Worsley Dale Garden Railway

[mick]

 

ba14eagle said:

...My trackbed construction thread deals with rubbercrete, but if Trevor wants to give us a new thread on it, I will bow to his experience! ...

Apologies Iain for overlooking the details you had already posted regarding the use of 'rubbercrete'. There's clearly sufficient information there for all our needs. I will now direct any further queries to your thread rather than continuing here.

[IanR]

 

Quote

The Rubber Granules, produced from post consumer tyres, are 0.5–1.5 mm in size and supplied in 25kg bags.

That's a new one for used tyres!

[mick]

Building season has officially commenced on Worsley Dale.

I thought I'd make a start on the footings for the extension to the new viaduct. I had originally thought that a couple of rows of concrete blocks would be enough to bring the ground to the level of the existing viaduct piers but it's evident now that it will require three rows of blocks laid on their flat side. I'm using the blocks flat to give extra support to the viaduct above.

On top of the concrete footings will be the 3 rows of concrete blocks. The blocks will hold back the soil borders to the right. In front of the blocks I will be adding some more rocks, similar to the ones you can see in the above photo, with a narrow border of soil between into which I can add some plants.

The end block of the existing viaduct (photo below) has been laid at 90 degrees to the piers, which I believe adds strength to the viaduct at that point. Each subsequent 8 arch section will end with a full block laid sideways. I'll see how it looks once I've added another 16 arches as I'm not entirely sure how many arches will be needed to complete the curve round to the bottom of the garden.

I now need some more materials in order to continue further. There's only a certain amount that you can put in the rear of your car so it means a number of trips to the local DIY.

[Andrew]

The new route is looking really professional, Mick. Proper concrete foundations, all very thorough. And you really seem to have the knack of joining and finishing off the arches nicely and getting authentic round tops to them, so it's looking great. But it sounds like there's still a bit of a way to go, so let's hope you don't get the hump with building arches! Once you get the whole thing joined-up it will give you a new burst of enthusiasm - and you'll be able to sit in that summer sun, drink in hand, watching the trains run round.

It's just possible you might want to include a passing loop or longer double-track section on part of your circuit in order to have two trains on show and add some operating interest. We look forward to seeing the next development. I'm wondering how far that viaduct will stretch and whether you're actually chasing some record there. Good luck with the work.

[mick]

 

Andrew said:

....It's just possible you might want to include a passing loop or longer double-track section on part of your circuit in order to have two trains on show and add some operating interest....

There's the double track section between the two viaducts and also the twin through lines in the indoor station, so in addition to the indoor storage roads there's sufficient roads to provide me with enough interest for each session.

Andrew said:

...I'm wondering how far that viaduct will stretch and whether you're actually chasing some record there...

I don't have the answer to that one yet That section of line has to be elevated and I just thought that a continuation of the viaduct, even though perhaps prototypically incorrect, would look more interesting than just raised boards. Elevated boards will certainly be used along the bottom of the garden and around to the rear of the shed - I've not gone absolutely viaduct crazy just yet!

[mick]

I thought I'd add some photos to show how Worsley Dale has been neglected this year. Those small Thyme plants, lovely as they might be along the lineside, do need to be kept in check and I'm afraid I've not been doing that as I should. You can see from the following images that 60078 was having a heck of a job making it's way round onto the viaduct and how it managed to get past the tunnel area is beyond me.

I'm going to have to get the scissors out and trim things back a little bit.

Meanwhile, my new Hornby class 56084 found itself on top of the viaduct accompanied by the new Bachmann Collectors Club model of a BR MK1 Brake Corridor Composite (BCK) in Pullman Umber and Cream livery as 'Car No 355' which operated as part of the Steam Locomotive Operators Association (SLOA) charter rake from the early 1980s onwards.

[mick]

I wonder if anyone has seen or perhaps registered on http://railcam.uk''>http://railcam.uk'>http://railcam.uk ? It's a website that offers live camera views at a number of railway locations around the country including two views of the Settle & Carlisle line at Ribblehead and Kirkby Stephen which was the main reason for my own interest. It was looking at the site a few days ago that finally got me back into my own railway shed. I don't have as much time to dedicate to Worsley Dale as I used to and it's tended to get overlooked recently but watching the trains go by along the S&C and then viewing the activities on Railcam.uk at Corfe Castle and Bishops Lydeard made me realise just how much I would like to get my own layout back on track.

