Phil S' RR

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UK/US/ROW steam narrow gauge railways 1:1
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That is beautiful and well engineered line you have built there. Loving the water features.

Do get the line to go into the house. I took advantage of the height disparity between my garden, and my laid to ballast line at ground level, and the floor level of my house - 30". I installed a cat flap at the end of the outdoor sidings (my cat was very proud of having a 2nd entrance to her palace) and then I installed a couple of "scenic" sidings indoors that run right behind the sofa at the height of its backrests. Very satisfying. Max.
 

phils2um

Phil S
11 Sep 2015
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The maintenance crew finally cleared the lines of last Monday's snow dump - 6 1/3 meters in scale terms! The work was completed just in time for a steam excursion by some very hardy souls.

first snow - 1.jpgfirst snow - 1 _1_.jpgfirst snow - 1 _2_.jpgfirst snow - 1 _3_.jpg
 
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Paul M

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phils2um

Phil S
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Thought it was time to update construction progress. The first two pics are screen shots of the CS3 layout track plan as it was at the beginning of the season, left and as it stands now on the right.
TrackPlan15May18.jpg TrackPlan01Oct19.png

Four turnouts have been added. The new turnout (LGB R5) to the right of three span girder bridge branches to the far side of the main stream. The line passes below the girder bridge and crosses stream on a new low bridge. The branch then goes through what will be a second station area with a short passing siding. The three turnouts here are LGB R3s. The stub off the passing siding will eventually lead into my shed. It's just a short siding for now. The new line then continues to a 180º curved trestle that crosses a dry stream bed to connect up with the stub coming off the wye on the near side of the stream.

The next few shots show construction of the trestle. First up is the track on jury rigged temporary supports.
trestle - 1.jpg

As mentioned in another thread, the small shed houses a DCC four channel switch decoder for control of the three turnouts in the station area. The next couple pics show the partially completed trestle.

trestle - 1 _4_.jpg
trestle - 1 _5_.jpg
The first two bents of each end of the trestle were assembled on a table. Horizontal and diagonal braces along with the stringers that will support the track make sure the bents are square and sturdy. The first pic above has the far side bents installed. The near side bents can be seen sitting on the grass at the top of the photo. The rest of the 10 bents (eleven stringer spans) were installed one at a time at about 16" on center and with 1/4" of drop between each bent. This made up the 2 3/4" height difference at each end of the trestle. A narrow trench was dug and compacted crushed limestone paver base provides the foundation for each bent. The track was fixed to the trestle stringers in three locations once the trestle was completed. A stringer at each attachment point was through drilled with an oversize hole. 4-40 stainless steel screws with washers at each end loosely secured the track to the stringer. The nut on each screw was fixed with thread lock compound. The loose track attachment allows for expansion and contraction.

The next few pics show the completed trestle. Note that Rule 8 is in play here. The trestle posts, caps and stringers are all about 25% over-scale. Also, wood trestles are pretty much New World and Third World constructions and are not authentic to European RRs. Therefore, even though most of my stock is Swiss narrow gauge, I thought it appropriate my token North American train be featured.

Trestle2 - 1.jpg
Trestle2 - 1 _2_.jpg
Trestle2 - 1 _1_.jpg
Trestle2 - 1 _3_.jpg
I couldn't find any more LGB log disconnects at a reasonable price. So I decided to buy a Bachmann flat with log skidder to add some length to the train. The price was quite reasonable. Its been painted and weathered a bit. I would have liked to leave the boiler stack attached but it presented clearance problems. Could be why the skidder comes with an indent that appears molded to hold the stack. I also think the Climax needs its stack swapped for one of the ballon spark arresting stacks it came with. It looks too much like an urban industrial loco with the straight stack. Something for me to take care of this Winter. I might change out the wheels on the LGB log disconnects for Bachmann's smaller wheel-sets too. Thanks to Gavin and his 7/8s LGB tipplers for this inspiration.

On tap for next season is to complete the concrete bridge abutments for the new low bridge. It's on temporary supports at the moment. Then the all important spur to the shed where I can park the wagons. It sure will be nice not dealing with all those red boxes! Three or four loco boxes for each session are enough to be taking in and out of the house.
 
