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Danes Wood, a 00 railway in the garden.


fungus
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Services are running normally on the Danes Wood railway, apart from speed restriction past the oak tree. The first three pictures show the progress of a freight train of 36 loaded wagons, a GUV, and a brake van. It had set off from The Barn headed by a Stanier 8F, which failed before the whole train had left the yard. A West Country class pacific, normally a passenger train engine with a reputation for wheel-slip on gradient, was the only loco available to deputise for the failed 8F. A Jinty was standing by to assist as a banker if needed (which it was).

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Rossi said:

Must be catching this subsidence.

My viaduct has been in situ for one and a half years now, but this little crack has started to worry me.

Some of the arches in my "big" viaduct started doing the same almost immediately. I am keeping an eye on it, but am not too worried yet. I'll start taking action if it begins to affect running.

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I'm pleased to see that you're still running trains Ian - at least that gives you some time to determine the best course of action and, as has been pointed out already, this type of disruption is frequently seen in the 1:1 world so it's just another step towards realism.

Sure I've said this before but seeing your photos I think one of my next tasks needs to be to put together a mixed goods train. My experience of railways has generally been the working of block trains, trains with all the same wagons, and there's just something so appealing about the different wagon outlines and loads carried in a mixed goods train. I especially like the photo of yours as it's seen crossing the viaduct.

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I now have a plan of action aimed at resolving the problem of track distortion due to tree root growth.

1. Move downhill end of rockery back by about 6" (further if practical).

2. Build a simple, non-cosmetic "bridge" over the tree roots, along new route of main line (see below).

3. Re-arrange the three sets of points at Quarry junction, as shown In the first picture below.

4. Lay new main line to Gate viaduct.

5. Re-align track on quarry end of viaduct

6. Run test trains. If ok, open champagne. If not, go back to 1.

7. In 2019, run test trains again. If still ok, open another bottle. If not find another hobby.

The first picture is a view looking down on the three sets of points at Quarry junction. Overlaid are three similar sets of points arranged differently so that they slew the main line onto a route further away from the tree. This scheme has the attraction that it doesn't require the purchase of new points; it uses the existing ones. The middle set is turned though 180 degrees, and the other two are swapped over.

The second picture shows the site after the section of rockery opposite the tree has been moved back by about 6". It also shows where the earth has been dug out under the concrete trackbed to check the clearance between the tree roots and the track.

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Hi fungus, that is some plan to fix your problem with the overgrown tree toot problem engineering feat in its own right, how much clearance have you between the track bed and rock retaining wall

could you move the track bed closer to the rocks to clear those roots.

Love you long curved viaducts pretty awesome, if I ever get to extend my layout more out into the garden will plan that stile viaduct, be glad to see the end of winter cold week with cold morning but nice days.

Will be keeping a close eye on your progress and seeing your trains running again. Do those Atlas track cleaning cars really work.

Tony.

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My two cents on your track problems:

I must preface this by saying that I can really come off as real blowhard, so this is merely a suggestion. :lol::lol::lol:

In the photo where you first showed us your track dilemma what seemed to be the biggest problem was that the point was very rigid and unable to deal with the changes in grade. Perhaps moving the paired cross over farther down the line to where there are no tree roots would solve issues with lifting trackage as flexi is not as stiff and will accommodate any changes in the road bed.

Along the same lines of thinking, If you let the flex track float, do not attach it to anything on that stretch, it should be able to conform to changes over time. Many of our layouts simply use track pins to hold flex track without the need to bind things to the baseboards permanently. Although my railway is wooden, there is quite a bit of shift here and there as the wood settles or warps, yet the flex track just does it's thing and I have no real issues. In places where there are vertical changes my flex track maintains it's track properties, but lifts off the baseboards to smoothly transition between sections that have gone slightly out of alignment.

So yeah, move the paired points farther down the line and let the flexi do what it's made to do, flex. :)

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aussietmrail said:

..... how much clearance have you between the track bed and rock retaining wall? Could you move the track bed closer to the rocks to clear those roots?.......

.......Do those Atlas track cleaning cars really work........

....Tony.

 

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Hi fungus, yeah can see you moved the track over closer to the rock wall and I do the same with the points if I don't have enough of them at the time when planning the track work to see how they will fit to the track plan.

That will solve your problem with the tree root.

How long do you reckon it will take to fix the problem before trains are running again and how big is your layout in feet going by the size of those S bends pretty big, I am hopping to have at least one S bend in my track plan .

Thinking about buying those wagons that has the spinning wheel with the cleaning pad on it in the middle of the wagon, nearly forgot is your layout DCC will find a link .

Tony.

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aussietmrail said:

..... How long do you reckon it will take to fix the problem before trains are running again and how big is your layout in feet going by the size of those S bends pretty big,......... is your layout DCC ..... Tony.

