Worsley Dale Garden Railway

[aussietmrail]

Wow the arches are pure awesome, I wondered if you were going to shape the arches that way.

Yeah I was going to suggest the plumbers copper piping and use those T pieces in the middle will make the pillar pretty strong and you can solder them.

I just bought on British eBay a 12 wheel 68ft Hornby restaurant car to go with the your model railway village maroon coaches when they come in from my newsagent, after a brake van too and may end up with 8 of them.

Also interested in buying a Hornby 60 class diesel like them, red colour scheme with the Switch on the safety logo awesome loco, saw a preview on you tube, lots of good detail grill wise., was hopping to get one in the British rail blue colour scheme.

Where is the viaduct going to into your shed.

[mick]

 

aussietmrail said:

....Where is the viaduct going to into your shed.

If you imagine an oval shaped layout then the new viaduct is along one long side. The opposite long side contains the other viaduct and the shed which abut together. The one end section that I have so far completed lies between the two viaducts and contains the double track section and the recently built tunnel under the pathway while it's opposite end section, the one which will eventually join up the new viaduct to the rear of the shed and complete the loop of the garden, is still to be built.

[mick]

That spell of settled weather we enjoyed over the last couple of weeks has certainly bid us farewell for now so there's been no chance of any further progress with the new viaduct since my last update. We've had 35mm of rain over the past 3 days and it's left the garden rather sodden. I've managed to get hold of another 15mm copper 'T' so when I can get out there I'll be seeing how the copper pipe looks as a central pillar beneath the two girder bridges. There' still plenty of work to do inside the shed of course and I've got another half-dozen large radius points and some more SEEP motors to add a bit more track in and around the station area.

I've been running my new Bachmann class 40 back and forwards through the pointwork in the station. If you are aware, there have been some concerns regarding the electrical pickup from these new 40s caused by the use of non-conductive grease from the gears seeping onto the axle bearings. The problem was supposed to have been sorted at the factory with the entire stock being manually cleaned of excess grease before despatch. Well mine ran perfectly at first but the warm weather caused the problem to return and whilst the loco ran fine on straight track, any deviation from that, notably over points, either brought the loco to a halt or caused the sound to cut out.

I've had the loco apart and cleaned out the excess grease from the bogies again and lubricated the axles with conductive oil and it's clear that's what the problem is/was. It now runs perfectly again but it remains to be seen what happens the next time the sun shines!

[aussietmrail]

Mick that is going to be awesome when you complete your layout at last and trains finely running over your viaduct , how long do you reckon it will you for that to happen.

I have been busy too nailing down track and points on my station modules, all up I will need 25 points, have most of them, 18 points are already down, some I will have to buy, not going to motorise the points as yet till I replace the three way point with double sip cross over, pretty expensive item, around $70, you can see my progress on my posts.

The weather is perfect here at the moment should be colder than what it is coming into winter months after this weekend, no one is wear jumpers, a bit nippy early morning, warms up pretty quick,

non of the shops have been selling winter clothes as yet.

I am looking at hooking up two powered tenders to the flying Scott, can it be done.

When the Flying Scott visited American they bought over a water tender also, that's how I got my idea from, will you need to run wires through to the other tender, all I have to do is modify the second tender.

[mick]

I've not managed to get much done on the layout recently but decided to make a start on the new viaduct sidewalls today. I don't intend spending a great deal of time on them because I really don't think it matters that much and they often look better when just put together quickly. So I began by taking some of the offcuts I've got left over from creating the viaduct arches and cutting them into thin slices using a normal hand saw. I didn't bother measuring the width of each strip but just cut each one by eye trying to keep them more or less consistent. I did as many as I could before it got too monotonous and was left with a small pile like this.

These slices were then cut again into narrow strips and the edges sanded smooth to remove some of the burrs left by the hand saw. Here's a few I did earlier.....

The idea is to lay the first layer flat on top of the viaduct and then another layer on edge - similar to this effect....

Using a tube of cheap exterior grip adhesive (can't remember the exact make) I started off by gluing the first sections down flat along the edge of the viaduct, trying to keep a small overlap to the outside......

....followed by additional sections laid on edge on top of them to create the effect of a wall with a narrow ledge to the outside.

It's all more or less the same techniques I used on the first viaduct but this time I know not to worry about how the bricks look and that any imperfections in the stones just makes it look more realistic. The glue marks are not too prominent as I cleaned the joins up as I went along but they only add to the effect when they can be seen so there's no need to worry. Once the whole lot is dry (which could be some time as it's chucking it down outside right now) I'll give all the stones a sand down and add a rounded edge along the top. Once it's all sanded the entire viaduct will get a coat of water sealant to protect it from future downpours!

[mick]

The rain hasn't done me any favours. My nice firm sidewalls are now like rubber but to be fair the grip adhesive does warn against it getting wet before its fully cured. May have to start over unless it miraculously sets hard again.

[Ironhorse]

Oh the trials and tribulations of model railroading outdoors but someone as talented as you will have it right as rain in no time Mick those viaducts you build are absolutely fantastic, I hope that I can sometime in the future add some features like that will be just half as nice! Well I am going out right now and work on the railroad.

Robert AKA Ironhorse

[traingeekboy]

One step forward... Eight steps back? Keep at it Mick, you're almost out of the woods.

