1/32 Devoran Quay

Simon

Flying Squad
Another load of freight from the far West speeds towards Feltham Yard:p

Speedfreight.jpg

Pausing locally - to change crews perhaps?

Dailyfreight.jpg

It's running through the usual Mojave Desert drizzle:cool:

Another good morning in the garden with Dave, the rain mostly held off until lunch time.

Simon
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Getting ready for the new season and hopefully laying out the yard, attention was required to the retaining wall, serious spalling of sub standard bricks evident…

Wall1.jpg

I took out the top row of bricks and realised that the row below were all loose, a case of insufficient cement in the mix a few years ago, so a smallish job got quite a lot bigger.

Wall2.jpg

In the end, I removed and replaced the complete "second row" taking out a couple of spalled bricks along the way.

wall3.jpg

I now need a bag of black rock sand and twelve good bricks to put the top row back into good order, I reckon I'll have a go tomorrow if the weather is OK and I can get a few other jobs out of the way. I may be short of a good brick or two, having used three of my "new" ex Camerton branch engineers blues in today's work. I'm no brickie but its quite satisfying work, although it would have been better if I'd done it properly in the first place:rolleyes:

Meanwhile the first yard turnout, the C10 "Y", is completely wired back to the microswitch, the lever mechanism is still working and it is now ready to be permanently laid outside. The following B8 is wired but needs a switch/lever mechanism building and the microswitch cutting in to the extended timbers - what a faff!

Simon
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
I'm no brickie but its quite satisfying work

Hi Simon

Looks like a good job to me:thumbs:. For my first piece of brickwork I built a 4' high garden wall on falling ground as a replacement boundary with our neighbours and found it very therapeutic - almost Churchillian you might say.

regards

Mike
 

unklian

Western Thunderer
Nice work Simon. As an aside what is the plant growing on top of your wall, I like the way you seem able to get away with moving it around like that. It looks good in the pictures of your wagons in your workbench thread too. I am still experimenting with plants for my little line .
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Nice work Simon. As an aside what is the plant growing on top of your wall, I like the way you seem able to get away with moving it around like that. It looks good in the pictures of your wagons in your workbench thread too. I am still experimenting with plants for my little line .

It is "Sedum Album" AKA Stonecrop.

Amazing stuff, I genuinely bought just one pot somewhere near the beginning of my garden adventure and noticed that when I discarded trimmings into an ice cream tub or somesuch that when it filled up with rainwater the trimmings survived and sprouted new roots in short order.

Being tight I kept putting trimmings into tubs and it kept growing! I also pot out selected pieces into compost with a bit of that magic rooting compound and in nearly every case its a success.

I call it my "Universal Garden Plant" it is very durable as you can see!

Simon
 

Captain Kernow

Western Thunderer
Getting ready for the new season and hopefully laying out the yard, attention was required to the retaining wall, serious spalling of sub standard bricks evident…
When I saw this post, I thought it was an earlier one from last year or sometime like that? Didn't you already do some brick replacement a while back?
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Yes, you can see the newer mortar lines on the left hand end of this picture, more recent work is along the top of the wall, which I have just come in from finishing.

Walled.jpg

Not the best of jobs, my first mix had too much slump which is a bit of a nightmare with thick mortar joints, required here as I bought 4 new engineers blues which are smaller than the old bricks.

Then there was a hailstorm….

I'll clean up some of the brick faces when its all gone off a bit.

Edit, I have just managed to tidy up the mortar joints and then carefully wash the brick faces on the new work, all now covered up against the rain which has started again. Job's a good 'un I reckon - time to get back to what goes on top of it all:)
 
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Simon

Flying Squad
I think the bottom bricks will be fine, it was just one batch collected from a particular skip that proved substandard:D

Here's a slightly dull snap from this morning of the finished job with the plants laid back across the top.

