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Oak Garden - somewhere to run the trains!


scoobyra
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Well the weather hasn’t been too kind over the past few days but I’ve managed to get one side of the triangle done and felted, I just need to paint the front....

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Two more sections to felt for the main run and then I’ll be ready to start the station area. Anyone have a large umbrella and a wind break?? 

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18 hours ago, scoobyra said:

This is more about having an indoor railway...outdoors.

The word the springs to mind is "Brave".

18 hours ago, scoobyra said:

The only thing I’ve not got my head around yet is how I’m going to operate the points

I recommend you give the topic a read. Ive been using the car door lock motors successfully for years now.

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I'm a great fan of gentle curves, Mike, so I'm impressed by your modular approach to track base.  So much more realistic than those clunky straight sections that many people have to use.  It all looks most promising.

As for black uPVC supports, I've had no trouble with mine in eight years.  There are about half a dozen of varying heights, and the taller ones were made with two different pipe diameters telescoped into one another and held by a couple of screws - to provide scope for adjustment if needed at any stage.  One is just about visible in the photo below. 

Good luck with the rest of your layout!

 

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Edited by Andrew
typo
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14 hours ago, Andrew said:

I'm a great fan of gentle curves, Mike, so I'm impressed by your modular approach to track base.  So much more realistic than those clunky straight sections that many people have to use.  It all looks most promising.

As for black uPVC supports, I've had no trouble with mine in eight years.  There are about half a dozen of varying heights, and the taller ones were made with two different pipe diameters telescoped into one another and held by a couple of screws - to provide scope for adjustment if needed at any stage.  One is just about visible in the photo below. 

Good luck with the rest of your layout!

 

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Cheers Andrew. I got the idea from a YouTube video where a guy had done similar to yourself, but also used upvc for the frame. It’s not available here in the U.K. so I tried to replicate it using wood, but I couldn’t get it to bend enough, so the block structure seemed like the next best thing. As for the curves, there’s not much point having a 30’ x 21x circuit with trainset corners - I don’t have them on Oak Road and the HSTs look great, so I’m really looking forward to getting them up and running outside. 

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Got to the station area today. This is just a rough mock up but it’s more-or-less In the right place. Next job is to split the frame in to two parts for easy removal, and then make the extension frame that goes to the left leaving the lift out sections to complete the circuit.
 

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I’ve also managed to ease the gradient that takes the line over the right hand chord. 
 

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Hopefully the weather will hold up this week so I can get it finished. 

Edited by scoobyra
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Hi Mike, wow  what a great idea in constructing the frame work on your curves, yeah as  Andrew has said too , I am  another big fan of gentle curves , I have thought of doing the same construction as yours , now I  will choose the same way for my large curves knowing that will work , most of my main line curves are 7 feet , there are two curved section 12 feet which is an S bend coming off my bridge .

You must be working every day I can work a couple days a week  cutting being so close to neighbours., mine is  modular set up can't be permanent, I like mock- up's too.

Keep the great work up , look forward to further progress pic and welcome to our forum.

Tony from cold down under.

 

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Your construction technique is similar to Roy's on the FAULCONWOOD AND SPRINGBRIDGE RAILWAY. However, you are building yours with deconstruction in mind. Roy ended up demolishing his outdoor railway because it wasn't as weather proof as he had hoped and his construction technique didn't allow for replacement of individual sections.

Not sure if its your technique or your personality, but by heck you are making impressive progress. I think it took me 4 years to complete a loop of my small garden.

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Cheers Chris, it’s taken a month to get this far - making the blocks is time consuming but I’ve just cracked on whilst the weather has allowed. I was hoping to get some track down before I return to work but that may not happen now.

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More work today - station frames built, just need to add a bit more bracing to the left hand side and then I can put the tops on.

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I also got the lift out section done along with the station extension frame.

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Block walls for raised gravel bed which will have rocks on around the tunnel portals and upturned planters for piers at the site of the second bridge....

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Still no track though.... 

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I had some track delivered over the weekend so I got on with laying a double thickness track bed using more felt and today I started track laying. It’s not the quickest job because I’ve got transition curves and super elevation to factor in.

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I’m just waiting for a few more points and I’ll be able to get all of this section laid as a double line, then it’s back on to the station frames to finish those off with felt and then start laying track on that bit. I made a schoolboy error and didn’t order enough track to do a complete double track circuit, but there’s more turning up at the end of the month, by which time, I should have this lot wired up. The CDL unit hasn’t arrived yet so nothing to report back on the AD1-HP yet but I’ll crack on as soon as it lands.

 

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Really enjoying following your build Mike. It's all extremely well constructed and your experience with exhibition layouts really does shine through. I think anyone contemplating an OO gauge garden layout would be well advised to digest this thread - though we're only currently on page 2 and you're already close to having an operational layout!

The double thickness trackbed along with superelevation in the above photos looks really good - there's going to be some stunning camera angles with your HST's running round there.

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All looking very promising.  A couple of questions (having checked earlier, I can't see the answers, but apologies if I've missed something):

 - How is the track held down (can't see any pins)?

 - What are you using to cant the curves? - and how much?

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1 hour ago, Andrew said:

All looking very promising.  A couple of questions (having checked earlier, I can't see the answers, but apologies if I've missed something):

 - How is the track held down (can't see any pins)?

 - What are you using to cant the curves? - and how much?

There’s some tiny track pins to temporarily tack the track down until I ballast and glue it. As for the cant, I do it all by eye, although 2mm is about the most you’d ever want to go. I’ve just used strips of felt, pushed under the sleepers and the further you go towards to centre, the more elevation you get. The downside to doing it this way, and I’ve seen many people on YouTube so it - some of them with thousands of followers, is that the trains lurch in to the corners. At the moment, most of the track is floating, so it’s very smooth, and once the ballast goes down, it will fix it in place. In the real world, the elevation rotates around the track centre, so the inner rail would drop, but it’s way too long winded to do it in model form. 

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Test piece of track weathered and painted. 

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The weather has been a bit rubbish over the last two days so I’ve not been able to do much, except make a start on the viaduct. This is a Wills plastic kit that I’m probably going to fill with resin. I need to extend the piers too.
 

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Hopefully I can get some more track laid soon.

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More work done - the branch junction is in, and the point control rods. 

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I also managed to lay some more track towards the tunnel.

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Here’s a good shot showing the super elevation.

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The weather is meant to be cracking for the next few days so I’m going to attempt to make it round to the station area, then start going back the other way from the other side of the viaduct.

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That's looking really great Mike and your rate of progress is amazing. Probably by now it'll all be finished and you'll be posting videos of those HST's banking round those curves!

Are you still on with the task of painting the rail sides? It does take a little longer but eventually they will tarnish on their own outdoors though probably not to the extent of your recently painted examples which I have to admit look very nice.

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40 minutes ago, mick said:

That's looking really great Mike and your rate of progress is amazing. Probably by now it'll all be finished and you'll be posting videos of those HST's banking round those curves!

Are you still on with the task of painting the rail sides? It does take a little longer but eventually they will tarnish on their own outdoors though probably not to the extent of your recently painted examples which I have to admit look very nice.

Cheers Mick. I’ve not been able to get much done lately due to it being a bit warm in the garden! I’ve got round as far as the conservatory with a full double track and I’m just starting the point work in to the station. Finding something suitable for the lift out section track joints is the next hurdle. I’m thinking of large strips of copper clad board screwed down?  

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