I cleared all the overgrown plants from the layout a couple of weeks ago but they've begun encroaching onto the tracks again. A quick snip with some old scissors does the trick before the clippings are hoovered up with a wet and dry vacuum that I purchased for the pond but now rarely use for anything other than hoovering up outside.

Yesterday I cleaned the outer rail from the shed around to the second viaduct and ran the Northern Belle 47's with the MK1 set that seems to be permanently housed in the shed. Just back and forth but enough to whet the appetite.

I ended up adding some more track to the station area inside the shed. Nothing permanently wired but I now have two additional sidings and room to stand some loco's for when I do eventually complete the garden loop. I can't say when that might be.

Railcam.uk are keen to hear from anyone who would be interested in hosting a camera and who has a lineside view of the railway network from their property. I wonder if our own 'Amblethorpe Chris' has ever considered something like that? There are camera views available located north of York but not to the south.

[mick]

I managed to spend a good few hours in the shed today but unfortunately it's been one step forward and two steps back. Without going into too much unnecessary detail I've decided to change the two sidings I installed yesterday so it's a good job that I never got round to wiring things up. Yesterday's attempt left me with sidings that had no protection before heading out onto the main running line which I know in modelling terms isn't such a big deal - but it was bugging me. Having already built the two station platforms and laid track through the station some months ago, I had incorporated a set of points for later connection to the proposed siding area. The trouble was I hadn't given it enough thought and left sufficient room for a headshunt.

Yesterday, I added the first siding along the rear of the platform which would have enabled it to be used for 'passenger' working but although the pointwork fitted in almost perfectly, it wasn't possible to incorporate the headshunt I was looking for and any additional siding would then be inaccessible if a train was standing on the platform road. After giving it some thought overnight I decided to forget the idea of a line along the platform and instead just add storage roads. I dismantled all yesterday's work.

Now with a headshunt, the new sidings stand a short distance away from the platform so are purely for storage purposes but that's okay. I only have a single running line so there's really no need for a large number of platforms - the three I have access to will be enough for operational running. I've soldered wires to all the points and sections of track ready for connection to the power bus and even started ballasting so there's no going back.

I'm now thinking of adding a small loco maintenance shed/area but that will require access from the second of my new storage roads. As a 'preserved' railway I think there's a need to have some additional loco's on display so I've added the necessary point in readiness.

I'll take some photos tomorrow which should illustrate exactly what I've been up to.

[mick]

A little later than promised but here's a couple of photos taken yesterday morning showing the two newly installed sidings and how they fit in to the overall plan.

The first photo is taken at the station junction which is immediately through the entrance to the shed where it meets with the first viaduct. The single running line over the viaduct splits into two platform/passing lines. The left hand line leads off to a bay platform and additional storage line(s) which have yet to be finalised. The right hand line leads to the two new sidings with the rails to the headshunt still to be fixed in place. The extreme right point further down the second of the new sidings is where I plan to access a proposed loco storage and maintenance area.

This second photo just shows the station buildings and the buffer stops at the end of the newly installed sidings. Cutting the platform to the rear of the small waiting room would allow me to increase the length of the right hand siding and wouldn't be too difficult to achieve. It's been added to my 'to do' list.

For now, although I've got lots of 'finescale' insulated rail joiners I seem to have used up all my 'streamline insulated joiners and so further progrss on the actual trackwork has come to a halt. However, since the above photos were taken there has been some additional ballast work and weathering of the main platform tracks and ballast.

[mick]

Not quite so much progress in the shed today. The tracks to the rear of the station (see photo in previous post), which currently form a bay platform and one long siding, had only been laid temporarily so I've made a start wiring them up and fixing them down permanently. I'm still undecided about the positioning of the long siding but I would like to be able to accommodate another full rake of coaches. Seven coaches and a loco is the maximum I can comfortably fit along the platforms and I'd like to have three sets on track at once. The bay platform will be primarily for DMU workings.

The finishing post is still a heck of a long way off but I've been thinking of things I could do to give as much operational interest as possible. One of those things is to build another station/fiddle yard on the opposite wall of the shed which would mean I could run either as a continuous loop or as an end to end. I'd prefer just a fiddleyard at this time, mainly to cut down on the amount of work required, although perhaps at a later date I could turn it into another station. A fiddleyard with just a couple of additional roads would be a real bonus.

