Rebirth of the Larton Grange & Bebington railway

[flyingsignalman]

This morning, I moved a couple of plants and ran my Stainz and a coach to check clearances.

The second pic is from the back of the house (zoomed in slightly) and Pauline likes the view!!
On nights starting tonight so hopefully I'll be able to do some work to it during the day (not going to mention the weather - oops I just did! )

 

[flyingsignalman]

Thanks Paul, I've tried this time to eliminate the worst gradients that the old loop had( including one change of gradient on a 2' 6" curve).

 

[owlpool]

looks like a good plan

 

[ge_rik]

It's developing nicely Keith
Rik

 

[JRinTawa]

Looks good from here!

 

[flyingsignalman]

I've done some more work this week including putting the track on bricks to give a firmer base.

Today I was too tired to work so I ran a train

Poppy Looks on

The ground level will be built up to match the bricks and then covered with membrane and ballasted.

 

[Nemo]

This railway looks lovely. Like the way it intertwines with the rest of the garden...
Looking to more photos.....

 

[GJFREESTONE]

Hi Keith
Your railway is getting its own unique style . it is looking good . watch out for the sap off those bushes .
graham shrewsbury

 

[flyingsignalman]

Touch wood Graham, I've not had any problem with sap from the bushes.........yet

 

[owlpool]

nice track through the "undergrowth" will blend in in no time

 

[mike]

nice to see popy.,takeing over the contrustion kieth

 

[GJFREESTONE]

hi Keith
ask poppy nicely she might build you a quarry ,pond or even a cutting even if you do not want one
graham shrewsbury

 

[flyingsignalman]

Yesterday and today, between showers, I managed to do some more to the track bed.
Today it stayed dry enough to run a train

The line of bricks under the loco marks the edge of a raised flower bed that was there when we moved in. I'm hoping to use it to extend the line further along the garden.

The line the train is will be taken up and the siding to the right will be used, via a balloon loop, to connect with the new line on the buried garden wall.

The track here is on bricks but is hidden by the sandstone. I hope to achieve this effect all round the track and tomorrow if the weather holds I'll be moving soil around.

I planning to build a small halt/station here, with a siding; provisionally to be named "Duffy Bank" to acknowledge the fact that most of the track for this recent work I bought from Mike.

 

[flyingsignalman]

First time for a while I managed to run a train or two having spent the last couple of days catching up with keeping the garden tidy.
At the start of May we had 7 bags of topsoil and 3 "pretend" railway sleepers delivered. The 8"x4" sleepers were lighter and cheaper than the real things!
The sleepers and some of the topsoil were used to build a raised veggie bed for Pauline, the rest of the soil is for the expansion of the railway on the other side of the garden.
Some pics.

The new veg bed can be seen on the left of the greenhouse and the rest of the topsoil is on the right; I'm leaving it to settle for a while before starting to plan the railway out.

 

[playmofire]

Looks good, very good.

 

[flyingsignalman]

I have often wondered if it was possible to alter the Binnie kit for the GVT mineral open wagons to 45mm gauge despite their being advertised for 32mm gauge only.
At Llanfair this year I bought one to try out and this afternoon I got to work.
The work was carried out using my guiding principle "hack it and see" though others will be done more carefully using the experience of altering this one.
The main change is that the axle boxes have to be mounted on the solebar rather than as intended. I replaced the wheels with Bachman 24.5mm ones (which are slightly smaller) mainly because I had them and the axles supplied with the kit are too short to accommodate the wider gauge.
I slimmed down the top of the axle box casting (the part where it is joined to the wagon), trimmed the inside of the axle box and drilled out the hole as the diameter is slightly larger than the kit one. The sole bar had a notch of about 1.5mm cut out to further accommodate the axle box moulding.
some pictures.

The wagon with my GVT inspired van.

Two views of the underside which I hope will make my ramblings a little clearer

 

[yb281]

That's a brilliant idea Keith. Many people (me included) have some Binnie skips, but the GVT wagon is a cracking model and it's great to see that it can be re-gauged.

 

[flyingsignalman]

Thanks Mel, I forgot to mention that using the Bachman wheels, the couplings are the same height as the HLW wagons - lucky eh!

 

[ge_rik]

Good stuff, Keith, coming along nicely. Good to see the tram loco in its native habitat.

Rik

 

[trammayo]

Re: Rebirth of the Larton Grange & Bebington railway

Just a test search for Flying Signalman!