Resurrecting a disused garden railway - the SCGR reborn

[Clive Tucker]

One small beneficial side product of my lumberjacking activities - an instant log load for one of the wagons currently languishing in the recently relaid goods siding:

 

[Demiel1910]

Resurrection is more work than starting afresh Clive, but looking good!

 

[Clive Tucker]

Resurrection is more work than starting afresh Clive, but looking good!

Thanks Mikey, you're not wrong. Most of my effort these days seems to be given over to undoing my past mistakes!

 

[Clive Tucker]

This morning I have been mostly 'Going back to my roots'... hey someone should write a song of that title oh, wait...

This took some effort, and most of the morning - oh, and a brand new washing line that I had to use as an improvised jack to overcome some stubborn resistance from the last - and largest - stump:

 

[dunnyrail]

This morning I have been mostly 'Going back to my roots'... hey someone should write a song of that title oh, wait...

This took some effort, and most of the morning - oh, and a brand new washing line that I had to use as an improvised jack to overcome some stubborn resistance from the last - and largest - stump:

Always good to remove that last stump. Here are two that I had to do some serious excavation to remove! Not able to remove them from under the layout, can only be rolled around!

 

[Henri]

I recovered my DR van from the other side of the garden, and gave it a clean up, served eviction notices on about 40 snails and assorted arachnids which had taken up uninvited residence. It is now standing patiently at the end dock line:

Right, what's next!

Tell me more about the little chain hangin' there?? No coupling loop as well, me like!
I LOVE the white plank detail! Gonna use that one myself!!

 

[Clive Tucker]

Always good to remove that last stump. Here are two that I had to do some serious excavation to remove! View attachment 241142Not able to remove them from under the layout, can only be rolled around!

Oh wow, looks like they are still alive too! Are those maple leaves coming from the stumps?

 

[Clive Tucker]

Tell me more about the little chain hangin' there?? No coupling loop as well, me like!
I LOVE the white plank detail! Gonna use that one myself!!

Thanks Henri, the chains as I recall were made for me by Carl Hibbs, in exchange for a figure I made for him (of a Corsican 'Billard' driver). Essentially the links are just loops of thin brass wire, whilst the hook is a slightly thicker gauge brass wire, bent into a hook shape using a jig (to ensure consistent geometry for all hooks), the hook end was just filed flat on both sides, and a small screw thread cut into the other end so that it could be screwed into the LGB 'stub' where the normal LGB coupling would go. Then one link was soldered to the underside of the hook, and the rest could hang loosely from that:

I sprayed them black to take away the brass look.

 

[Henri]

I miss the 'heart' icon. This is simply brilliant. Oh my, do I love this!!

 

[Clive Tucker]

Thanks again, Henri. I think it looks great, although it can be a little fiddly to assemble a train for the obvious reason!

As an aside, here's the Corsican driver figure that I was asked to make - the first figure I made of an actual person!

 

[dunnyrail]

Oh wow, looks like they are still alive too! Are those maple leaves coming from the stumps?

No they are both well dead, leaves are from a Flower that comes up at this time of the year from before there was a Garden Railway in this spot. Keep meaning to move it to the front Garden at some stage.

 

[Sarah Winfield]

Did the sitter know how you were modelling him?

SW

 

[Clive Tucker]

Did the sitter know how you were modelling him?

SW

No, it was based on Carl's description of a man he'd encountered some years before in Corsica. The results were my interpretations of that. The chances of the guy recognising himself in that figure would be pretty slim I imagine

 

[Clive Tucker]

More, albeit modest, progress over the past couple of days. I am in the process of replacing the somewhat dilapidated 'sticks and bricks' support for the elevated line that goes in the corner, through a sprawling Hebe bush. First section of this replacement structure will be the time-honoured 'celcon' solution. This is a dry fit to see how it sits in relation to the track:

Then this morning, I mixed up some cement and cemented in the foundations - formed from some spare bricks found in a forgotten corner of the garden:

Of course it's almost a law of physics that one always makes up more cement mortar than is needed, so what to do with the remainder? Well, I have had the idea in my head for a while that the diesel refuelling point should have tracks set into concrete. So with that in mind, I quickly fixed the track down with a couple of screws:

Then on with the excess mortar:

Not quite enough to do it completely but I will revisit this when I am next mixing cement - ah, that'll probably be tomorrow then!

 

[FrenchChuffed]

slow but steady progress.catch de monkey......keep at it clive looking good. I have been involved in other stuff the past week, but hopefully back to trains shortly.

 

[Demiel1910]

Its slowly getting there Clive! Do you find yourself adding things that you hadn't thought of before?

 

[Clive Tucker]

Thanks Peter and Mikey, much appreciated. Progress is largely governed by the temperature outside at the moment! Half a day is about as much as I can stand!

I guess I am doing that to some extent. I'm not consciously looking for opportunities to add new stuff - that would suggest I was capable of planning Sometimes, though, embellishments sort of suggest themselves on the fly - the rearrangement of the track for example.

 

[Chris Vernell]

Progress is largely governed by the temperature outside at the moment! Half a day is about as much as I can stand!

Likewise

Sometimes, though, embellishments sort of suggest themselves on the fly -- the rearrangement of the track for example.

I don't know about "on the fly" -- my little grey cells don't soar that high
"On the stagger", all the time
I like this thread.

 

[Clive Tucker]

Likewise


I don't know about "on the fly" -- my little grey cells don't soar that high
"On the stagger", all the time
I like this thread.

Lol I suspect my grey cells are mostly in my hair these days!

Anyway, thank you for your most kind comment: your patience is rewarded with news of some more progress today, in spite of the heat and a more immediate need to trim our border hedge which astoundingly has grown to become almost impenetrable jungle, not to say a menace to the public!

The pillars of the new bridge span are now cemented in place:

I've pitched them so that the gap is 4.5ins from the top to where the rail passes over. That should give me plenty to work with when I come to put the spanning block in place, hopefully tomorrow.

As ever of course, there was excess cement - but this time I was ready for it! This is the diesel refuelling area, my efforts from yesterday are drying out nicely:

I managed to purloin 6 ice-lolly sticks, split them lengthways and cut the rounded bits off each end. Then, with some Blu-Tack I stuck the lengths of wood to the inside of the rails. These will, it is hoped, provide a reasonable gap for the wheel flanges once they are removed:

Then finally for today, on with the remainder of the cement:

Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to remove the lengths of wood without too much damage to the central cement section.

 

[PhilP]

I think I would leave it a couple of days?? - Even with the temperature we are having..