Going through the garage wall.

[stewartingram]

Anyone able to help me with advice on extending my layout through the back wall of the garage and onward to the garden?

 

The garage is brickbuilt, with a single wall of bricks, no cavity, so thickness is 4". It is easily and totally accessible from the outside.

Baseboard height inside the garage is 42", might be slightly more on the outside due to ground levels etc.

The track approaching the wall is straight (Peco code 75 in ).

From the front of the board, I have 7 tracks maximum to pass through the wall, as follows.

1 - headshunt, not decided yet whether to take this through. This is separated by a thin scenic strip from track 2, so could go through a separate hole?

2 & 3 - the Up and Down running lines. (around 5" wide)

4 - down loop.

5/6/7 - carriage sidings. These will pass through the wall, and outside ( or in the adjacent shed/fiddle yard) have points connecting to track 4.

 

Total width (ie hole in wall) will therefore be  about 14" (excluding track 1). If  track 1 does go through, then width is 19".

 

Is anyone able to advise on breaking through, what supports are needed etc?

 

Stewart

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

Anyone able to help me with advice on extending my layout through the back wall of the garage and onward to the garden?

 

The garage is brickbuilt, with a single wall of bricks, no cavity, so thickness is 4". It is easily and totally accessible from the outside.

Baseboard height inside the garage is 42", might be slightly more on the outside due to ground levels etc.

The track approaching the wall is straight (Peco code 75 in ).

From the front of the board, I have 7 tracks maximum to pass through the wall, as follows.

1 - headshunt, not decided yet whether to take this through. This is separated by a thin scenic strip from track 2, so could go through a separate hole?

2 & 3 - the Up and Down running lines. (around 5" wide)

4 - down loop.

5/6/7 - carriage sidings. These will pass through the wall, and outside ( or in the adjacent shed/fiddle yard) have points connecting to track 4.

 

Total width (ie hole in wall) will therefore be  about 14" (excluding track 1). If  track 1 does go through, then width is 19".

 

Is anyone able to advise on breaking through, what supports are needed etc?

 

Stewart

 

Chris P Bacon is your man, but I would have thought you'll need a lintel for safety over that sort of width.

 

Mike.

[Fat Controller]

You'll have to put some sort of 'lintel' in. One idea might be to get some aluminium angle ( https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/product/2000mm-aluminium-angle-51x51x16mm-mill-finish-141154 ); carefully hack away the cement/mortar on the inside or outside first, to give a slot for one piece of the angle to sit in. When one's sitting properly, repeat the process on the other face of the wall. You could drill and plug the wall to fix the angle, though gravity should suffice.

Insects and small mammals will find an opening of this size irrestible, so make sure you've some sort of closure to keep them, and the worst of the weather, out. Notch it at the bottom to fit over the rails. Get some of that copper tape that gardeners use to deter slugs and snails, and put that around the entrance.

[chris p bacon]

Anyone able to help me with advice on extending my layout through the back wall of the garage and onward to the garden?

 

 

Total width (ie hole in wall) will therefore be  about 14" (excluding track 1). If  track 1 does go through, then width is 19".

 

Is anyone able to advise on breaking through, what supports are needed etc?

 

Stewart

 

Hi Stewart.

if you have a 19" wide hole I'd pop a lintel above just to stop any movement in the future. As it is single skin it's really easy to just put a single 'L' shaped one in like this

 

https://www.lintels.co.uk/birtley-steel-lintel-mbl-750mm-10104-2804918

 

All you need do is chain drill the mortar joint which will form the top of the hole and to extend either side of the hole by  150mm and slide it in, we wedge with bits of slate then some mortar to finish. For the hole itself just chain drill the mortar joint and chain drill a brick in half to start the hole.

Don't get too heavy handed with a hammer as it will soon break the face of the bricks off,  Also work from outside to inside for the majority.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...Insects and small mammals will find an opening of this size irresistible, so make sure you've some sort of closure to keep them, and the worst of the weather, out. Notch it at the bottom to fit over the rails. Get some of that copper tape that gardeners use to deter slugs and snails, and put that around the entrance.

Strongly seconded, and there's another factor to consider as well, where the water collecting on the track support goes in the event of heavy rain.

 

A 'gutter' potentially a foot or more wide, by however long it is made, can direct quite a lot of water where it is not required! Arranging a fall on the track base away from the building is advisable, with a free draining section of track base adjacent the outside wall. I found this out the hard way when a little ground movement affecting the track supports (clay soil, heaves when wet) channelled water into the shed used as the train store.

[Nearholmer]

I did almost exactly this, to create a "dog flap" into a previous garage, inside which I built kennels for our two dogs.

 

I used a concrete lintel, rather than metal, which made the job a tad harder, because I took out a row of bricks to insert it, but it isn't a difficult task, provided access is good ........ my current layout doesn't extend outside precisely because access to hack a hole through the wall is too restricted by the location of the bike shed!

 

Kevin

[Titan]

Another alternative if the tracks are not too closely spaced is to have one hole per track. No need to worry about a lintel and they could be drilled out in minutes using something like this:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/82mm-SDS-TCT-Core-Drill-Bit-Concrete-Masonary-Hole-Cutter-Drills-Pilot-Drill-UK-/152122856512?epid=1005872637&hash=item236b3a9440:g:h7cAAOSw0QFXCCUg

[Nearholmer]

If you one of those, use a drill with a side handle as well as 'pistol' hangrip, or go very, very gently, because if it snags, the drill can whip round and hurt your wrist.

[Richard_A]

I'd go with Chris p bacons advice. If you want to use a concrete lintel instead of using 6" x 4" one, you could use a "spanlite" which have a section of 4" x 3" which are easy to handle

[Dave John]

Single brick garage wall with maybe 5 foot of brick above your tunnel should be straightforward. Chris Ps method should work fine. 

 

Heres one I did earlier, though a slightly bigger wall:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/2091/entry-18432-on-planning-compromise-and-tunnels/

 

Just a thought, would it be an idea to buy a ready made opening window and install it so it opens to the rear of the layout. You could make a removable bridging section between the inside and outside layouts which you just fit for running sessions. Cures the weather and beastie problems.