Layout Build another Railway from Luton

dunnyrail

DOGS, Garden Railways, Steam Trains, Jive Dancing,
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This will be a very long burn thread, I have started it to show Igor some of my home made track that I built for this line but it occured to me that it would be better to eventually do a thread on all the line. But well out of sequence here is some of the track build.

I used Bonds Flat Bottom Rail which was held down with 7 shaped pins on self cut hardwood sleepers from square siding stock as they may say in USA.

Below you can see early alterations to the line (I said thos would be out of sequence!) where the original spiral was being being converted to a bigger oval one to go round a pond. There would also be a mixed gauge loop in this. The point-work had a x and 4 points so that a train going up the garden could go over the crossing, run round the continuous loop then go over the crossing again to continue its climb up the garden without repeating any track except the crossing. This gave a nice long run from one terminus to another via a reverce loop at the top of the Garden. A bunch of friends that came to run live steam a few time always said thatbthey felt that their traisn have travelled from somewhere to somewhere via a good long run. Certainly with a load one out and back pretty well took up a 20-30 minute steaming of a Roundhouse loco.
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Here you can see pretty well all the track in the Station. It could be used as a conventional 45 mm passing loop as well with 2 sidings, 1 45mm tye other mixed 45mm 32mm. I did not wish to tackle any more mixed track on the xing, those 2 points were more than enough.
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Here is the other side of the pond with the 45battery diesel on the mixed track. The 45 only climbed up the garden to the reverce loop to the right. Oh that Loco is an IP Wagon Master now in Casey Jones collection though with a new chassis I believe.
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Code 200 FB Rail and 8mm square sleepers by 90mm long showing where the brass pins were inserted. This track proved to be a real pain as the brass pins kept being lifted by weather making sleepers wet then dry. Before every session I had to go round with a pair of pliers and hammer to get them back in place. In the end I got fed up and all the track was replaced with Peco G45, end of the mixed as well. But at least I could run trains though only Live Steam and Battery in them days. I have come round full circle and ditched track power again. I did try it here but failed by getting bored having to bond the rail. Had clamps been available at that time I may well have percevered.
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wow, that rail really has sharp corners on the head of the rail, I know several 1:1 track people that would worry about wheel wear... normally the top of the rail head is curved, to allow more wheel contact, i.e. spread the force/wear over a wider area.

Do you have any pictures that show the rail after years of service?

Greg
 

justme igor

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Beautiful work, especially on your ties/sleepers, they look very natural, how did you do this?
This is something that is pretty hard to replicate.
I even tried to have a un uniform placement of the ties/sleepers before i cut the slots of the ties to get them more uneven...
But not much of a success...
Could you tell me how you did it? or is my way simply to difficult to replicate this?

But somehow in one turnout (the right hand) the safety rail on the descending?(leaving or turn out side) track of a turnout seems a bit to short, but i think this was ment to be this way.
Could you tell me more about the why.

Yes those pesky nails can work there way out with the working of the wood, there are nails now a days with extra resistance hooks for better holding into the wood.
I even found a nail gun that would be fit for this job, if you are interested i will look for it, if i can find it again, incl nails with a small corner/head incl extra "pull out" resistance.


Thanks
 

dunnyrail

DOGS, Garden Railways, Steam Trains, Jive Dancing,
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25 Oct 2009
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St.Neots Cambridgeshire UK
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Beautiful work, especially on your ties/sleepers, they look very natural, how did you do this?
This is something that is pretty hard to replicate.
I even tried to have a un uniform placement of the ties/sleepers before i cut the slots of the ties to get them more uneven...
But not much of a success...
Could you tell me how you did it? or is my way simply to difficult to replicate this?
basically it was the time that they had spent outside in all weathers. On some later ties that I got I had a batch of wood bought at an outdoor sale (we call the boot sale (for car boot)) being sold for kindling to start a fire. It had been ripped from rough wood and really looked that part. However when I got those sticks I had pretty well almost given up on home made track for the garde.
But somehow in one turnout (the right hand) the safety rail on the descending?(leaving or turn out side) track of a turnout seems a bit to short, but i think this was ment to be this way.
Could you tell me more about the why.
I think they were all the same, just needed to be in the right place to do the job and these were like that. I am not so fussy about the perfection of where things be, for me things must work and be buildable in as short a time as possible.
Yes those pesky nails can work there way out with the working of the wood, there are nails now a days with extra resistance hooks for better holding into the wood.
I even found a nail gun that would be fit for this job, if you are interested i will look for it, if i can find it again, incl nails with a small corner/head incl extra "pull out" resistance.


Thanks
I do have an Air Operated Nail Gun, but as I said I am not building track any more.