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Swiftsure & Chafford Main Line - currently in concept


bazzanoid
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Swiftsure & Chafford Main Line is the name given to my 'coming soon' garden railway, taken from the name of my road and the area i live in. While construction is likely a few months off with winter rapidly closing in, the theory and concepts are in place and being planned for....

In order to avoid problems with trip hazards etc, the decision has been made to run the line entirely on the left hand side of the garden, which will be scenic side, while the right side is the 'practical' side of the garden with the pathway, washing line access etc.

In a masterstroke of forward planning (and by masterstroke, i mean sudden realisation at the last minute before last weekend's landscaping work hehe) some of the hard landscaping has been completed. At the patio end the paving 'step' also brings the wall out slightly (a deliberate design), and the intention was to build a lower-height wall to 'box' in the patio wall in general, plant some flowers etc. As I was about to start digging out lumps of earth to prepare for the wall base, the epiphany occured - this area would be ideal for a station and loop back around... so what was going to be a 15inch-wide box flowerbed is now going to be an elegant, 42inch-wide cliff feature with a station against the fence immediately before it on the straight section, with a nice sweeping curve instead of a sharp corner, rather conveniently a nice wide radius to run a train track on. Hmmm, wonder how that happened? The two courses of bricks needed have been completed, just got some pointing up to do to finish it off, and then build one on the other side of the patio to match, although that will be a rockery with flowers and gravel, to make sure they don't clash.

At the bottom of the garden by the shed will be a water feature to hide the holes that will be made in the shed for the bottom-end turnaround and storage sidings, along with an opportunity to fit a tunnel behind the water feature, with the front side being a track running over the 'river' for added scenic effect. A station stop module will be fitted inside the shed to allow for a delay in the train coming back out, adding a 'real' feel.

Where appropriate Hornby Skaledale buildings will be used, most likely around the top end by the station. The aim is to fully illuminate the buildings and add platform lighting along with signals and other lighting where appropriate. I'm keeping an eye out for a reasonably-priced decently-sized platform-style clock (currently the best i've seen is an 8" for £30), don't want to pay too much as it will be butchered to add lighting, I think it will be a really nice feature either on a fence post by the station or down by the shed. The intention is to create a railway that can be operated in the evenings without glaring floodlights (especially with the mild winters we have these days) or provide an excellent backdrop to dusk operations.

Rough track plans will follow, not had chance to photograph the garden yet as we're still moving rabbit cages about following our house move....

EDIT: A Note on wall construction for the un-initiated...

When building a low-level wall, such as the one mentioned above, it's tempting to not worry too much about a deep foundation, after all, it's not as if it's supporting a structure or easily blown-over by the wind, right? While this is true, and generally a couple of inches will suffice as long as it's slightly below ground, in this case I have to worry about those two courses of bricks having the outward force of half a ton of earth and rocks behind it. Failure to provide an adequate base of about 4-5 inches in this case would have meant that after the first downpour, the weight would increase dramatically, likely resulting in the wall developing cracks in the joints, or worst case, the wall crumbling. Definitely something to avoid when you're planning to build a railway on the wall or earth behind, as with collapsing walls comes twisted lines, damaged scenery and the possibility of constant derailments, since the damage won't always be easily noticeable at first......

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Hi Baz

Delighted to have the 'Swiftsure and Chafford Main Line' as part of the forum and its progress and development will be viewed with great interest. It sounds like you have a carefully thought out plan and know exactly what you want to do - far cry from how mine was conceived! Look forward to seeing a track plan and photographs of the intended location as soon as they are available to give a better idea of the area available to you.

As a member of the 'un-initiated' clan I'm hoping my foundations will prove sufficiently robust for the single breeze block I have used as the base for my tracklaying.

Mick

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I'm hoping my foundations will prove sufficiently robust for the single breeze block I have used as the base for my tracklaying.

Breeze blocks are generally very robust anyway once you've got a line of them - as long as there's a couple of inches in a few places below the ground (or the blocks are set into the ground) then it shouldn't cause you any issues. I've been striving to keep my construction costs down as much as possible, and we have a few recycling initiatives in the area, including the excellent Freegle groups on yahoo, so i was lucky enough to get enough paving slabs to make a shed base and about 150 yorkstone bricks to build the patio walls and rock/flower features next to them. All i've had to pay for is the mortar and a dozen or so block paving bricks to finish the patio off properly! I'm keeping my eye out for old railway sleepers to use as the 'baseboard' for the line to run down the side of the garden.

My wife has suggested running part of the line across the garden and down the right hand side, even after i warned her it would mean a level crossing being constructed just off the patio steps....... so the line may be revised. In any case, I'll build as originally planned making provision for an extra branch line!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Mick,

Through one reason and another i've not been online for a bit or I would have been here more often!!!

One of the joys of hard landscaping is being weather dependent, so I've only got so far as levelling the ground at the bottom of the garden (what used to be a huge pile of earth and rubble from where I levelled and paved the last 8' of the garden for the shed) and in between the rain finished laying the yorkstone blocks on the left side of the garden - two courses didn't look quite right against the taller patio retaining wall, so i've added a third course, which has been done, i've just got to point it up as the rain came down on me again! It's been covered under polythene while drying, and now of course heavy snow...........

And that's about it! I've been giving thought to the track plan but am still refining, as soon as i've settled on it i'll upload the diagram here overlayed on a picture of the garden as it stands now.

Merry Christmas!

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Hey Baz, good to have you back!

Understand the difficulties trying to work in between the weather but we're heading towards Spring now so things will get much easier soon. Look forward to seeing things develop during the coming year. Merry Christmas mate.

Mick

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