[aussietmrail]

Hi Mick, great progress there with inside your shed on the station area siding, I will be looking forward to getting back to the layout once I have finished the woodturning project, in between that working on my station building which will be the main centre piece of the layout.

How did you go cutting back the growth of your garden plants spreading out onto the track doo you have easy access in getting around your garden.

Touch wood my lap top fired up ok this morning, it when into melt down last week thinking I had to buy a new one, sorted out and was a soft wear issue the Tech couldn't sort out, turned out to be Norton's, but last night it played up, I need to buy heaps of points and those car door locking motors, fingers crossed I don't have to buy a new lap top.

I am looking into using a rack gearing to slow down the fast motion of the car door locking motor and take the pressure off the point, hopefully that will work.

Big day at my train club tomorrow running my newest train the Thaly's TGV with the extra 4 coaches to make up a full train of 10 pieces, be an awesome site indeed, next step is DCC, two decoders, wonder if I should get two sound decoders.

Keep the pics flowing great job.

Tony from chilly down under.

[mick]

 

aussietmrail said:

....How did you go cutting back the growth of your garden plants spreading out onto the track doo you have easy access in getting around your garden...

It's an ongoing job Tony. I trim them back and within a week or two they're in need of cutting again. Yes, fortunately I can get to them easily enough although it gets a bit painful on the knees.

There's a lot of work to be done on the outdoor section although once I complete the viaduct extension it should be more or less plain sailing. In the meantime I'm maintaining interest by working on the indoor station and it's due in no small part to watching those 'railcam' live stream cameras. Until I get hold of some more insulated rail joiners there's only so much I can do but I did mention the possibility of cutting back the platform where the waiting room is to be located in order to lengthen one of the newly installed sidings. Well today I did just that.

I've replaced two sections of platform facing that were removed with the cut but still require another piece in order to completely cover the exposed plaster edge. The extended siding has been wired and ballasted and can now accommodate seven coaches - although doing so would of course block access to the proposed loco area. I'm not changing anything so it will be used for storing a full rake only when necessary.

I plan to install some fencing along the rear of the platform and around the rear of the small waiting room and I'd really like to install some platform lamps once all the track laying is complete and there's less likelihood of anything getting damaged.

As you can see, for the time being at least, that marked cut out on the rear of the shed remains uncut. I wonder how much longer it will be before I need to make the break through?

[mick]

Several packets of Peco insulated rail joiners arrived this morning and so I wasted no time installing the headshunt. With the rails wired they were then ballasted and left to dry. This is the view at the junction end of the shed where the single track exits onto the viaduct and with the headshunt to the left of the exit hole. The vacant space to the left will be my loco shed/storage area but that's for some time in the future.

Looking back over the station junction (below) you can see the two new sidings and headshunt to the right and as well as two bay platforms to the left. I had originally planned to have just a single bay platform and then one long siding running the length of the left wall but I realised today just how awkward it would be to reach across the platforms to deal with any mishap on the long siding and so I changed my mind and installed a second bay platform. It's possible to stand a seven coach rake in one of the bay platforms and be clear of the through running lines although it would be foul of the other bay. May prove useful at the end of the day.

I now have four point motors to install before I can begin using the newly installed tracks. All the points are live frog versions and so require the frog feeds switching via the point motor accessory switches. I don't particularly enjoy fitting point motors but it'll be one less job to do once it's done.

There's still more ballasting to do and the areas between the tracks needs sorting. I may then start to think about some kind of backscene and other scenic details. And of course, there's still the small matter of the viaduct extension and the remaining outdoor circuit.

[IanR]

Nice to see things moving again on Worsley Dale Mick. I really like to come over again sometime when it's convenient.

Ian.

[mick]

It would be good to catch up again Ian although the past few days work inside the shed are all you'll find has changed since your last visit!

[aussietmrail]

HI Mick, have you thought of wearing knee pads what I plan to wear when on my knees when I need to if a train derails, have to agree what IanR has said, nice work in the shed on the points and track work, what I am trying to achieve also with the points coming into the station and off as well.

Looks like I will be selling my duel power tender drive Flying Scot, a bargain I can't refuse, the bloke has offered to pay me $300 for the FS on top buying me another loco I have being after, he wants it that bad, good deal.

The bloke that took all the pics of the N scale Sydney Central as replied and offered heaps of pick and all goes well a scale drawing of Sydney central, be a big help, if you type in Sydney central station in Google earth, you will get to see how big it is, I am only modelling 6 terminus stations and one through station 28 platforms all up. huge, 10 terminus platforms.