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dunnyrail

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I would never discount Trestles in Europe. I know for a fact that Trestles were present in the back end of UK Steam Railway, small ones admittedly. Just recently I watched a DVD of an old closed (60’s) Railway in Suffolk UK where a small Trestle was still present over a Minor River and had a Preservation Order on it, would not have looked out of place in a similar setting on a US Layout. Perhaps in Europe we may not have had the amount of or size of Trestles that exist in the US but they exist and I suspect quite likely as well on some minor Swiss Lines.

Good idea running into the Shed for your stock, you will run much more when only the Locomotives need to be lugged outside. A Storage Shelf or Cupboard near the Back Door is a good Idea if you can find the space.
 

phils2um

Phil S
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A warm Winter Sun brought a krokodil out of hibernation.

Crok in Winter - 1.jpeg
Crok in Winter - 1 _3_.jpeg

Crok in Winter - 1 _4_.jpeg

Crok in Winter - 1 _1_.jpeg

Crok in Winter - 1 _2_.jpeg

Crok in Winter - 1 _6_.jpeg
 
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JimmyB

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I have to agree with dunnyrail dunnyrail , when I lived in Huntingdon, a walk along the river near Houghton saw the remains of a disused railway trestle bridge.
 

dunnyrail

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I have to agree with dunnyrail dunnyrail , when I lived in Huntingdon, a walk along the river near Houghton saw the remains of a disused railway trestle bridge.
Controversial or what Jimmy agreeing with me....... :devil:

That piece of line was the St.Ives to Huntingdon one I imagine and thence to Kettering via Kimbolton and Raunds. Much of it was stolen for the A14 in the Cranford Thrapston Area, at the Consultation for the revised bit of the A14 just South of Huntingdon (now just open) I pointed out that a further part of this line was being made unusable for possible Railway use. Despite every PM since the Beeching days saying ‘we must preserve old Railway lines in case they are needed in the future’ or words to that effect. Cue looks of WTF from the Consulting Bods. There are the letters of a plural rude word somewhere hidden in Consulting.
 

Paul M

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There are the letters of a plural rude word somewhere hidden in Consulting.
I can see the C, an O an 2 Ns and an S, but those very bad words Common Sense can't be made out of consulting unless I can't spell properly
 

JimmyB

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I can see the C, an O an 2 Ns and an S, but those very bad words Common Sense can't be made out of consulting unless I can't spell properly
I think Jon requires you to use the *u***
 

phils2um

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I humbly stand corrected on the existence of wooden trestles in Europe.:oops:
 

dunnyrail

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I humbly stand corrected on the existence of wooden trestles in Europe.:oops:
No worries, the one who thinks they know everything usually knows nothing.
 
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Gizzy

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phils2um

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Back in post #45 Scot asked whether I had issues with frost heave messing with the blocks I'm using on the right-of-way. I can provide a more definitive answer now that the RR has been through three winters. I've only had two locations that required some attention. The first was on the spiral ramp leading the bridges. One block settled where I had failed to properly compact the underlying stone base. Photo 1 shows the fix. I pried up the low end of the block and, using a heavy metal rod, packed more crushed stone underneath the low end.

Frost_heave - 1 _1_.jpeg

The other place I had a problem were two blocks acting a bridge abutments. Freeze-thaw in the gaps between the adjacent blocks caused the abutment blocks to migrate toward each other. I solved this problem by installing a piece of steel angle between the two abutment blocks to restrict any movement. The angle is buried by stone and not normally visible. Photo 3.

Frost_heave - 1.jpeg Frost_heave - 1 _2_.jpeg

I took care of both these issues last fall. The fixes have been successful so far. All the rest of my block has been unaffected by the winter freeze-thaw cycles. I attribute this to the three to four inches of compacted stone base I put in beneath the block.
 
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dunnyrail

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Not quite a trestle bridge, but a wooden viaduct still in regular use in Wales....

Just been looking through one of my parts of Never Again Vol2 P181 shows a Wooden Trestle between Portmadoc and Minfford (With appologies to any Welsh Speakers). Just looked on Google Earth and here it still is as seen from the new PM bypass. On initial look I thought it may be Concrete Bents but no you would not do that, why would it be so complex? So wood bents it is. Interesting that it appears to have a Steel Top Bridge.
954371E3-C376-472B-8BA7-D867C8200EAF.jpeg
 

Chris Vernell

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Just been looking through one of my parts of Never Again Vol2 P181 shows a Wooden Trestle between Portmadoc and Minfford ...
Did a spot of Googling on this and came across Mr Chugger's very own mountains, the Rhinogydd :eek:
Ain't the Internet truly wonderful?