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The Grockle Garden Railway


grockle
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dsc01691v.jpgdsc01691v.jpg<e> Was Here Thursday 31 Jan 2013.

dsc01692o.jpgdsc01692o.jpg<e> The owner of said model shop.

dsc01695kz.jpgdsc01695kz.jpg<e> Me posing with a wartime liveried Flying Scotsman, shop stock for sale.

dsc01699ov.jpgdsc01699ov.jpg<e> Leigh's second shop run by his wife Samantha.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/42/dsc01697bv.jpg/' rel="external nofollow">dsc01697bv.jpgdsc01697bv.jpg<e> We had dinner here, can highly recommend it.

Ian

As usual click on the image for the better picture.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Last couple of days have been slightly overcast but no rain, yep you read correct no rain. However due to what's left of the lawn still being to soggy to walk on no work has been done on the outside sections of the railway. I have however been drawing up a list of must do jobs prior to any running this year, weather permitting that is.

1. The major one is bonding and rebonding of joins, then once that is complete a complete track clearance and clean up.

2. Drill holes ready for the insertion of point rodding for wire in tube operation of all points insitu so far.

3. A couple of lengths of track in the shed have got to be renewed due to older Tri-ang stock running on the sleepers .

4. Might even removed the footbridge's on the though station and give them a repaint.

extra jobs not related to the GGR but still involving the running of trains.

1. Sort out the trackwork on the car boot running boards as I have a couple of issue's with the gapping between the joins. Too large.

2. Service all the Thomas and Friends stock for the SDR prior to their return to working on the Thomas layout at Littlehempston.

3. Sort out, service and pack stock ready for a weekend away playing trains.

and the MAJOR headache of the year is the car's MOT which is due next month. Needs some welding done prior to, or else its going to fail its MOT.

Ian

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Well due to the very cold weather, its too cold to work outside on the GGR so spent a couple of days in the shed.

I have now serviced at the SDR Thomas & Friends layout stock, and they are now residing in the house ready for the move back to their home for the running session which start in the middle of March.

2 tyres bought for the car as the rear pair are getting a bit near their life end.

Thursday was spent sorting out a friends door lock on his car. Could not open the passenger door from the outside. New door handle was needed but that wasn't the fault. Had to get another loco mechanism as that was not working properly. All now been replaced and the door is working like new again. He even let me have a drive of his car, and it was great fun driving a small 1100cc Fiesta again. Haven't driven one for ages.

Stock that is earmarked for the weekend away playing trains has all been serviced and is now packed safely away for the trip.

Whilst it hasa been so cold decided that its about time that I drew a diagram of the trackwork that is insitu and planned for the GGR outside section. This has also been done and nearly to scale as well, which did mean that I had to venture outside in the cold to take a few vital measurements just to make sure that it looks correct on the drawings. So for those who are into their trackplans here are the outside section of the GGR

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Have also done the inside section of the GGR so here are these as well

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So there you go the GGR in its entirety as it looks today

The red track marked on the left on the garden section is still to be built so as you can see I am nowhere near completion at all.

Ian

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Griff, you are on facebook, go and have a look at my video album and you will actually see trains running around the GGR. These vidoe's were taken using the old camera so not of the best quality, but they do give you a good idea of what is up and running at present. Infact if you can get them posted onto here, please be my guest and do so, as I haven't got a clue on how to do it, and at present as I am still using PC2, standby computer, I don't have the necessary space or software to even do it, if I could.

Ian

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I took a look and didn't see a video there. Can you upload one to youtube.com?

Just checked my facebook photo albums and there is also an album of vidoe's containing several vidoe's of trains running around the GGR and 3 in relation to the steam railcar that was taken last Saturday 16 february 2013. One is of the railcar being fueled up before it departs Littlehempston station, and the other two vidoe's are of it arriving and departing Littlehempston station.

