Arosaish Bahn

[grizzmo]

The weather has not been favorable for garden railway fun, but some progress has been made.

Arosa station has been converted to a mini shade house, to make it easier to look after the many pine cuttings I have started.

Some work has been started on the tunnel into Arosa station. In the background to the right.

Also started on a tunnel at this end too, early stages yet.


The temporary bridge was ballasted as it will have to be in place a lot longer than I hoped. I slightly changed the blockwall here to make the gap for the bridge look bigger and it now also makes for very convenient steps up onto this side of the railway.


When I get the track pinned down here I will ballast this section like the bridge with pea gravel. As this section of track will be altered in the future. Loose over scale ballast but it will look better than no ballast and is quick and easy to do.

Langwies station will in the future get a extension out over where the flowers are now by about 500mm. So I cleared away all the sidings and track bed and just left a temporary single track through. This will be the siding closest to the station in the future and the loops will be out over the flowers.
I Have laid blocks for the station and old Traffo tower. This area was getting over run with weeds so its nice to get it all cleared away. I have planted some ground covers here and mulched it with pea gravel.
There is now enough space to model some houses and the sheds at the back of the station and have a backdrop of mini pine trees.

Most of the rocks are in place now around the railway now, just need a few days without any rain to be able to mortar them in.

 

[Rhinochugger]

The weather has not been favorable for garden railway fun, but some progress has been made.
View attachment 348653
Arosa station has been converted to a mini shade house, to make it easier to look after the many pine cuttings I have started.
View attachment 348654
Some work has been started on the tunnel into Arosa station. In the background to the right.
View attachment 348655
Also started on a tunnel at this end too, early stages yet.

View attachment 348656
The temporary bridge was ballasted as it will have to be in place a lot longer than I hoped. I slightly changed the blockwall here to make the gap for the bridge look bigger and it now also makes for very convenient steps up onto this side of the railway.

View attachment 348658
When I get the track pinned down here I will ballast this section like the bridge with pea gravel. As this section of track will be altered in the future. Loose over scale ballast but it will look better than no ballast and is quick and easy to do.
View attachment 348657
Langwies station will in the future get a extension out over where the flowers are now by about 500mm. So I cleared away all the sidings and track bed and just left a temporary single track through. This will be the siding closest to the station in the future and the loops will be out over the flowers.
I Have laid blocks for the station and old Traffo tower. This area was getting over run with weeds so its nice to get it all cleared away. I have planted some ground covers here and mulched it with pea gravel.
There is now enough space to model some houses and the sheds at the back of the station and have a backdrop of mini pine trees.

Most of the rocks are in place now around the railway now, just need a few days without any rain to be able to mortar them in.

Faithful doggo asking - when can I chase trains?

 

[grizzmo]

Faithful doggo asking - when can I chase trains?

Nah, we hadn't been for our daily walk yet. He keeps a close eye on me, just in case I sneak out without him

 

[grizzmo]

A nicer weather day today, got the arvo to get some work done.

Track getting fixed down, Doggo has other ideas for what we should be doing.



Bridge abutments in, track fixed down and a quick loose ballast job with pea gravel done.
Running a train to see if the loose ballast would cause a derailment, all good.


I think it looks much nicer now and will be much easier to maintain. Plus now there's room behind the station for houses and trees.
The blocks I got to do the extension here will be put to a better use at the other end as a retaining wall so I can extend Arosa station.
The extension here can be done another year. Langwies can stay as a through station only for the mean time.
Next job is to mortar in the rocks at back and get the tunnel done. Those rocks on top are just balancing there and are big enough to damage the track if they fall.
That's if it doesn't rain that is, 2 dry days in a row might be asking for too much

(edit I read through what I wrote and thought that's dumb so I removed the tunnel rocks for now)

 

[grizzmo]

2 rain free days in a row, so I dived i and got some more rocks mortared in.



Tunnel done and the wall finished here. I have purposely left the tunnel too high, so I can run a train pan up. Later on I will make some tunnel mouths out of foam and fill in any gaps with small rocks.



Very nearly finished filling all gaps here, but run out of mortar and didn't have another mix in me today.
Just leaves the entrance to Arosa station and a little bit here, so 1 more barrow mix to go.
Time for a rest I am knackered now, worth it thou.
Nice to be very close to finishing the landscaping work. Well until I extend that is , but that's fun for another year.

 

[grizzmo]

Some more progress has been made this week.






I have pressure cleaned all the rocks, which has toned down the bright orange look of a lot of them.
Not sure how much it shows in the photos. In real life I am very happy with the more drab look of them now.
Also finished off the mortaring the rocks together, yay





Made a start on ballasting the track properly today.
This is a test section to try out materials.
The ballast is crusher dust with the large bits and fine dust sieved out. I kept the dust to use as roads and cover the exposed besser blocks beside the ballast.
The first photo is the ballast after it was spread and brushed into place.
The second photo is just after it is misted with water and slightly diluted Davco Lanko 751,( a SBR latex additive), is poured on from a old squeeze sauce bottle.
I will give it a few days to see how it goes and if successful, I will start working my way around.

