PDR Highland extension up and running

[owlpool]

Nice work Paul, looks like you have a miniature 'Devils Tower' (think of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' film) at the back there?

Yours Peter B

Stumped for an answer to that one

 

[owlpool]

Wow Paul!!!!

thanks for bringing your 'development' thread back - I hadn't seen it before.... really impressive extension - are you going to make it to Talyllyn (on the Mid Wales Railway I mean of course!!!)

Bendegedig (think that's how it is spelt).... Brilliant!

Rob

p.s. "comes of having a daughter who is a geologist all rocks from around here - we're on the border of the carboniferous limestone and old red sandstone areas, with a fair bit of silica thrown in...." One of our daughter-in-laws is a dentist, does that mean I should have a load of old gnashers on my setup?

cheers
plenty of cavities to fill between the rocks

 

[Chris Vernell]

... heavy cast concrete and can't be eaten by the dog

Doesn't mean the dog won't give it the old college try, though ... :thinking:

 

[minimans]

Blimey mate your going to have an Englishman climb up that lot and call it a mountain..............................

 

[owlpool]

... heavy cast concrete and can't be eaten by the dog

Doesn't mean the dog won't give it the old college try, though ... :thinking:

the worst she could do is scratch the paint

[the captain of the USS Iowa was asked what damage an Exocet would do to the side of his ship - he replied that it would take about a day to touch up the paint]

 

[owlpool]

Blimey mate your going to have an Englishman climb up that lot and call it a mountain..............................

I might get more funds voted for the railway from SWMBO if Huge Grunt turned up

 

[Chris Vernell]

Blimey mate your going to have an Englishman climb up that lot and call it a mountain..............................

I might get more funds voted for the railway from SWMBO if Huge Grunt turned up

My lot favour Johnny Depp ...

Should've said earlier that I like that mountain line.
Building a small rockery myself, having dug chunks of primordial rock up when excavating the cutting on my layout. Safe planting season around here is late May; we have had a most unusual early and mild spring (not one snowflake in March ... that hasn't happened in memory of oldest inhabitant) and it's very tempting to hit the nurseries, but we've had killer May frosts in quite recent memory, so I'm a bit leery of spending too much on plants right now.
I hope to trench in some conduit this weekend or next from the garden shed to the layout , so I can run low-voltage wiring safe from the hazards of errant shovels, then start laying track.
Grandchildren (ours and neighbours') very anxious to see trains running. Trouble is, I can only play on weekends, wot with split shifts and all, and Ma Nature being who she is, it generally rains on weekends and is fine during the week And then there's the honey-do lists, and the grocery shopping ... ... "and when are you going to get that layout done?" she says.

 

[owlpool]

Blimey mate your going to have an Englishman climb up that lot and call it a mountain..............................

I might get more funds voted for the railway from SWMBO if Huge Grunt turned up

My lot favour Johnny Depp ...

Should've said earlier that I like that mountain line.
Building a small rockery myself, having dug chunks of primordial rock up when excavating the cutting on my layout. Safe planting season around here is late May; we have had a most unusual early and mild spring (not one snowflake in March ... that hasn't happened in memory of oldest inhabitant) and it's very tempting to hit the nurseries, but we've had killer May frosts in quite recent memory, so I'm a bit leery of spending too much on plants right now.
I hope to trench in some conduit this weekend or next from the garden shed to the layout , so I can run low-voltage wiring safe from the hazards of errant shovels, then start laying track.
Grandchildren (ours and neighbours') very anxious to see trains running. Trouble is, I can only play on weekends, wot with split shifts and all, and Ma Nature being who she is, it generally rains on weekends and is fine during the week And then there's the honey-do lists, and the grocery shopping ... ... "and when are you going to get that layout done?" she says.

Thanks Chris I know the feeling - everything gets in the way
we're off to the Lake District with M&B for a week - so a hiatus for a while
still - when we come back maybe the railway will be covered in volcanic ash and I can get the snowplough out !
If the ash gets the dog maybe we can make a mould of her like at Pompeii - it'd stop her eating the scenery too

 

[Chris Vernell]

still - when we come back maybe the railway will be covered in volcanic ash and I can get the snowplough out !
If the ash gets the dog maybe we can make a mould of her like at Pompeii - it'd stop her eating the scenery too

From what I've read, that ash would eat anything mechanical ...
Today turned out to be sunny and not too warm, so I found my rabbiting spade and dug the trench from shed to layout (lots of non-volcanic chunks of rock, one about the size of me head), and assembled some sections of wiring conduit. Will attempt to complete the conduit laying this week ... next weekend's forecast is for ... you guessed it ... rain :

