The Whareora & Glenbervie Branch Line

[Beddhist]

After the winter hiatus I have today completed the ladder road bed.

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The ladder terminates on this capping stone that I stole from a retaining wall:

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The clamped strip shows where the track will be laid, first on an embankment, then in a cutting.

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Looks like I have dug a little too deep in places, but I can't work it out without the strip being laid in the trench.

 

[owlpool]

big endeavour
impending tunnel?

 

[duncan1_9_8_4]

I love the idea of a tunnel, big enough to look natural going under the lawn, proper tunnel mouths, and sitting above one, never quite knowing when the next train might emerge......... but I dare not. Great railway by the way, only just started following your progress.

 

[Beddhist]

I think I can avoid the tunnelling. It would complicate matters, esp. when I want to run trains, as I would have to clean out spiders, snails and hedgehogs first! I'm finding it very difficult to get the level right, as the wood strip flexes a lot. Digging has reached the last marker post and from here it will straighten, before curving to the right to follow the lawn edge uphill (hopefully).

I don't know what will happen after that. I could install a station and make it the end of the line. If I want to go higher I would need a spiral. All I know at this point: I don't want to cross the concrete path. The terrain after that is very steep and I don't want to obstruct the mower, which already has difficulties going up the slope. In any case, if I did, the line would head straight for a paddock and we will definitely not be going there.

Now I need my sleepers and put the track down, so I can get the level right.

 

[trammayo]

Level finding can be a problem - I used a cheap tripod based lazer and some slim wood posts to mark on - then went down from that mark. I did buy a water level many years ago but never used it!

Anyway, level problems or not, you are progressing well - keep up the good work!

 

[Madman]

Stick with your water level. If it's off, so are we all.....

 

[PhilP]

Stick with your water level. If it's off, so are we all.....

Aren't they affected by the moon?? - Do you get a different reading depending whether the tide is in, or not??

 

[Madman]

Aren't they affected by the moon?? - Do you get a different reading depending whether the tide is in, or not??

Not affected by the man in the Moon, nor the tide, but can be affected by the Sun. I once was working with my water level on a bright, warm sunny day. The water level tubing was partially in the shade. I think the Sun may have warmed the water in the portion of the tubing that was not in the shade, enough to throw off an accurate reading.

 

[trammayo]

Aren't they affected by the moon?? - Do you get a different reading depending whether the tide is in, or not??

I don't think its just the water effected by the moon I can remember, as a youngster, mother checking to see if I had washed behind my ears, etc. "I can see a tide mark" she admonished.

 

[Beddhist]

Some months ago a kind soul gave me the homebrew track from his uplifted layout:

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This was a figure 8, complete with wooden bridge, trestle and 2 retaining walls. However, I didn't like the look of the double height sleepers on top of the ladder, plus I will need more sleepers anyway, so ... I have just taken delivery of more than 500 sleepers, made for me by Paul of Woodsworks. The gaps for the rail are a fraction too small, so I started enlarging them with my angle grinder.

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Paul suggested glueing coarse sandpaper to a wooden strip and even supplied both. I found that after doing 5 sleepers the sandpaper strip was stuffed.

I started installing sleepers yesterday:

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They got lightly "weathered" by being transported in my oil changing drip tray.

The #6 turnout (USAT) will one day lead into a storage siding in the garage, hopefully.

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I left the scene in a hurry when the mossies came out in numbers.

 

[Beddhist]

Over the Xmas holidays I installed all of the used alu rail and the 500+ new sleepers. It turns out that I under-estimated the number of sleepers I need by at least half.

The work train ready to depart for vegetation clearing:



Cut here...



... and here:



After the Aga Bush comes a section where The track has been provisionally laid with the double-height sleepers. The work train reaches the current end of the line:



Back at the yard a freight train is ready to depart in the evening sun:



Starting the climb:



Passing the Punga S-bend:





Emerging from Aga Bush:



Arriving at the end:



My attempt to buy more rail today has been thwarted by the alu shop being closed for the holidays. Testing has thrown up a whole raft of problems I have to solve: screws in the timber keep coming loose and a lot of the ladder rungs have split. The track has buckled in the sun in many places, for lack of expansion joints. When the loco leads a train downgrade the whole train surges, i.e. the speed of the wagons keeps changing and they "catch up" with the loco, then slow down again, using all coupler slack. The loco itself seems to suffer very little from this.

 

[Beddhist]

Not wanting to rely on others for my supply of sleepers I took my woodworking expert friend shopping and bought a table saw. My friend then made me a jig to make sleepers:



At the bottom of this block of wood you can see the end of a brass screw, filed rectangular. One groove of a block is located over this and the jig then allows to cut the 2nd groove exactly 45mm from the first.


