fungus

Today I had enough movable track cassettes to run a train in one side of the Barn and out of the other side. First, a goods train was marshalled on the lawn viaduct - the lowest point of the railway.

The only test of Powerbase so far was to fit a single magnet on a Bachmann S&D 2-8-0. Before, it could not manage more than six 150g coaches on 1 in 50. With Powerbase it pulled the equivalent of 9 or 10. It was a very rough test though, more controlled tests will come! I don't normally go for "foreign", but last year visited the wonderful Harz metre-gauge railways in north Germany, and travelled in 4-wheeled end-balcony coaches behind massive 2-10-2T locos. These H0 standard-gauge coaches and loco look remarkably similar, and I couldn't resist them! The Barn has a 2' wide shelf across the back across which runs the railway on movable sections if track. This allows locos or trains to be marshalled, changed or turned by sliding the track modules around on the shelf. There is another entrance/exit the other side of the Barn. The scheme is as yet untried in regular service, though I have done experimental trails and the principle seems to work. Under the shelf is storage space for the two removable viaducts and tunnel liner. The rest of the space is storage shelves, DCC electronics, and a chair! The first three viaduct arches are cut out. It's a very messy and time-consuming job, so as the remainder will be largely obscured by flowers and shrubs, the painted arches seemed a good compromise, and are likely to be stronger too. You will have noted that the vertical and horizontal blocks are identical, each being half a lightweight building block. This minimised the amount of cutting and carving required! I am now within days of achieving the milestone of running a train round a complete circuit, Barn to Barn, albeit with some single-track sections still to be doubled. They must be fine days though, so it might be a week or two.

Most of the work during the winter and spring has concentrated on the raised section through the rose bed and into the Barn. The Barn is our name for the shed on the left of the picture, with a double-pitched roof like a dutch barn. The gap in the viaduct houses a light-weight removable section of viaduct on running days. To the left of it in the picture, the line rises at 1 in 50 from the removable viaduct, while curving first to the left through 45 degrees, then right through 135 degrees through a watertight hatch into the Barn. The sharpest curve is 5ft radius.

Did some leaf clearing today, and ran a loco over most of the track. There is quite a bit of vegetation growing in the quarry now.

The fallen tree was removed this morning. I have to say that the team from Elmbridge council did a splendid job, and were careful to avoid any further damage to the wall or the railway.

There has been a slight setback in the garden railway development. A large pine tree has shed its upper half onto our 200 year old wall and part of the garden. An apple tree has disappeared completely, but the railway might just have been protected by the wall.

I was faced recently with the problem of where to fit a DCC decoder in an old Bachmann Collett 0-6-0. The fact that I had provided it with a white-metal tender from an old K's Dean Goods kit led to an elegant solution. For details, see http://fungusmodels.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/fitting-dcc-decoder-to-bachmann-collett.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

It's in the clearing to the right of that picture, in front of the newly-painted fence panels and behind the blue rotary clothes-line. It's 8' wide and 6' deep. The track will run across the back of it on a low table, arranged so that sections can be taken out and replaced with a "cassette" containing a train or loco. The track curves to the left after the viaduct, before curving right for almost 180 degrees to line it up correctly for the shed. As well as giving covered access to the track, the shed will provide storage for the two removable viaducts, turnout module and tunnel liner, during the winter or when they are removed for any other reason. I also plan to move the control equipment from the summer house eventually, and it will be a safe place to store locos and stock "waiting their turn" during an operating session. I expect it will be used for other things too; it already has some apples in storage!

The van is an LNER 4-wheeled passenger brake van built in the 1930s. The model is built from a Chivers Finelines kit (RC416) obtainable from Parkside Dundas. It appears when I want a loco with only "realistic" hook couplings to pull coaches with tension-lock couplings, as I have equipped it with a suitable different coupling at each end.

Another major step forward: the railway shed has arrived and been assembled. The track will run in one side and out of the other, crossing a table on which trains can be turned, replaced, marshalled, or put away for the night, using simple cassettes. The picture shows how close the current end of the line is to the shed. The other side of the shed, there's about 15ft to be built, then some track to lay.