Walldone.jpg
 

Captain Kernow

Western Thunderer
You really should be more careful about which skips you frequent, Simon. Surely out where you are, you get a higher class of building waste in any case?
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Hi Phil

There is no shorting out in a practical sense when it is wet, ie everything works fine, but I think there is a small current leakage. I have detected this with a circuit tester which gives a "semi positive" result across the tracks when they are wet.

Skip-wise, yes I of course only frequent the more superior establishments:p

Joking apart, Bath buildings are invariably built in stone so the only bricks you generally get in skips are from removed internal walls, the specifications for which are less demanding. As it happens I remember the skip that most of the offending bricks came from though, the chap working on the house did seem very keen that I helped myself:))


Simon
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Jamie came over this morning, bringing his marvellous plastic Bulleid designed PMV, so we ran the biggest parcels train yet seen on the line - it all looked wonderfully Woking for a while. Later D6319 was withdrawn with traction problems and an 03 and 30313 had to cover for its afternoon duties. The fitters at Laira are going to look at D6319 tomorrow:confused:

Woking1.jpg Woking2.jpg Woking3.jpg Woking4.jpg
 

Simon

Flying Squad
As Network rail are this weekend making humungous changes to the platforms at Bath Spa, I thought I ought to try and start the platforms at Launceston Road.

I bought some aluminium sheet for the purpose about five years ago, and I set to cutting it about to form potential platform surfaces etc. In the end, the viable cutting method I evolved was a cutting disc in angle grinder, cutting the marked out aluminium sheet laying on the lawn.

I have three large pieces, here seen flopped out in rough positions. The two main platforms end up being a bit short (about 3 1/2 coach lengths), I may live with this or add extensions or something. In this shot I hadn't yet cut the "down" platform surface to shape.

Alumin1.jpg

Having cut the second platform to shape, I thought I'd try folding up the bay platform into some sort of shape as it is a simple straight business. I ground out a fold line with the angle grinder and bent it up, which more or less worked.

alumin2.jpg

As you can see, I didn't get an entirely "clean" fold, but by the time I have filed it and added the edging slabs on top etc I reckon it's usable. My basic platform wall height is 40mm from ground level, which seems about right visually.

alumin4.jpg

I now have to get more side walls done, I think I will go back to my suppliers and see if they can't produce me some 40mm strip, ideally with an angle formed along one edge. I also want a section to form the upper row of blocks or concrete that sits under and supports the platform edging stones. Gluing wise it will be epoxy resin as usual, but I think I will probably also use copious amounts of epoxy car filler to back this up and make everything solid and robust.

The backs of nearly all the platforms sit over voids, e.g. embankment, so the support here also requires further thought. All in all it makes my brain ache:confused:

Rail replacement buses running through Bath this weekend, limited trains from tomorrow, I'll echo that as Dave Easto is over tomorrow, but D6319 is still failed awaiting parts from ABC/Swindon - you RTR box openers don't know just how lucky you are!!

Simon
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Don't worry abut short platforms, Simon. It was perfectly normal (in the olden days, which you wouldn't remember) for a train to pull forward at stations with short platforms so that passengers at the back of the train could get off.

Use it to your advantage!

Brian
 

TheSnapper

Western Thunderer
Don't worry abut short platforms, Simon. It was perfectly normal (in the olden days, which you wouldn't remember) for a train to pull forward at stations with short platforms so that passengers at the back of the train could get off......Brian

Yes Brian, it was common practice
I remember several times as a young boy being worried as the train started to move forward before we had been able to get off.
That was in the days when trains were a decent length.........

Tim
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
"D6319 is still failed awaiting parts from ABC/Swindon - you RTR box openers don't know just how lucky you are"!!

You should try waiting for over 6 months for Ultrascale wheels Simon :D

Geoff
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Monday was a lovely day, Dave Easto came over and we managed to run a few trains and test run some unfinished wagons. It all worked as it should, which was encouraging. In the morning I purchased various additional strips and angles in aluminium and think I may have the beginnings of a cunning plan for building up the platforms….Rusto3.jpg

Rusto1.jpg Rusto2.jpg
 
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