Model Railways
The Garden Railway - 2019
2018 For quite some time for varying reasons I had not been able to cut the grass, weeds and grass doing what they do, had completely taken over the garden hiding any signs of track. On the 10th October 2018 I decided that with it being such a nice day I would venture out and cut the grass.
All was going well until my hover mower started jumping around and making a horrible grinding sound, yes you've guessed it, some of the track had been damaged. On the bright side the blade being made of hardened steel was undamaged.
Chris my son visits me after work on Wednesdays and after discussion he suggested waiting until spring 2019 and raising the track to make things easier for me. We were not sure how we were going to do it, but I will need to take the rest of the track up in the meantime.
As you can see this picture was taken in August 2012
OOPS - March 2019, this picture shows the state of the garden and the damage caused with the hover mower.
All of the track has been lifted, I then replaced some loosely on the grass painting around it to give me a rough idea for the position of a basic shape for the track base.
Cutting out the trench for the track base.
The final. much simpler shape of the new track layout.
I had dug the trench too deep so I had to refill some of it and the rain had washed away my markings. As usual Chris comes to the rescue.
The track loosely laid again for Chris to spray paint the outline.
It was decided to use two tiers of cement blocks to raise the track to a suitable level for me and out of reach of the mower.
Adding the second tier of the blocks.
Both levels completed.
All gaps filled with expandable foam, this also helped to bind the blocks, this was my job.
The foam has been smoothed.
The start of a path around the outside. With the strut bridge in situ.
Starting to sort the inner garden out ready for grass seed.
I have painted the blocks with masonry paint,
We had decided to cap the blocks with marine ply for a better finish.
I made this basic flatbed wagon to mark out the wood for the curved tack.
The marine ply with its recommended 3 coats of yacht varnish being marked out for the curves, these were cut with a jig saw. The straights were cut on a bench saw.
Chris fitting the boards before screwing them down. The varnish didn't look right so I painted the boards with 2 coats of paint over the varnish.
The boards almost ready to be screwed down.
Fitted and screwed down just as it was getting dark. The bridge is just sitting in its position for the photograph.
To further waterproof the joints in the boards I have filled them with Gorilla glue. The clips on the right are holding pieces of hardboard underneath the boards to keep the glue from dropping through until dries. I didn't have enough clips to do it all at once. Here the left had been done, now the right hand side.
A close up showing the clips. You can also see in the centre of the boards where I have put Gorilla glue over the screws that are holding them in place.
Waiting for the glue to dry properly
The glue has dried, been sanded and painted including the glue on the screws.
Starting to sort the garden out and preparing for a new lawn.
2020
I didn't intend to split this topic but unfortunately again this year there have also been many unavoidable delays that were out of our control including lockdown etc, due to Coronavirus (COVID - 19).
Hopefully I will soon be able to publish 2020 progress with the track finally in place.
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Published 07/11/2020