cleanerg6e Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 IanR said: Interested in your ballasting Roy, I'd be interested to see how it endures the weather, keep us posted. What is the glue mixture that you use? Hi Ian, Thanks for the information on the island platform as i intend to have an island platform on the long straight next to the colourbond fence. The platform itself is no problem being made of hardwood it will be primed and painted all over and will remain on the railway all year round. I may have to scratch build a station building. As for the rapid drying cement/ballast mixture it is more rapid drying cement than ballast and the glue mixture is Prep polystyrene based glue mixed with water and meths. Although it goes on with a light blue colour to it, it dries clear. The rails are covered with lengths of polystyrene to protect the rails from our heat. According to a friend who lives in Diggle, he was talking to Trevor Jones who invented the rapid drying cement and ballast mixture and Trevor has found that with frosts the ballast sometimes breaks up due to the freezing/thawing process. We don't get deep penetrating frosts here or snow. It seems that this method will only work on masonry bases the trick being to try and keep the ballast granules covered with rapid drying cement. If the application of the glue washes away the cement from the ballast I use a small strainer and gently cover the ballasted track in a thin layer of rapid drying cement only. I clean the rails surfaces with paper towel to remove cement from them. I think it will last as some parts were done over twelve months ago and have remain solid with no breaking up of the ballast. So it's had a full year of all our seasons with no detrimental effects so far. Although unsightly I think perhaps even in the UK polystyrene on the railway in winter would help to protect the permanent way for those using this method. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted January 3, 2015 Author Share Posted January 3, 2015 In the last post I forgot to mention ( due to senility) that I bought a second hand EE type 1 D8134 from Hattons 2 weeks ago. I've had another type 1 D 8158 for a few years now and have always procrastinated (big word for me) over buying a second loco. For ages Bachmann didn't have any type 1's in their original green only BR blue examples. I picked it up this morning from the post office and it's been running on my gauge master 'rolling road' which is only DC for 30 mins in either direction to bed in the gears. I only put it on the 'rolling road' due to there being no marks on the wheel treads. So it may have been bought, stored in it's box and then sold. It came with the complete paperwork too. I like the Howes Models type 1 ESU sound chip so I'll order one from them as this loco has an 8 pin socket. It will run in tandem with my other type 1 and the decoder will be addressed D 8518 and should sound good with two type 1's whistling and thrashing round the railway although it maybe a little over powering as D8158 produces more than enough sound on it's own and can easily be heard from the back of the house. ONLY when I've once again got a full circuit will I post a video of the two type 1's in action. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted January 3, 2015 Author Share Posted January 3, 2015 I found this video of a British OO garden railway on you tube which has the main part housed in a garage and runs out into the back garden. Although the camera is low resolution it's a good run done from a 1st generation DMU with sounds from a real DMU. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 That video (in Tring, UK) is certainly an impressive railway. It all looks very clean and well cared for. I've never seen so many signals on a garden railway - an example to us all! Well spotted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Yes he has done well Andrew and Tring is where the telephone was first tried out. Tring Tring. The same with statues as in "Hello is statue":lol:. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussietmrail Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Hi Roy, happy new year, do well from Santa . Have to agree what Andrew said pure awesome a lot of money involved there, wonder if it is a train club, a few ,ore of that layout on the links to look at. Here is an awesome loco, getting to like it every time I see it, didn't realise it is a 2-8-2, only 6 built. It wont work but you can put a search on it in you tube, got the right link, works now enjoy Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 Hi Tony I got some private owner wagons by Dapol and a DVD: For The Love of Cars. Lets hope the P2 doesn't fall to bits like other Hornby locos do which in my case is the valve gear. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussietmrail Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Hi Roy, how is the summer going in the Blue mountains, we are have mild days at the moment, in the low 30's that will soon change, the days are humid which is the killer, makes the grass grow too quick with a storm or heavy showers of the grass explodes, mowing every week now, looks good though and great to walk on. What sort of mark1 coaches do you have, I got 8 of those your model railway village coaches, a bargain for $8 , the problem with the coach is where the couplers clip in is a curved plastic ridge and the couplers are getting caught on the ridge and derailing, I am thinking about filling that ridge down. Have Lima mark1 coach and it doesn't have that ridge in front of the bogie, does Hornby and if you have Bachman have that ridge, could you take a pic of your coaches, thanks. Year that was the problem with James May when he tried to break the longest HO scale run, he had heaps of trouble with his locos. Being able to some work on the layout. Tony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Summertime here for my railway at least is the dormant period as it's just too hot to operate. But I have discovered something that I hoped wouldn't happen due to the care I took with construction. My painted exterior ply is starting to rot away and the way I have constructed my boards means I'd have to rebuild entire boards. So for me there's only one thing to do. Demolish the outdoor railway. It's heart breaking but I don't want to have to rebuild boards every few years as getting the old boards out is a major operation as they weren't designed to be slid in or out of place. So the Springbridge and Faulconwood Railway will soon be no more. I may have another garden railway in the future but I'll see how I feel. However an indoor railway is a greater possibility at the present time. I've amassed a large collection of stock and a lot of it but not all will be sold. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussietmrail Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Hi Roy very sad to hear Faulconwood And Springbridge Railway maybe no more, I am hopping you can salvage the base decking and hopefully turn it into a module layout like what I am doing, taking a lot longer to build, wont have that issue with rotting timber, what's the base board made of. Yeah can agree about the heat been dam hot up here as well, actually it was hotter in Brisbane than Ipswich was, today is not much better, keeping an eye on a storm building up as I want to do some work on the module bridging the gap between the station modules and car port module. worked out a way where I can recycle the old module legs from the last layout by drilling a hole in the top of each leg and gluing in half inch ply, plenty of timber left over from the old module legs. I got a 18volt plus1 Ryobi impact drive for Christmas, the best electric tool I have bought, a long time coming, I don't think the Ryobi drill would off lasted much long using as screw drive drill, use it a drill now and countersinking holes. Fingers crossed your layout can be saved, as you said an indoor layout may replace the outdoor layout, I think the same issues will be with the bigger garden scales not just 00 scale, bloody heat and the weather is the killer and nature . Going outside to set up the module and of leg timbers to do some work after tea, I wish I had some spare money them to buy some of your trains, Mick has been doing the same, I would like some more locos ,got about 45+ now, 6 of the locos are duel motored, tough being on a budget, I will get there. Tony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 Well the demolition has started with the removing of the old rails. Naturally I have to unsolder the bus wires and the bonded rail joints. So far I have 91 individual pieces of Peco set track double length straights. The canted curves will go to the dump as they are weakened with too many holes in them. I didn't use much code 100 streamline mainly only on the curves. All the points and many were medium radius have been saved. The large radius points were given to a friend who built a layout with many old and badly working points. They are all in top working condition having been greased for outdoor use. It's a back breaking and heart breaking task getting 54 galvanised/concreted stumps out of the ground. So far two are remaining in the ground with the top wooden leg having broken off in trying to remove them. The remaining metal tube protruding from the concrete has been cut flush with an angle grinder. Next is to order a walk in skip and I borrowed a trolley to make it easier to get the stumps into the skip as they weigh around 50kgs each. I may have to hire an electric jackhammer to get the concrete out of the garden level part as the concrete is higher than the surrounding ground. Many of the rocks that I concreted in with be broken up into smaller rocks to make garden boarders. As for a new layout I've been looking at the garage as a possible location, but it will need modifying with insulation in the walls and ceiling. It has no power so that will have to be done. A small inverter air conditioner will also be needed as will a whirly ventilator on the roof. Naturally the garage is much smaller than the garden railway measuring only 17' long x 11 feet wide. Another possibility is a room in the house which is 12 feet long by 10 feet wide and was once the main bedroom now a storage room. After over 30 years in this house I've gathered a lot of what can only be termed JUNK. It's worth sweet FA and will go into the skip that I'll hire. On the rolling stock front most of my LNER/eastern region stock will go as will a lot of the Southern stock and some of the standards. I will keep the GW/western locos and LMS/midland locos and coaches and the diesels. Some of the freight stock will go too. Roy. PS I don't know if anyone wants to see photos of the demolition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ba14eagle Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Roy My heart goes out to you. I have recently had to do exactly what you are doing. Hours, years even, of hard work ripped up / apart - sometimes in minutes. It really does your head in. I have been looking at property to rent and buy recently. I am going to be renting for sometime to come, so have very little prospect of building much of anything and all the prospective properties to buy, none has a decent garden in which to build - I have been very spoiled! So, before I hijack your thread too much, I will just say, keep your chin up and think about the fun you got out of what you had Oh and before I go, I will say to all our English based friends, I am always open to invites to come and play on your railway, if you can put up with my diesels Got to get a fix somehow this Summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 So sorry to read this Roy. Having dismantled my Selby layout more than 3 years ago I know how it feels to dismantle something in mere minutes that took many, many hours to put together. But if you feel it isn't going to work, and if, due to the problems you've recently experienced, your heart is no longer in it, then it is time to move on to something new. Running outdoors in the smaller scale is always going to be an ongoing battle against the elements no matter which part of the world we live in. Personally I enjoy the challenges it presents but I know not everyone will feel that way. I've learned that it's best to keep things simple and manageable and even though my current layout, once completed, will be on a much smaller scale than yours, there's still a whole lot that can go wrong. cleanerg6e said: ....PS I don't know if anyone wants to see photos of the demolition. I think I would just so that it all sinks in, and I think your thread needs to come to its conclusion, but that's entirely up to you. I wish you all the best with your future plans for an indoor layout and hope that you'll stick around to keep us up to date with progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanR Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Yes, share some photos Roy, then we can all share your heartache. R.I.P. The Faulconwood & Springbridge Railway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Sad to see the railway going away, but