 

[casey jones snr]

Stewie your railway is coming along nicely, the pictures are great.

 

[grizzmo]

Thanks Paul, I have been lucky with the time I can spend on it.

 

[dunnyrail]

Hopefully the rain will stay away till your glue dries. If you have problems just do when the weather warmer and dry. I have these issues in UK, with heading into Winter over here my relayed station is part ballasted and will now have to wait till next summer.

 

[grizzmo]

Hopefully the rain will stay away till your glue dries. If you have problems just do when the weather warmer and dry. I have these issues in UK, with heading into Winter over here my relayed station is part ballasted and will now have to wait till next summer.

Tomorrow is forecast as dry and today was a couple of very short light showers, i did it this morning and checked it tonight it seemed pretty set. It has been a warm day today, I left it covered in plastic just in case. I will uncover it it the morning and should cook nicely in the sun tomorrow.

 

[grizzmo]

It was a mostly sunny day and I had a spare hour or so,

When just done.

Later on as it was nearly dried.

This is new to me, so I am trying out techniques and materials I have seen used by others and learning as I go.

I used some of the fines I had sieved out of the ballast earlier. Sprinkled over the blocks and along the edge of the pea gravel, smoothed out with the brushes.
It was then misted with water till it looked damp.
First try I used the slightly watered down mix I used on the ballast, it didn't flow that well. Went to a 50/50 mix and that flowed nicely, area behind the track.

With the benefit of hindsight, moving forward I will do the base layer before the ballasting.


The tools of the trade, no expense spared .
The highly technical mix I used on the ballast is, fill to the " tomato sauce" on the label with davco lanko 751 and top off to full with water.

I am hoping when it dries it will look like compacted roadbase.
Watching cab ride videos of the RhB, I see they often prep a much larger footprint in roadbase than the ballasted track covers.


This lot was sieved out of about 1/2 of a 20 L bucket of what we call "crusher dust" here, bigger bits discarded to the fill pile.
I got 2 buckets from the local landscape supplier, for free ages ago. If I remember rightly i think they charged $10 a bucket if your not a regular customer.
Looking at how much there still is, I think I have enough for 2-3 railways.
A bit of work to sieve it, but quite a economical way to get a nice scale ballast. I think the colour is very nice for a model of the RhB.

Will be interesting to see how it stands up to the weather.
I will leave doing any more for a while, summer is coming and as dunnyrail suggested it would be much easier then.
Also I am not sure how diluting the glue will work out, durability of the finished product wise. So leaving doing anymore for a while is probably for the best.
Thou I have to say now I have started, I am itching to get it all done .

 

[dunnyrail]

It was a mostly sunny day and I had a spare hour or so,
View attachment 348934
When just done.
View attachment 348938
Later on as it was nearly dried.

This is new to me, so I am trying out techniques and materials I have seen used by others and learning as I go.

I used some of the fines I had sieved out of the ballast earlier. Sprinkled over the blocks and along the edge of the pea gravel, smoothed out with the brushes.
It was then misted with water till it looked damp.
First try I used the slightly watered down mix I used on the ballast, it didn't flow that well. Went to a 50/50 mix and that flowed nicely, area behind the track.

With the benefit of hindsight, moving forward I will do the base layer before the ballasting.

View attachment 348935
The tools of the trade, no expense spared .
The highly technical mix I used on the ballast is, fill to the " tomato sauce" on the label with davco lanko 751 and top off to full with water.

I am hoping when it dries it will look like compacted roadbase.
Watching cab ride videos of the RhB, I see they often prep a much larger footprint in roadbase than the ballasted track covers.

View attachment 348936
This lot was sieved out of about 1/2 of a 20 L bucket of what we call "crusher dust" here, bigger bits discarded to the fill pile.
I got 2 buckets from the local landscape supplier, for free ages ago. If I remember rightly i think they charged $10 a bucket if your not a regular customer.
Looking at how much there still is, I think I have enough for 2-3 railways.
A bit of work to sieve it, but quite a economical way to get a nice scale ballast. I think the colour is very nice for a model of the RhB.

Will be interesting to see how it stands up to the weather.
I will leave doing any more for a while, summer is coming and as dunnyrail suggested it would be much easier then.
Also I am not sure how diluting the glue will work out, so leaving doing anymore for a while is probably for the best.
Thou I have to say now I have started, I am itching to get it all done .

Diluting the glue depends on what you are using, we will have different named products over here to your neck of the woods.
SBR is a builder glue that comes quite thin so can used as bought. (Looks like you may be using something like thus).
Builders Water Proof PVA is a thick glue similar to how you would buy the PVA Wood Glue, (Gorilla may be a product you may have so you could see the consistency I refer to), so best let down with 50% water and just a little washing up liquid.