Trains are still running - see post below. I have about 150ft of main line, of which about 120ft is double track, and 8ft is inside a shed. The sharpest curve on the main line is 4ft radius, and wherever possible the curve radius is 6ft or more. The steepest gradient is designed to be 1 in 50 and about three-quarters of the main line is on a 1 in 50 gradient with the summit at the southeast end of the tunnel, and the lowest point near the centre of the Lawn viaduct. It's controlled by DCC using NCE PowerCab and a 5A Smart Booster, operated via JMRI and WiThrottle on an Apple mobile device or Engine Driver on an Android mobile device.

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traingeekboy said:

My two cents on your track problems:

..... In the photo where you first showed us your track dilemma what seemed to be the biggest problem was that the point was very rigid and unable to deal with the changes in grade. Perhaps moving the paired cross over farther down the line to where there are no tree roots would solve issues with lifting trackage as flexi is not as stiff and will accommodate any changes in the road bed.

Along the same lines of thinking, If you let the flex track float, do not attach it to anything on that stretch, it should be able to conform to changes over time. Many of our layouts simply use track pins to hold flex track without the need to bind things to the baseboards permanently. Although my railway is wooden, there is quite a bit of shift here and there as the wood settles or warps, yet the flex track just does it's thing and I have no real issues. In places where there are vertical changes my flex track maintains it's track properties, but lifts off the baseboards to smoothly transition between sections that have gone slightly out of alignment.

So yeah, move the paired points farther down the line and let the flexi do what it's made to do, flex. :)

I think that what you are saying here is essentially what I am doing - move the turnouts and main line further from the tree, and lay the track where it is at its nearest to the tree on a track bed anchored at each end to solid ground well away from tree roots, with the remainder of its length separated from the roots by an air space of several inches. The only point on which we differ slightly is that I believe the track bed must be flat and level, with only a small amount of flexibility. Flexible track is flexible to allow curves, gradients and banking to be formed during track laying rather than by making many different specially-shaped pieces of rail in the factory (as is done to a limited repertoire for the "toy train set " market). To attempt to also use the track's flexibility to allow for irregularities in the track bed is something we all do to get the job done, but which should be avoided wherever possible.

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A couple more shots from yesterday to show that trains are still running despite the major construction work at Quarry Junction. The main reason I want to keep the circuit complete as long as possible is that most visitors (friends, relatives, neighbours) ask to see it running, whether or not they are normally interested in model railways, and we usually have a fair number of visitors at this time of year!

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IanR said:

Nice to see the use of loco headlamps. :)

Unfortunately the loco crew have forgotten to change them after their previous turn, a local passenger train from Evercreech Junction. They should have moved the one above the left buffer over to the right buffer for a freight on the S&D line.

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This evening's shots, showing progress on the diversion past the tree. The old main line is still in place and in use, and will remain so for as long as is possible to minimise restriction of services.

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Hi Fungus, that will solve the problem with the tree roots for a very long time and going by the last pic the single track will be straight coming off the viaduct, be able to speed the trains up there.

I will be only be able to have a couple of friends over on a running day on my layout, a couple of the neighbours has young teenage boys once they see trains running will want to come over.

By the looks of it everyone likes the NCE DCC system, my train club even has it on a separate DCC layout, what do you think of the IPhone Wi/throttle, thinking about downloading the app on my I/phone, cost $12 over here and IPad.

My layout is 54 feet long by 24feet wide, smallest radius is 7ft diameter and the spiral is the same, coming off the spiral on the top level is 12feet half radius and the widest curve is 12 feet, my layout is designed on single track running with double track passing loops, 25 to 30 feet long , would love to have continuous running from one platform to another not to be at this stage.

Not sure of the grade of the spiral which is 3 and a half feet to 1 and a quarter drop, works out 3/8" a foot on 23feet length and 7feet diameter spiral double track, if you go back to my post on page 3 you will see the pics of my spiral, tunnel height is 9 inches.

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Last night I ran a reliability test, with "Wilton" and seven coaches running non-stop round and round the circuit. I got up to 8 circuits without incident before I was called for supper. Looks promising! Earlier tests with other engines were not so good, but have highlighted a few places where the track is uneven, a decoder needing CV changes, and two locos whose rear couplings were too short for certain coaches.

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aussietmrail said:

.... By the looks of it everyone likes the NCE DCC system, my train club even has it on a separate DCC layout, what do you think of the IPhone Wi/throttle, thinking about downloading the app on my I/phone, cost $12 over here and IPad......

WiThrottle, or the Android equivalent "Engine Driver", is pretty well essential for my railway, as there is no point from which I can see more than about a third of it at any one time. It allows the driver to "walk about" with the train. Make sure you have adequate wi-fi coverage though, especially if you get a building between you and the router/access point.

I had a look at your pages; that spiral is impressive!

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This evening I made up two trains to run in opposite directions at the same time. Running clockwise was 34045 "Ottery St Mary" with 7 anachronistic GWR "Centenary" coaches. Running anticlockwise was 9F 2-10-0 92203, with 7 Hornby Mk 1 coaches and a Bachmann GUV. They completed about a dozen circuits before I packed up for the night. There were no derailments or other incidents.

A short video clip can be found at

 

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