Garden railway version 3.0

[dunnyrail]

Re planting, have you thought of some ‘Mind your own Business’ or Soleirolia soleirolii to give it its complex name, great ground cover in a shaded place. Another as you have a Welsh theme going on is ‘Platts black’ or Leptinella squalida which is a rather nice small Fern type plant.

 

[natdawson]

Re planting, have you thought of some ‘Mind your own Business’ or Soleirolia soleirolii to give it its complex name, great ground cover in a shaded place. Another as you have a Welsh theme going on is ‘Platts black’ or Leptinella squalida which is a rather nice small Fern type plant.

I'll have a look at those. There's not much room left for anything at the moment providing the existing plants spread in the way they are supposed to, if they don't behave I'll have to see what else I can use.

 

[natdawson]

I managed to get a bit more done on the retaining wall during the week which has had the bonus effect of hiding the gap underneath the floating baseboards. A lot more to do but it's definitely getting a more finished look.

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I couldn't really find a way in which to build the wall at this location without some form of corbelling of the upper layers of slate. The base layer is pretty much inline with the front of the slate fencing at this point. To make it slightly more complicated there needed to be another opening for a plant to pass through.

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The original idea of another archway was quickly dismissed as being far too fiddly especially with the limited room. It became obvious that the sleeper wall of the raised bed is higher at this end and so gives less room for making a curved arch and so instead went for a simple opening instead.

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For some reason of which I'm still not sure why, I gradually transitioned the corbelled wall into a normal wall, whereas at the other end there is a clear change. In hindsight I should have mirrored the other end but it's fairly well stuck together now and I really don't want to have to break it all up, remove the dregs of the adhesive and do it all again. If it bugs me too much I will change it but for now it can stay as it is.

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Having left the previous slate wall to dry for a couple of days I was able to finish the rest of the wall and take it up to full height. As with the far end of the retaining wall it stops at the beginning of a soil embankment, incidentally this is also where the sleeper wall finishes leaving nothing to build up from so it all works out quite nicely.

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Whilst I'm happy with this end of the wall I think I might end up taking the top few layers off of the corbelled section and rebuilding it with thinner slate blocks as I'm still not overly pleased with how it has turned out. I have plenty of slate left over which can be cut down, but I have run out of CT1 adhesive so need to get some more before I can do anything else and besides it sounds very much like a problem for future me.

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At the other end of the raised bed the other return loop still has a floating but without the benefit of having a raised bed underneath to help. It is currently supported on a couple of fence posts but it looks far from the finished article it needs to be. This section will end up being some kind of low profile bridge but it still needs to be done in a decent way and in a way that will blend in with the garden as well as possible.

To mark the beginning of the bridge section a slate parapet with capping slab is being built at the edge of the raised bed. At the moment both bits of parapet wall are just above the base board, but again the lack of CT1 adhesive has stopped play, which is probably just as well I need to make some adjustments to both the base board and track alignment. Once the adjustments have been made and parapet walls completed then the slate fencing can be finished off although there wont be much more ballasting done until the bridge detailing has progressed.

So that's it for the moment, some fiddly time consuming work to do on the bridge section and more than likely some retaining wall to re build but it's getting there, even if it is a slow process at times.

 

[PhilP]

That is very impressive..
Given a season to mellow, and a few plants to soften the edges, I don't think you will need to do a great deal more?

If the bridge is to be low profile (rather than actually seriously load-bearing) then you could consider scribed foamboard?

See what Mike has Achieved at Lazy Grange Bay..

PhilP

 

[dunnyrail]

As Philip says Foamboard the Plastic Coated stuff can make super bridges and buildings plus is stable in sunlight. I can see a mini hung on to the wood Whistling Curve like structure working here for you. Just love the Archways and I know you will revisit the one you bottled out of when you reduce the size of slates to loose the corbeling.

See what I did there, just made you a load more work! I’m good at that. Better still at watching said work.

 

[Jasper]

I gradually transitioned the corbelled wall into a normal wall, whereas at the other end there is a clear change. In hindsight I should have mirrored the other end

Honestly, I don't think that mirroring the other end matters too much here. Such differences are entirely prototypical, they are everywhere. You have achieved a beautifully finished look.

 

[natdawson]

That is very impressive..
Given a season to mellow, and a few plants to soften the edges, I don't think you will need to do a great deal more?

If the bridge is to be low profile (rather than actually seriously load-bearing) then you could consider scribed foamboard?

See what Mike has Achieved at Lazy Grange Bay..

PhilP

Thanks Phil, for the most part it is now waiting for the planting to do its thing and spread out to cover the bare soil areas which will help a lot.
I've got some ideas for the bridge and have had a bit of a play with something today which is promising but didn't have much time before light faded, it's going to be a bit fiddly but will hopefully be work it once it's done.

 

[natdawson]

As Philip says Foamboard the Plastic Coated stuff can make super bridges and buildings plus is stable in sunlight. I can see a mini hung on to the wood Whistling Curve like structure working here for you. Just love the Archways and I know you will revisit the one you bottled out of when you reduce the size of slates to loose the corbeling.
View attachment 325464
See what I did there, just made you a load more work! I’m good at that. Better still at watching said work.

I'm leaving the retaining wall for the moment to see if it annoys me enough to make me redo it, if I do then I'll try and have a go at the third arch but it won't be easy due to lack of room.
Having a go at trying some ideas for the bridge first while the weather is good and I have time to think it through.

 

[natdawson]

Honestly, I don't think that mirroring the other end matters too much here. Such differences are entirely prototypical, they are everywhere. You have achieved a beautifully finished look.

Thanks Jasper, overall I'm happy with what I've done, but there are a few little bits I'm not so keen on. They might get tackled, on the other hand I might get a bit too lazy to bother about it, for now at least.

 

[ge_rik]

Is it corbelling or is it cornicing? I had to look it up as I wasn't sure. But having looked it up I'm still not certain.
Sorry, why are there so many pedants on these forums (or should that be fora)?

Anyway, whatever it's called, it looks fantastic. I especially like the archways for the plants. I hope they appreciate it ...

Rik

 

[Rhinochugger]

Is it corbelling or is it cornicing? I had to look it up as I wasn't sure. But having looked it up I'm still not certain.
Sorry, why are there so many pedants on these forums (or should that be fora)?

Anyway, whatever it's called, it looks fantastic. I especially like the archways for the plants. I hope they appreciate it ...

Rik

A Corbel is structural, while a cornice is decorative .................. according to da interwebby thing

In other words, if you remove a cornice nothing falls down.

If you remove a corbel, .................... run like stink

 

[Chris Vernell]

(or should that be fora)?

If your name is IVLIVS, yes.