Ian

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Well spotted Griff and I also noticed that the single track red girder bridge was also gone when I did that particular video. Amongst those vidoe's are three relating to the SDR Feb 2013 featuring the Steam Railcoach in Maroon with GWR lettering and No 93 on the ends. That is the real thing as video was taken using the new camera as well, so should be a lot better quality. If you can, you can copy them and post them on here for all to see. However if your fealing very very brave or foolish you can copy as many as you want from the GGR running days, although there all done on the old camera, but it will give everyone an idea of what I run at present. Be warned however that you will need your shades for at least one of the GGR running days as the Pink class 31 makes an appearance.

Ian

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Whilst having a check through my at present redundant stock I came across a rather neglested and battered windmill. No idea where or when I came to own it but seeing that its one of the necessary items for a garden railway its not going to get thrown away now. So it's going to be placed somewhere on the GGR once I have given it a bit of TLC. Pictures to follow in due course.

Ian

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I've yet to find a suitable windmill so will stick with my 'Lighthouse' for the time being however my collection of resin cottages is mounting up quite quickly. I have enough now for a very 'up market' housing estate or a large village so can see myself now having to build a few roads........ Where is this going to end??

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I've yet to find a suitable windmill so will stick with my 'Lighthouse' for the time being however my collection of resin cottages is mounting up quite quickly. I have enough now for a very 'up market' housing estate or a large village so can see myself now having to build a few roads........ Where is this going to end??

At the seaside on the sea shore. :lol::lol::lol:

Ian

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got all the track cleaned, sorted out a couple of broken fishplates and left it at that for a running session on Thursday morning. Low and behold its raing today so all that hard work getting everyhting ready for the first running session of the year is now on hold again.

Still got to sort the track out on the DOWN branchline at the station as its all come adrift from the sleepers. A couple of fish plates still ned replacing but as they are not on the current running sections can be done at a later date. Still got the majority of the rail bonding to do and I am considering using fuse wire to do this task. Any thoughts on what amperage fuse wire I should use?

Ian

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I would have thought 5 amp would be more than suitable, Ian.

When I went about wiring my layout I didn't bond the rail ends, I just used the fishplates to make a mechanical connection. I fed a dropper from the middle of each metre length to a ring bus around the layout. My thinking on this was, with end to end bonding you are relying on the soldered joints between each rail length for total continuity, thus when you get 40 metres away from your power feed you have 38 bonds and 76 soldered joints on each rail (+ & -). A break or dry joint in any of those soldered connections means either loss of power or a high resistance to the rest of the track from that point.

It was a pain in the butt wiring all the droppers, but that was done before I set foot outside, all I had to do once out there was solder the droppers to the bus, and for that I used a soldering gun more than capable of bringing the joint up to temperature. (it was 150watt and made light work of it)

I don't regret going down that route as I didn't fancy trying to bond the ends together at ground level outside (bad back, bad eyesight etc)

Sorry for going on so long, but if you take a look at pages 10 & 13 of Cherry Parkway you will see me doing the job.

George

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I think that's the route I shall go too Chris, I started bonding pairs of flexi indoors but it was psychologically (thank heavens for spell checker!!) stopping me getting on with laying track so I decided I could easily manage it in situ & a little at a time. Several of you Guys indicated that my wire was a bit 'heavy gauge' & I do agree, I think my idea was big is best & at least I could hold it AND see it while I was trying to master my soldering skills......... And people think we just 'play' with trains!!

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Its a 'belt & braces' exercise on the GGR. I do have bus rails running around most of the GGR and droppers as required, normaly at about every metre apart but just to make sure that its working properly and voltage drop is not an issue, especially when running the old Tri-ang loco's rail bonding is an extra measure. Fishplates seem to last for a couple of season's at best so could eventually be replacing all metal fishplates with plastic insulated ones. Still got to sort out the dimmer switches that are going to be put in for the operation of the station area's to enable slow running, stopping and slow starting again. This will save me having to disappear into the shed to use the Duette transformer. The only other major issue still to be resolved is the bridge that will to be raised and lowered when gaining axcess to the garden when running trains. The thought of a complete express taking a 4ft nose dive to terra-ferma does not appeal to me at all.

Ian

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