This picture was taken about 10 days ago, and it hasn't advanced any further. I decided that it was more important to get the main viaduct weatherproof, so I have concentrated on doing that.

I've made some good progress over the past week, and am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel (or in this case, the viaduct). It's starting to look like a viaduct! The main section is made from lightweight building blocks. I decided 100mm wide was marginally too narrow for double track (and at the moment, difficult to get hold of as demand is exceeding supply), I couldn't get 140mm, so they are 150mm wide. This is a bit wider than necessary, but I'll just have to say that it was originally built by the GWR for broad gauge. The section of viaduct closest to the camera is fabricated in 6mm plywood, and is designed to be easily removable for access to the "upper garden".

Thanks, Mick. Your method is certainly best for a straight viaduct on level ground. In retrospect, it would probably have been better too for my gently curving viaduct on gently undulating ground. As you say, there are more joints, which is bad news for an incompetent bricky like me, though I don't think there is more cutting and filing. I had sort of assumed I could get hold of one of the thin-joint epoxy-based mortars designed specially for lightweight blocks, which I believe would have made it easier. However none of the builders' merchants seem to have heard of it, and the manufacturer I tried to contact seems to have gone out of business. The only other potential advantage of my method is that each individual arch is parallel-sided as is a real one. However this would probably only be noticeable on a sharply-curved viaduct.

Mick, have you decided yet how your viaduct will be protected from the weather? One option obviously is to leave it as it is, and that may well be ok. Other options, which might give the surfaces more protection, are masonry paint, diluted PVA, or one of the products intended for waterproofing concrete. Before I go down the same path, I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

I haven't decided how to finish it yet. One thought was to scratch the surface to represent stonework, then seal and finish with masonry paint. Any other suggestions, preferably based on experience, would be appreciated.

Manufactured some more viaduct components today. Yesterday's 8-mile bicycle trip to Homebase was well worthwhile, as I am now the proud owner of a set of viaduct-maker's rasps (though they called them cabinet-maker's rasps), which clean out the arches like a hot knife in butter.

Work has started on the viaduct across the lawn. Thanks, Mick, for the advice on construction methods.

... and the 10ft radius curve helps, too. Where would that be possible other than in the garden?

Recent work on the railway has concentrated on the extension along the neighbours' fence (tracklaying and scenic detailing), maintenance and detailing on other parts of the existing railway, and preparation for the next and final phase of construction, building the storage shed and crossing the lawn to complete the circle. Photography has also highlighted work to be done on some of the locos, which is now under way.

I used to use the 08 shunter for the same reason, that it is a good reliable slow runner. However, the short rigid wheelbase makes it susceptible to stalling if the track is both uneven and still only partially cleaned. I improved it a little by fitting stronger pickup wires behind all wheels, but it is still not so reliable as the 37, which is also pretty good at low speed. I rarely use the vacuun cleaning facility now, as almost every time I used it, it found a particle of just the right size to jam between the rotor and the floor, causing the motor to stall and trip the overload protection. It then seems to take a long time (minutes or hours) to recover so that it can be used again. I agree about the fixed foam pad, it gets dirty quickly. The fluid also eventually wets the rotating polisher, which then often jams in the next turnout. Have you noticed any sign if railhead wear after using the grinder over an extended period? I was a bit concerned about using it regularly, as it is just what it says - a grinder - and it has certainly cut noticeable grooves in the metal rail when the loco has stalled and stopped moving but the rotating cleaner has not. So although the principle of a mobile track cleaner is great, I'm afraid my experience with this one has dampened my enthusiasm somewhat. Perhaps I should give it another try. I have no reservations about its fitness as a cobweb collector, however!

Here are a few pictures from a recent engineering possession.

It's looking good!

I'd be happy to join in. I wouldn't necesarily need the wagon as I've done something similar myself - to see some results, go to youtube and search for idmckech.

You are doing some good work there, and I await the results with interest. I have approached the problem another way, by grouping the points and their control as removable modules, but it's a bit of a pain to fit and remove for every running sesion, and takes up storage space when not in use.

It's clear that you have fully recovered from the winter and have been doing some good work! The videos are excellent and show the trains in their environment to good effect.