Glen Dollar Garden Railway

[Clay Mills Junction]

The first three blocks glued by this method. Everything that follows depends on the success of this stage.

There are seven blocks, the leftmost I'm not putting an arch in due to its shape. That leaves six blocks with five arches.

I'll glue them in two sets of three to make them manageable and do four of the arches.

I've got a few ideas for putting them together. Either turning them over on the 12mm ply then sliding them off into position or leaving them upside down and using my supply of massive zip ties to brace them tightly to the ply and lower them into place.

Edit: I've been out to check, six do fit on that strip of ply and feels like they are within my lifting capacity so one helper should be enough. I flattened the tops of the first three before gluing and they fitted together much better than the next three, so obviously the filing first is useful.

Edited May 9 by Clay Mills Junction
sort photos uploaded from phone

[Loco Hauled]

May I ask why you didn't cut the arches into the blocks first? The height of the arches is going to be set by the flat top of the plywood and the blocks would have been more manoeuvrable when you're cutting. They also would be lighter to lift.

[Clay Mills Junction]

52 minutes ago, Loco Hauled said:

May I ask why you didn't cut the arches into the blocks first? The height of the arches is going to be set by the flat top of the plywood and the blocks would have been more manoeuvrable when you're cutting. They also would be lighter to lift.

Hi, the arches will go with the join on the block at the highest point of the arch. It just makes the join between blocks a little less obvious than having them all the way down to the ground. For that I need to join them first before getting the core-cutter on them.

The other, more honest answer is "copying Mick." 🤣

 

[Loco Hauled]

Ah, now that makes perfect sense. I knew there had to be a reason and I guess if you cut them from one block it would either make the supporting piers too thick or to fragile for reliable support. I'm learning stuff everyday.

[Clay Mills Junction]

I glued the second group of three blocks on to the first group. The first four blocks are perfect. Four to five has a slight lip and five to six is perfect too. I think I was too ambitious getting all six together - should have done two groups of three then put them together as I said I would.

It isn't a massive lip. Options are to cut through the glue between four and five and re-glue or file five and six until I get a flat top?

In terms of strength, I could lift the six blocks together as they are now. It might be a different story when the arches are cut and the mating surfaces are much smaller.
Block 1 is on the right.

Edited May 10 by Clay Mills Junction
Blocks numbered from the right

[Clay Mills Junction]

A little video update.

 

[mick]

Really good to see something running after all your efforts. Still work to be done of course but that's how we've all started and at least being able to run something, even if it's only across temporary boards in certain places, gives you the motivation to carry on and get more of the layout completed.

You've made a great job of the track you've managed to get down and it all looks pretty smooth to me.

[Clay Mills Junction]

A few more photos from the weekend works.

I started with my core cutter. I did the first one without hammer action and it took a while. Tried the second hole at the other end with hammer and the join next to it immediately gave way, I guess from the vibrations.

So having cut the other four holes I re-glued the join.

Once that had a few hours to set I started on the final hole. As I cut through, the join gave up again although with the hole done that isn't an issue now, I'll just settle them in separately.

So on with sawing the arches.

My brother-in-law decided that it now needed a flying blue Ford Anglia. I told him he'd have to make do with a blue Triumph 2000 from a distance. 😂

Edited June 12 by Clay Mills Junction

[kenbrunt]

Looking good, I wish when I do a job all the surrounding areas stay clean. I only cut a couple of pieces of wood and still sweeping up a week after.

[Clay Mills Junction]

 

14 hours ago, kenbrunt said:

Looking good, I wish when I do a job all the surrounding areas stay clean. I only cut a couple of pieces of wood and still sweeping up a week after.

You don't want to see the area where I cut them. 🤣

[Clay Mills Junction]

Yesterday evening I got the final two blocks along the front row sawn down to size.

I didn't lay them exactly level but good enough for me to get the track cut so they rejoin at the point and from there I can set the viaduct in place and tidy up that corner.

[kenbrunt]

Its looking good and I know the feeling when you can see the end to a project.

[Clay Mills Junction]

Some track cut. I think I'll need a few millimeters off the outside loop to bring it away from the fence post a little. I'll need to create a filler piece between the passing loop station and the viaduct but that is the final resting place for the viaduct. I think I'll do a straight block off the right hand side of the viaduct and then I need to decide what the structure will be going down the side.

Edited June 18 by Clay Mills Junction
Finishing off text to make sense