So, I got busy with my new toys. First, the sleepers my friend has already made with his jig (untreated pine) were soaked in old engine oil with a little petrol. I found some short pieces of hardwood decking lying around. Great, they are exactly the right width, so they were transformed into sleepers. During installation then the big disappointment: at least half of them snapped! I realised later that I had cut them across the grain and that will not fly. We live and we learn.

Next, I cut some sleepers from ground treated pine. They, and the soaked sleepers are installed and 5 m of new rail laid, beyond the end of the road ladder:






If you are wondering about the gaps: this is where the track is riveted and bolted together, so special sleepers will be needed with one or two slots of double thickness. I haven't made any of these yet.

Meanwhile, bags of M2 nuts and bolts have arrived, to be used for joining further pieces of rail.

Next up: deciding on how to design fish plates and make a drilling jig for them.

 

[Beddhist]

Instead of the promised drought we got a wet summer this year. For us that means lots of work and not a lot of time on the line. I did, however, make the jig for cutting and drilling fish plates and installed the first lot:



That looks a lot better than what I was given:


So, another 5m of track are down in the cutting, but not levelled and ballasted yet. Let's see what March brings for us.

 

[dunnyrail]

Superb to see a different method of construction to what is normal in UK. Your Sleepers and Ally Strip Rail being relatively (but not completely) unknown in UK.

Just a thought as you mentioned Track Power with Peters Locomotive. I recently made some Ally for some more Cassettes I needed on my 00 Layout only to find that the Ally I bought was Anodised. Do you get that problem as well? Cleaning the Anodisation off has not really worked well enough to make the Ally suitable for 2 Rail Pickup.
JonD

 

[Beddhist]

To be honest, I have no idea Jon. We didn't get continuity to the start of the first flat bar section, so all running was on ME alu track and Peco brass turnouts. The station end turned out to be the biggest problem, so Peter ran another feeder wire. We sanded the rail tops, but I think the biggest problem were the joints. All alu exposed to air oxidises, I don't know what the difference to anodized is.

I have run my Alco F A & B on the flat bar section and pickup was ok. I'm intending to convert them to battery, too.

The two biggest problems I am having with the flat bar is the track shifts sideways several cm (heat expansion, I guess) and the sleepers come loose, despite being glued on.

 

[dunnyrail]

Peter, I think that the difference with Anodised (it is some kind of coating) Ally is that it is possibly done to stop the Oxidisation. However it also stops pickup as well.

Just a thought with your Flat Bar Rail comming loose, perhaps you could drill through the sleeper and bar at an angle and drive small nails or pins through. I am thinking something less that a mm if you can source them. If you use Steel ones thay will rust in place, this would stop them trying to work themselves out due to expansion and contraction. Once they have started to rust, a coat of old oil every year will stop that process and help preserve the sleepers.

Battery will certainly be a big help for you, may even prevent some of the problems that can occur with differing types of metal and electric power.
JonD

 

[Beddhist]

Thanks for the tips, Jon. The 2nd hand rail did have nails in about every 20th sleeper. I can't see myself doing this to all of them, it's too much fiddly work. I'm thinking of tying down the track somehow every 2m or so. Having said all that, it's perfectly usable as it is. It just doesn't stay put.

 

[Melbournesparks]

I went through much the same process with my aluminium rail, good to see someone else using it! Your sleepers are much nicer than mine.

The stuff we get here is an aluminium alloy of some kind, not anodised. I screwed mine down with brackets every half meter or so, the sleepers work their way off otherwise. The aluminium bar expands and contracts a lot! It seems to be several mm per meter, note the heat buckle on the right. I laid mine when the ambient temperature was about 20 degrees, the picture was taken when it was about 30. Potentially it has to withstand a 45 degree difference between a hot summer day and a cold winter night, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

 

[Beddhist]

I've got almost the same sleepers as you with my 2nd hand track. You can see them in the pic above, titled "Emerging from Aga Bush:". I decided early on that, since I had to make more sleepers anyway, I would use these with ballast only, so you can't see the height. I've got the same expansion problems and it's much worse with track that is screwed together. With joiners at least the track segments can move apart. I'm going to try notching some of my double-height sleepers, so they will act as guides, keeping the track centered on the ladder. The first lot of sleepers made from untreated oak seems to be rotting away fast. The glue didn't hold.

I've since discovered Groovy Track, using the same method for 15" gauge ride-in trains.

 

[Gavin Sowry]

Just found most of this is now all up for sale on Trade Me.