 

[dragon]

This is coming on really nicely. A lot of hard work and planning,

 

[owlpool]

still - when we come back maybe the railway will be covered in volcanic ash and I can get the snowplough out !
If the ash gets the dog maybe we can make a mould of her like at Pompeii - it'd stop her eating the scenery too

From what I've read, that ash would eat anything mechanical ...
Today turned out to be sunny and not too warm, so I found my rabbiting spade and dug the trench from shed to layout (lots of non-volcanic chunks of rock, one about the size of me head), and assembled some sections of wiring conduit. Will attempt to complete the conduit laying this week ... next weekend's forecast is for ... you guessed it ... rain :

B sends love
nice week in Lakes
looking forward to seeing pics of your efforts

 

[owlpool]

This is coming on really nicely. A lot of hard work and planning,

cheers Fred
loads more to do, too

 

[dragon]

This is coming on really nicely. A lot of hard work and planning,

cheers Fred
loads more to do, too

I'm trying to judge the amount of very hard work that has already gone into it. Mind boggling!

 

[owlpool]

This is coming on really nicely. A lot of hard work and planning,

cheers Fred
loads more to do, too

I'm trying to judge the amount of very hard work that has already gone into it. Mind boggling!

I dread to think
however - time well spent relaxing away from the job, and with my 19yr old son and co-director

 

[Chris Vernell]

looking forward to seeing pics of your efforts

Nothing like as Herculean as your labours ... but progress has been made, and pix have been taken. Just gotta figger out how to get them on line.
Meanwhile, looks like May is determined to make up for all the precipitation we didn't get in March and April. Sometimes I think I should've gone into model boats instead 8|
However, track is down, low-voltage wiring has been run through the conduit from my shed, various adjustments have been made to the Master Plan (i.e. I have scaled down some of my ambitions in the light of cold reality; you've heard of the cashless society )
Next move: build a switch panel and a water-resistant structure to go over it, previous wooden structure having shown signs of advanced decrepitude; install shelving in shed to hold any power gizmo carrying any sort of mains voltage
And a happy Bank Holiday to you (it isn't one here, but I'm taking Monday off anyway; something to do with wedding anniversaries).

 

[owlpool]

hi chris
sounds like you've got a lot done

weather grotty here, cold windy and wet
and I've got a man-cold
so nil done here
hoping for better tomorrow, BH monday - have a nice day off and anniversary

 

[Chris Vernell]

weather grotty here, cold windy and wet

Just spent the better part of three days out of doors. Ah, bliss.
The weather was much better than the forecast; some rain in the mornings, followed by nice, warm sunshine. Great planting conditions. So the missus and I revived an old spring habit and drove out, just the two of us, around the countryside to various nursery gardens we used to frequent, picking up quantities of ground covers and other supposedly winter-hardy perennials (around here, that means able to endure -30 or, on occasion, -40). Then I spent pleasant hours on my hands and knees trowelling holes (unearthing more d*mn stones from the last ice age) and plugging the flora in at the south, high end of my a-borning railway.
So far, everything looks happy ...
The missus wants to go back and buy some low-growing shrubs to put alongside the above-ground section of the layout and make the trestlework a little less stark. It's so nice when She proposes spending on train-related things ...
Back to work tonight

 

[dragon]

An amazing amount of work must have gone into this project already.

 

[owlpool]

weather grotty here, cold windy and wet

Just spent the better part of three days out of doors. Ah, bliss.
The weather was much better than the forecast; some rain in the mornings, followed by nice, warm sunshine. Great planting conditions. So the missus and I revived an old spring habit and drove out, just the two of us, around the countryside to various nursery gardens we used to frequent, picking up quantities of ground covers and other supposedly winter-hardy perennials (around here, that means able to endure -30 or, on occasion, -40). Then I spent pleasant hours on my hands and knees trowelling holes (unearthing more d*mn stones from the last ice age) and plugging the flora in at the south, high end of my a-borning railway.
So far, everything looks happy ...
The missus wants to go back and buy some low-growing shrubs to put alongside the above-ground section of the layout and make the trestlework a little less stark. It's so nice when She proposes spending on train-related things ...
Back to work tonight

a trend worth encouraging, Chris

 

[owlpool]

stage 3
the shed is gone
chalk marks on the patio for a new wall