekend ahead. Might be able to get the track dry ballasted tough and let the rains do the rest.

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Pit yard and coal drops has three levels, still a lot of blocks and a concrete edging to go on top of this lot, the line/level into the drift mine will be the lowest set and decends down inside the tunnel slightly. the middle line will be higher and will have the coal drops on its front side. The lower level will be the coal yard. The old stone tunnel mouth was saved from the old line and re-used still in one big lump, transplanted and mortared down.

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Concrete edging was laid flat behind the station and now makes the road continue towards the track, and this is where i will now put my old crossing gates.

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All looking a bit of mess yet Ian with rubble and blocks all over the show, just had two days off because of the frost but managed to get the base for the coal yard pit area laid on Sunday. Just a case of getting more sand and cement bought in today and then dodging the showers for the rest of this week and the weekend ahead. Might be able to get the track dry ballasted tough and let the rains do the rest.

 

Well they do say the camera doesn't lie. 

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Bob you're a hardy soul !! I've "stopped for the winter" on my garden line, a loop round the lawn. I've taken in the signals etc for winter (I do this every year).

 

You've given me a couple of ideas for next year though !!.

 

Take it easy as winter approaches.

 

Brit15

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I'm happy now i've got all the major hard landscaping done :sungum: Not a bad day today so another barrow load of a mortar mix and we've finished off the coal yard and tunnel, i've roughly laid the track out to show how it will look, the three levels are in and hopefully i can lay the track properly over the weekend and i'm also hoping to get all the ballasting done as well. Deep pockets were left out of the mortar whilst laying the smaller rocks and track beds and filled with fine gritty soil, these will be ideal future growing areas for Mosses and Alpines. Plenty room on the bottom level for loading trucks and wagons and putting most of the buildings i had in the last pit yard back down again.   :locomotive: Big toy and train fair on this Sunday at Bolton FC's ground if anybody is interested? I'll be making a visit. :senile:

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Edited by Owd Bob
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Superb Bob!

 

Coward that I am, I have stayed indoors and repaired the rooves (roofs?) and canopies/brackets to my old station buildings (as destroyed by the feathered fauna of Cambridgeshire), and have now turned to completing a signal cabin that I started only 7 years ago.......

 

However, sunshine is back this weekend, so perhaps I may venture back to the scene of the crime.

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More to bore you all with but its very nearly finished i promise! :jester: The ballasting got mostly all done on Sunday afternoon as the weather was'nt as wet or bad as the experts had predicted, i've just a short length of track to lay and ballast up down into the mine shaft tunnel. Yesterday all the old stones and cobbles were finally used up by building a wall up against the blocks to form the bed of a roadway to and out of the pit yard. A gap of a few inches were left  between the two walls and filled with soil, ideal for more spreading alpines etc. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

After a couple of dryish days all the ballasting and track laying is now finished, i mortared in the roadway to the pit yard and placed a few buildings around to mock it up and see how it will all look one day, i pressed the buildings into the wet mortar so some buildings will now need a good clean up and some repainting. I think it all looks ok now with most of the buildings and all the fences nearly used up again!  :)

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Watch it Boys! You know how temperamental us so called artiste are :mosking: i might just get the 'big hammer' out and have an artistic demolition fit. :jester: Never mind my stuff Ossy and Mike, how's your own garden railways turning out? It's time for some progress pics' from both of you i reckon!  :jester:

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Watch it Boys! You know how temperamental us so called artiste are :mosking: i might just get the 'big hammer' out and have an artistic demolition fit. :jester: Never mind my stuff Ossy and Mike, how's your own garden railways turning out? It's time for some progress pics' from both of you i reckon!  :jester:

well my railway on sticks is up and running.

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Watch it Boys! You know how temperamental us so called artiste are :mosking: i might just get the 'big hammer' out and have an artistic demolition fit. :jester: Never mind my stuff Ossy and Mike, how's your own garden railways turning out? It's time for some progress pics' from both of you i reckon!  :jester:

 

Fair point - got my bridge in, and now laying blocks around the left hand curve, but completely miserable progress - only 6 laid today, despite good weather. Other, real life issues keep getting on the way. Hope to lay 18 blocks tomorrow - that I should have laid today.....

 

Camera found but batteries knackered. Naturally I had AA but no AAA. Purchase imminent.

 

Keep your hammer in its box.

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CME i was worried about the mortar going off but its been a mild week here and although overcast and miserable we've had three dry days this week, i just covered it all over with plastic sheeting for three days and hoped for the best then i gingerly uncovered it to see if it was ok, :scared:  It's laid down an inch deep at its shallowest and two inch at its deepest. I don't think the ballast will fully dry out this side of xmas to paint it up though. :scratchhead:  :jester:

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