 

[AlanL]

Superb railway, the rocks add such a lot to the scene and emphasise the height.

The ballasting is excellent but one word of caution. With the sleepers embedded in the ballast you might have a problem with track expansion on hot sunny days.
I learned this to my cost when I ballasted my track by back-filling and using adhesive to secure it. The expansion was concentrated at a 4 foot bridge that was between ballasted sections and all the expansion was concentrated at the bridge resulting in 4 feet of severely buckled track across the bridge.

Where your track returns across your metal frame, that section will accommodate the expansion.

As you progress, try to allow room for the track to expand, ideally on the curves, perhaps by just using the ballast below the sleepers so that they can move as the track expands.

Congratulations on creating a fantastic railway

Alan

 

[grizzmo]

Superb railway, the rocks add such a lot to the scene and emphasise the height.

The ballasting is excellent but one word of caution. With the sleepers embedded in the ballast you might have a problem with track expansion on hot sunny days.
I learned this to my cost when I ballasted my track by back-filling and using adhesive to secure it. The expansion was concentrated at a 4 foot bridge that was between ballasted sections and all the expansion was concentrated at the bridge resulting in 4 feet of severely buckled track across the bridge.

Where your track returns across your metal frame, that section will accommodate the expansion.

As you progress, try to allow room for the track to expand, ideally on the curves, perhaps by just using the ballast below the sleepers so that they can move as the track expands.

Congratulations on creating a fantastic railway

Alan

Thanks Alan and I appreciate the tips on expansion, I have left a1mm gap at a lot of rail joints. I will definitely try and take it into account as I move forward. Last thing I want is for the same thing to happen on one of the bridges here.

 

[AlanL]

I have left a1mm gap at a lot of rail joints

Good thinking, that could be where I went wrong

Edit
After thinking about it, I realised that I had left no rail gaps because I use Massoth rail clamps and assumed that they wouldn't accommodate any thermal expansion.
But the forces involved might overcome the clamps?

Alan

 

[PhilP]

Good thinking, that could be where I went wrong

Edit
After thinking about it, I realised that I had left no rail gaps because I use Massoth rail clamps and assumed that they wouldn't accommodate any thermal expansion.
But the forces involved might overcome the clamps?

Alan

Nature will always win!

PhilP.

 

[grizzmo]

Good thinking, that could be where I went wrong

Edit
After thinking about it, I realised that I had left no rail gaps because I use Massoth rail clamps and assumed that they wouldn't accommodate any thermal expansion.
But the forces involved might overcome the clamps?

Alan

Sorry Alan I have no idea on Massoth clamps I have never used them. I have only used slide on rail joiners so the rail should expand ok..

 

[Software Tools]

But the forces involved might overcome the clamps?

I have outdoor track installed with Hillman rail clamps that has been in place for over 25 years now with no problems.

 

[dunnyrail]

I think the problem for Stewie is that new Hillman’s are not available now, mostly the newer makes like Massoth and Piko plus possibly others. He does use a lot of Peco Track which outside is very realistic in size for his Swiss interest, Massoth do Peco size track clamps (as did Hillman) but I know of no other Peco compatible clamps. Plus when I bought some of the Massoth ones they were a little too large for the Webb profile and I had to use washers on the ecrews to make them work. When I mentioned this at Glendale Brian said that nobody else had complained about the problem, hm perhaps I got some from a faulty batch but I have never used Massoth for Peco since, being dead rail I can see no need so am just using Peco which should be ok for grizzmo as he is also dead rail.

Though where I have used clamps outside some places have had issues with sun and bent track, others have lifted lengths where ballasted down with glue but the whole section lifted slightly and other areas no problems at all!. None of this effecting running though.

 

[grizzmo]

I think the problem for Stewie is that new Hillman’s are not available now, mostly the newer makes like Massoth and Piko plus possibly others. He does use a lot of Peco Track which outside is very realistic in size for his Swiss interest, Massoth do Peco size track clamps (as did Hillman) but I know of no other Peco compatible clamps. Plus when I bought some of the Massoth ones they were a little too large for the Webb profile and I had to use washers on the ecrews to make them work. When I mentioned this at Glendale Brian said that nobody else had complained about the problem, hm perhaps I got some from a faulty batch but I have never used Massoth for Peco since, being dead rail I can see no need so am just using Peco which should be ok for grizzmo as he is also dead rail.

Though where I have used clamps outside some places have had issues with sun and bent track, others have lifted lengths where ballasted down with glue but the whole section lifted slightly and other areas no problems at all!. None of this effecting running though.

I think I should be ok with just peco slide on joiners and leaving a gap in the rails. Will find out soon enough thou, as we will be heading into summer shortly.