Making a mountain out of a mole hill

Nemo

Nemo

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Since the extension of my railway opened in May this year my other half has always said that the center of the loop didn't look right and would look better filled in. What she ment was a fill in with soil and some lovley plants / flowers, however I had other ideas............:bigsmile:
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Firstly the cattle had to rounded up, bit of a difficult job when you've had a few beers, the dam things wouldn't hold still.........:confused:
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Then I dug out a bit of spare wood I had lying about, and scrounged some of the father in law. chuck in on the ground and see what it looks like. I had ideas in me head, but to put them into practice was a different thing.
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The in me head plan was sort of (you really have to use your imagination quite a lot here) to run along a cliff face, like a ridge cut out of the mountain side, the onto the curved viaduct and coming off the viaduct into a cliff face tunnel (like Landwasser but slightly smaller). the line then ran under the mountain next to the fence before emerging in a deep cutting rock face tunnel mouth, bit like the Welsh Highland tunnels on the Aberglaslyn pass.
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First up was to construct a skeleton frame work
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The West tunnel mouth under construction and rock face ridge.........
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The West tunnel mouth now with chicken wire on it, starts to take shape.
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It was at this point that I realized that although me mountain would be hollow inside, real ones are not and I needed to put some sides inside the tunnel for two feet at least from the mouth to make it look as if its carved through rock. Here are the wooden frames, covered in chicken wire, then an old cotton sheet which is then covered in a wet morter mix and left for two days to dry off
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With the insides of the tunnel now screwed into position, clearance testing began.........:bigsmile:
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The tunnel will be about 8 feet in length, but only next to the mouths will have sides
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Flipping heck Steve how did you get that passed the authorities
 
Bram said:
Flipping heck Steve how did you get that passed the authorities
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Err I didn't sort of, I waited until she went to work one nice day and went for it. Im still getting earache two weeks latter.........:rolf:
 
So to make the moter I used 2 x building sand and two x sharp sand, 1 and a bit cement and a bit of water.
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To this wet mix I added a good dollop of PVA glue, a squirt of washing up liquid and two splashes of brown cement dye.
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Looks like chocolate spread when first putting it on, doesn't taste like it though...........:bigsmile:
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Testing of clearances one the first part of the cliff side, the cement is still wet at this time just incase any adjustments was required, everything was OK though...:thumbup:
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Simply Brilliant Steve , gets better picture by picture :thumbup:
 
Yeh it really is great! Looking forward to seeing it move on! One thing did cross my mind that would it be worth sticking an upright under the timber that runs along your fence? Can't see it properly but could it sag over time? Sorry just looked again, it's not going sag. I'll shut up...

keep posting....
 
Looking really good, Steve. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
Can't wait to see more pics. :impatient:
Have you allowed for access to the tunnel for any problems or do you have a twizzle attachment. :bigsmile:
 
Great work :thumbup:
Reminds me of the mountain in the film Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
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Following with great interest........

More to follow ;)
 
Nemo said:
Bram said:
Flipping heck Steve how did you get that passed the authorities
Click to expand...
Err I didn't sort of, I waited until she went to work one nice day and went for it. Im still getting earache two weeks latter.........:rolf:
Click to expand...
Well she must have liked the end result (grudgingly) as you are still here to tell the story :bigsmile:
 
It certainly appears to be a concrete solution to the problem.

David
 
Looking good, Steve -- Is this going to turn into a cliffhanger!?
 
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