perhaps you'll make something equally as interesting either in or out of doors. I struggle over my own layout due to other issues. But I plan to keep hacking away at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 Hi all the demolition continues. The weather is a bit "how's your father" or dicey at the present time with passing showers. Well I've thought more about a replacement railway as model railways have been with me since I was a little boy 40+ years ago. I've been looking increasingly at my garage to house the new railway. In the local paper is a house for sale and the garage had been used as a home hair dressers salon but the real estate info said it wouldn't take too much to reconvert it back to a car garage. On you tube is an indoor layout built in Northern Ireland in a garage with roughly the same dimensions as mine. The man who built it built his own 12 level helix but then realised that once the trains were in the helix they were out of view. So he scrapped the helix and has built a nolix instead. That's the railway running around the garage and gradually gaining height in the process. For him a 1 in 50 gradient or a 1 inch rise every 50 inches. He runs up to date UK trains so diesels which have good pulling power. I however run a lot of steam which as we all know when they come to a gradient of any significance they can't climb it. So having a look on you tube I had a good look at the DCC Concepts idea of the "Power Base". There are stainless steel magnets under the track and magnets also under the locos. I think what it does is it pulls the loco down onto the track. The effect is startling. A Hornby Duchess can only manage 3 coaches up a 1 in 30 grade in it's unmodified state. But fitted with magnets it can pull 8 coaches without a slip. Now whilst this is meant for indoors it could be handy for the outdoor modeller in that is could be used in a garden shed with the top boards being for the running line out into the garden and a second lower board to store all the stock which is not in use. Here's a video of the Hornby Duchess on that 1 in 30 gradient. Whilst on you tube take a look on the DCC Concepts channel for the video on how to install the "Power Base". Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 As members on this forum have asked to see some photos of the demolition progress well here they are. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 There is a video on you tube of an indoor/outdoor railway in Tring and the man who built it said that some of the track was over 30 years old and had been on several layouts so obviously it had never had any ballast in it's life. His railway is mainly in his garage with a run out into his back garden. I'm pretty sure I shared a video of it which shows a low resolution cab ride from a first generation DMU with added sounds of the real thing. He too has said that he's had to replace all the outside timber. It may sound strange but I'm rather excited about the prospect of a new railway in my garage. Where I live is pretty open to the public and when on holidays I was always worried about the outdoor railway as it could be easily seen from the road in front of my house. A couple of times I had people just wander in off the street to have a look. I always thought that vandals could do the same thing. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussietmrail Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Hi Roy, sad to see the layout being pulled up like that, noticed you have used those locks for a edging for a garden, could you use some of the sections for an indoor layout and so it can be recycled again, what's the plan for the yard are you going to re-grass it That is what I am doing joining the old module layout legs to make up the framing for the car port corner modules, a bit heavy as the legs are 42mm square, joining them together with half inch dowel, has worked out well, as least they wont move when setting them up, not all the modules will have the old legs as a timber frame. The weather has been pleasant up here in the low 30's but humidity is high, going out to set up some of the station modules, lay some track to put the Indian Pacific on, should look good, station complex is 18feet long with 3, 6ft modules all up 6, 6ft modules .Will look awesome when finished with station building, planning to have a big shelter like at Sydney central, platform covering and lights, night time projects. Could you put the link on again of that blokes Tring layout, haven't found it. on your post Not good a person walking in off the street, I am lucky have 6ft fencing all around, be looking forward to seeing some progress when you start on the new layout indoors, will the layout be the same name, could you come out into the yard with the new layout from the shed, see that before in pics. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 In photo three of the stumps, on the left of the photo are small stumps. A builder friend of mine said that they weren't deep enough in the ground ( the ones that supported Faulconwood station and loops) so I made them deeper as you can see with the stumps on the right of the photo. I've been cursing that builder because the ones with the small amount of concrete just needed to be pushed over and out they came. The the others needed to be dug out with a mattock, spade and a large heavy crow-bar to lever them out of the ground and a back breaking task it's been. I have to be glad that only some are deep in the ground as I have 54 stumps to remove, OMG. The new boards for the new railway in the garage will have to be made from scratch as the old boards aren't wide enough as the new boards will be 2ft or 600mm in width and I won't be using a wooden supporting frame in the traditional sense except across the roller door at the front. I'll be using metal supporting brackets off the garage wall for the rest and will have three levels of railway with an incline from the bottom board to the top board using DCC Concepts Power Base stainless steel magnets. The gradient will be 1 in 40 or a 1 inch rise every 40 inches. Every board will be scenic not just the top level boards. I'll have two lift out sections one for the side door which will become the main entry/exit and the other one will be for my airbrush spray booth/modelling bench and I will retain my NCE Pro cab radio for control. When I start something more permanent for the new layout I'll end this thread and move to the indoor section of the forum. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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