Martino

I’m in the process of building a truss bridge for my garden railway.  16mm/ft and the bridge is constructed in aluminium.

My railway is supposedly English narrow gauge (3’).  

Strangely, I’ve never been on truss bridge so don’t know if the actual deck would be solid (in which case what material?) or with the rails and sleepers just resting on cross members?   Or would I get away with a metal mesh?

I’ve searched here and on the web for photos of prototypes but can’t find anything showing the actual deck.

Any suggestions would be very grateful received.

I’ve got a boggy bit in the garden where the embankment is acting as a dam in wet weather, so have decided to replace part of the embankment to allow drainage into the next door neighbour’s garden (he can thank me later).  I need a bridge to cross the gap.

A four foot truss bridge is in construction.  Side one completed and the components for the second side plus top and bottom links have been cut.   Sunday looks like a day of drilling and riveting.

On 27/10/2020 at 16:34, The Johnster said:

Austria has no coast.  Just saying...

Neither does Switzerland but they have a navy (actually the Lakes Flotilla) and a Swiss Merchant Marine.  They certainly have docks, and one would presume that Austria does too - on the lakes ;-)

7 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

But as I'm saying they are an Americanism that has crept in over the last few years.

Language does not creep in.  Unless a physical invasion occurs (last one in Britain was 1066 if I remember correctly) and the invaders mandate the change of language (which even the Normans didn’t manage with the man in the street Brit), then new words, phrases etc are adopted, voluntarily by the population. So ‘Americanisms’ are something adopted, encouraged, invited by the local population.  One could even say (heaven forbid) that it is ‘cultural appropriation’ !

8 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

I tend to get a bus from a bus stop....

 

Bus station is yet another Americanism.

I’m sure Americans do use the term Bus Station, but in my experience they usually use Bus Terminal.  I’m sure many US terms do creep into UK English but this is more the result of ‘adoption’ by the British, than imposition by the Americans (who frankly don’t care). Conversely there is creeping use of British English in the US as it’s thought trendy, hip and cool (or whatever the current term is) to use words like ‘bo**ocks’ and ‘Mate’ and many other words and terms that are gleaned from the ever popular Brit TV programs that are popular.

English, whether UK English, US English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English and many other varieties are all ‘living’ languages and are adapted constantly.  Spellings vary too and in many cases American English uses the spelling that UK English used in the dim and distance past. It’s the UK English that has changed adopting pseudo French spellings by adding ‘ou’ to worlds like color/colour, neighbor/neighbour, harbor/harbour. Even ‘Fall’ was more popular in England in the past and Autumn is a relatively recent adoption.

How has UK English almost universally change the pronunciation of Garage to Garidge?  That makes me as unhappy as the adoption of Train station.

As for Aluminium and Aluminum I would refer to: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/aluminum-vs-aluminium

Even within the UK regionally, and certainly within the US, there are many different phrases, spellings and pronunciations.  Few are ‘wrong’, just different.  I don’t hear too many accusations of ‘Australianisms’ although there are many in common use in the UK these days.

Personally, I think we should celebrate the variety of our common English language, and to use a word in regular usage in this part of the US but termed archaic in UK English, it would behoove us so to do.

Exit from soapbox with huge smile and large wink!

8 hours ago, lakeview770 said:

Martino Just moved back from the USA this year from Santa Rosa Beach after many many years in NW Florida. Were looking at Ideas for both an indoor and garden railway.

Ah, Santa Rosa Beach. Just down the road from us in Shalimar. There aren’t many garden railways here - I’ve only heard of mine and a guy up near Baker (I think) with a 5” gauge thing.  Everything else is HO or smaller indoors. How are you finding the move back? 

6 hours ago, Hibelroad said:

It’s a horrible Americanism, while in purgatory they should have continuous root canal work without anaesthetic. 

I don’t think it’s an Americanism. It would be a train or railroad depot here.

.....I’d be up for this.  What a place for a garden railway.

https://www.hampshirelive.news/news/gallery/hampshire-train-station-churchill-dday-4619680

Evening on the narrow gauge light railway.

6 hours ago, Ben B said:

That shot along the tracks towards the station is wonderfully atmospheric

Many thanks Ben.

Night falling on the SBLR tonight.

I decided that the Hudswell diesel ‘Denny’ needed a GWR style shunter’s truck, so butchered a Swift Sixteen tool wagon to suit.  Here’s Denny pottering about Farnham Common yard today.

Well, of course English is a living language, so develops all the time with use. In can be argued that French (for example) is not a living language as changes have to be approved by the Institute Francaise.  Here in the US there are many folk who speak English as was spoken by Shakespeare or at least by the English hundreds of years ago. Many words in everyday American have fallen out of use in the UK.  It would behoove us to remember that.

Personally I find ‘garidge’ to be awful. Why can’t we pronounce it ‘garage’ as we did when I was a boy - admittedly that was when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

I am not unhappy with Train Station, although wouldn’t use that myself, unless people didn’t know what I was talking about - here in the US it would need to be Railroad Station, Depot, or train station.

However when referring to something in the past then it would be inappropriate and a hanging offence to refer to a 1930s railway station as a train station .  

Likewise GWR places where engines were serviced was always an Engine Shed and should never be referred to by that awful term MPD!

Narrow gauge afternoon.

The building is finished and in place.  Still needs to be ‘embedded’ into the platform.

Well done.  Great job.

The new station building for Farnham Common is nearly finished.  Just a couple of coats of varnish and some hanging baskets and it’s ready to be installed.  A Thorley Miniatutes resin kit.

As a large scale modeler of UK narrow gauge, but living in the USA, I have to get virtually everything on line and mail order.  It’s been like that as long as I’ve been here.  I did go out to local stores for general hardware, generic paint, adhesives etc., until the current situation.  Having been out to such stores recently it appears the employees and their customers are of the ‘we’re ignoring this social distancing/mask wearing thing’, so I have resorted to getting nearly everything on line.  We don’t have any modeling stores here in my part of the world - well, one about 90 mins drive away, but they don’t ‘do’ large scale.

I have always been in the tourism and travel business and after every emergency - wars, economic downturns, terrorist attacks - there has been a major change in the way things are done. Once the change takes hold it remains in force.

I’ve often told many of my business owning friends here and in the UK (for many years) that in addition to their bricks and mortar store they must embrace on-line and mail order to survive.  Those that did have survived. I regret that those that didn’t - haven’t. 

Area around the signal box now virtually finished.  Just need to acquire some ‘junk’ to litter the area.

The new station building has arrived, so that’s the next big project.  By ‘big’, I mean it’s 38 ins long.

Evening falls on Farnham Common engine shed.  The 3 foot gauge South Bucks Light Railway.  Strangely the fitters are just working on an old rectangular tank wagon, now used as a weed killing sprayer.

This made me think.  I don’t want to go off topic, but I’ve worked out that as a 6 year old I travelled on the CCE from Paddington to Barmouth and return. I have vague memories of it.  My question is, how could I find out what locos operated the train on Saturday July 25 1959 northbound, and Saturday August 8 southbound?

That’s great Steve. Thank you very much.

So, the signal box is now (temporarily) installed with the solar powered lighting working.  The engine shed is in it’s final position (although has to be capable of being moved inside if and when we get a hurricane!). The solar panel for the engine shed is in the top of the water tank.