Rain coming in days and nights will b warmer and back to cold weather again on Monday, woodturning on Saturday 25 degrees that day.

[Rossi]

First it was viaducts, then windmills. Now it seems knee pads are the in thing.

Can't say much myself. If you scan my last few photos you'll see cushions scattered about the debris (sorry-rebuild).

Wonderful for the knees!!!

[mick]

 

Rossi said:

First it was viaducts, then windmills. Now it seems knee pads are the in thing.....

With me it's now an old pillow wrapped in a dustbin liner. Better than nothing!

I've just taken a break from the shed so I thought I'd post another update. As I've already said, I'm not keen on installing point motors mainly because there's such a lot of work involved compared to some other tasks. I'm using SEEP motors with built in switches for changing frog polarity and these motors are designed to be fitted beneath the baseboards with the operating wire immediately beneath the point tie bar. With a layout that's not much more than 18 inches off the ground it's not easy getting beneath the baseboards at the best of times so all the soldering is done before installation and wires terminated with terminal blocks.

Now fortunately the first point I decided to motorise today, the one leading to the two bay platforms, is immediately above a baseboard support and so needs a motor installing above the baseboard. In order to use a SEEP motor I have to solder another operating wire to the bottom end of the actual operating wire, the original then being cut off as not required. This is how I installed them on my old Selby layout and lo and behold I found one that had been removed from the old layout in my bits box. Already wired and with the soldered on operating wire it just needed fastening down and the wires threading through a hole in the baseboard top.

There was still some soldering to do beneath the boards to add the track/frog power feeds and so on and a hot soldering iron in such a confined space needs careful handling (or perhaps not as the case may be). I got away with it without burning my fingers and a test using a loco indicated I'd got the frog feed wires crossed but it was only a case of undoing two wires at the terminal block and swapping them over.

The old motor seemed a bit stiff and sluggish but a quick squirt with some WD40 and it's like a new one again. Job done.

So most of the afternoon taken up with installing one point motor and still another 3 to go. To be fair, I have done some other small tasks and tidied up a lot of dangling wires so I feel that some progress has been made. Once I've finished my cuppa I'm going back out to complete the wiring of the bay platform tracks to the power bus so that I can use them fully. Before not too long I'll no longer have to push rakes of coaches and wagons along by hand!

If there's anything worth photographing later then I'll be sure to grab a pic or two.

[mick]

Well there wasn't anything I deemed worthy of a photo late this afternoon, although watching my trusty BR blue class 26 running up and down the newly wired bay platforms should really have been captured on video. I've spent the past couple of years running back and forth along the 2 main platform faces and now all of a sudden I have two additional bay platforms and two sidings I can trundle into. It feels good.

I still have 3 point motors to install as I spent the remainder of the afternoon and well into the evening ballasting the bay platforms and adding the bus power feeds. Even without the motors installed I was able to run along the full length of the short siding and as far as the loco yard points on the other before an un-powered frog called a halt to my fun. I couldn't make it onto the headshunt as I had overlooked that power feed when I had the soldering iron out.

It's taken me what...three days or more, and I don't seem to have done a lot but I'm beginning to feel that I now have my own working station. I think that will encourage progress elsewhere on the line.

Something I do want to do is think of some suitable names for the viaducts so that I no longer have to refer to them as 'the first viaduct' and/or 'the newer viaduct'. I'm not sure whether the station itself should be called WORSLEY DALE or whether that's best kept just as the name of the entire layout?

[mick]

I was obviously getting myself in something of a muddle the other day when I mentioned the installation of the SEEP point motors so here's a photo of the motor I installed a few days ago which I hope will show how it has been modified to work above the baseboard rather than below.

The SEEP motor is designed for fitting beneath the baseboard and so I have had to install it upside down in order for it to sit above the baseboard. In order to operate my point I have had to solder a short length of wire at right angles to the original operating wire, the end of which can be seen peeping out through the centre of the motor. The excess original wire which would then need to pass down through the board in this configuration, is no longer required and can be cut off. To allow unrestricted movement of my new operating wire I've mounted the motor on a piece of cork offcut with a channel that allows the operating wire to move freely back and forth. You'll see in the photo that I've actually added a small piece of PVC sleeving to give added rigidity to the wire.

All that's needed now is a suitable building to cover the motor, similar to the signalbox that covers my other above baseboard mounted SEEP motor.