[mick]

Perhaps I needn't have worried about the viaduct side walls because with the passing of the rain they're now solid once again. I can't budge them so over the next few days, which they say are going to be relatively dry, I'll see if I can get the whole lot finished and then treated with the same type of water sealant that I used on the previous viaduct. I have another load of gravel being delivered today to extend the walkway round the pond and alongside the layout so I'll soon be rid of those pesky muddy feet and can set about adding finishing touches to the layout, the pond and the rest of garden. Once I've got most of the sidewalls in place I'll see about installing that central pier and the two girder bridges and then I can get some more track laying done.

[mick]

Just a bit more progress to report today. I've added the rear side walls on top of the left hand viaduct and given the whole lot a heavy wash of water seal. The photo below shows it drying out shortly after the application of water seal. The end pieces of the side walls have been left until the girder bridges are in place.

Not shown in the photo is the fact that I've also cut narrow channels in the surface of the viaduct ends where the two girder bridges will be located. These channels accept the two 12mm square steel tubes which should give added support for the bridges spanning across the gap between the 2 sections of viaduct. I'm still not sure what to use for the central pillar as I tried a mock up with the 15mm copper pipe, as mentioned in a previous post, but wasn't entirely happy with how it looked. I might revert to a stone pillar, suitably shaped. Have to take another look later.

I'd almost forgotten about the need to paint the bridges so that they stand out from the background so until I get that done there's little point in fixing them permanently in place as they'll no doubt be easier to paint/spray before they're secured. I'm considering spraying them grey and weathering them as I do like to see rust stains!

And don't forget that this is just half of the new viaduct - there's the right hand side still to work on.

[mick]

I've been out with the spray can today and my two green girder bridges have now become grey. I can almost see the rust staining already!

The above photo also shows the two 12mm steel tubes that have been inserted into channels cut into the ends of the viaduct. The bridges will rest on them for added stability once I've worked out a way to fasten them together. The bridges themselves have also been slightly recessed into the top of the viaduct so that the track bases coincide with the top of the viaduct.

In addition to the spraying, I've made a start on the right hand section viaduct side walls. I still have another 12-18 inches to complete and then I'll have to finish off rounding out the arches, only two of those on the right hand side have been done so far.

[Ironhorse]

Mick it looks like I am going to have to figure out how to incorporate a viaduct and bridge to my layout. Your work is fantastic.

Robert AKA Ironhorse

[Rossi]

Robert,

That's a sore point! ("Wanting a viaduct")

It started a couple of years back or so on this forum. Hence a lot of us now own a viaduct.

Luckily the "windmill" challenge seemed to disappear.

[doublecee]

did somebody say windmill? I want a windmill!

[mick]

 

doublecee said:

did somebody say windmill? I want a windmill!

Mine's still boxed up in the attic......it'll be coming out soon.

Ironhorse said:

Mick it looks like I am going to have to figure out how to incorporate a viaduct and bridge to my layout. Your work is fantastic.

It's certainly not difficult using the materials that I've used - it just takes time to put it all together. But best of all is just how much it costs to get yourself a unique structure. The two plastic girder bridges cost me approx £60 for the pair but the viaduct itself only cost approx £35-£40 inclusive of all the blocks, sand and cement. Where on earth could you get a viaduct for that price?

[traingeekboy]

Oh I am envious. All garden railways must have one.

[Ironhorse]

 

Quote

Where on earth could you get a viaduct for that price?

in 2 words You Can't! absolutely awsome

[aussietmrail]

Mick,

Wow the viaduct arches and top deck has turned out well, what's the plan for the garden will you be putting garden bark in, set the grey viaduct off nicely.

Gee that is a good price for the actual viaduct couldn't do it for that price over here as the bricks close enough to yours cost $9 each, I am itching for a viaduct on my layout but that will have to wait a while. looks like I will be buying a new special addition Flying Scotsman with the double tenders an use the tender from my Flying Scotsman I have now which is 5 pole motor and has the brass strip wheel pic-ups an going to renumber the FS I have now as you can buy running number decal kits, two British steamies.

So my double tender project is on the back burner till I get the new FS, hope the seller reply's as to find out if he will post to Australia, cutting it fine, back to the layout building Monday.

Can't wait to see train running soon, pure awesome.

Tony

[doublecee]

I must add, that after over a years worth of teasing this viaduct and the shed station, I'm looking forward to seeing which loco Mick will choose to feature in his first video for ages. If you didn't live so far away, I'd be there in a flash.

[mick]

If I don't come to a decision about the central pillar beneath the girder bridges then nothings ever going to get finished and so today I made the decision to knock something up that could be easily replaced if deemed necessary at a later date. I decided to use a piece of left over piping set between two pieces of breeze block off-cuts. I've cut shallow recesses into the 2 stone pieces in order to locate the pipe and cemented the bottom piece to the ground. The top piece is also recessed to accept the two 12mm steel tubes that span the viaduct, helping to keep everything in place. 2 small off-cuts of the 12mm tube have been fastened at right angles to the main span and fastened to each bridge by means of a plastic tie-wrap. The ties pull the short lengths against the longer ones and it's surprisingly very solid. From a distance it looks like this:

This photo shows one of the 2 short lengths of 12mm steel tube fastened with a plastic tie wrap to the base of a bridge section and at right angles to the two lengths that span across the gap between the viaduct sections. The photo also shows the stone piece in the centre of the two bridges and how it holds the cross beams. The stone has since been modified to ensure it sits level on top of the pipe.

I'm still not sure this is how I wanted it to look but for now it will allow me to get on with putting some track down on top of the viaduct and that central pillar is easily removable. Perhaps once the pipe has been spray painted it might not look too bad.