No worries Col, that's clever stuff, and well worth knowing!
Thank you too Class27... I don't know what to say!
This post will be quite heavy on pics as rather a lot has been going on in the last couple of days!
On Thursday, after having been kept waiting for several days, I was promised a second attempt delivery - on the very day that I had another appointment...! I am sure you all know how that one goes?! Fortuitously, the driver was considerably late, and we were back home in time. It was an awful lot of fun and games helping to guide a monster lorry, reversing from the street at the bottom and inching slowly up our fairly steep and extremely narrow road... and all right slap in the middle of the evening "rush"!
When he finally arrived outside our house, he said to me:
Cor, you're lucky mate, I've got the electric fork-lift on today... I'd never get it off the back here with my manual one!"
In all the excitement, I quite forgot to take any pictures, so can only offer the end result:
The red graffiti sprayed on the old caravan stated; "BAG HERE PLEASE", and was applied in a moment of mild panic before I went out in the morning - having convinced myself that without being able to request otherwise, there was a serious risk that the bag would be dropped in such an awkward position that it might prevent my son getting his car back onto the driveway when he got home from work!
I did try to assure my wife that the gaudy message could easily be painted over again, but she reminded me that the wreck has
got to go anyway, so I needn't bother!
I assume she was talking about the van?!
With a ton of lovely, proper, railway type, Derby Dales ballast" and a sufficient number of sleepers to hand, I just needed some fishplates!
Aha! A bundle promptly arrived by courier on Friday, so the job was still on track!
The new section was ready for a quick, push-up-and-down test by the close of play!
Today, Saturday, dawned bright, and a fair wind was blowing... It blew in a bunch of willing - although somewhat rowdy helpers too!
No nice, steady start for me this morning then?!
There was a bit of a problem though::
It is all very well having that great big bag of ballast, but with a side-gate notably too narrow for a barrow, how on earth was I going to start shifting it..?! I measured the distance between it, and the nearest railhead - and that came to no less that fifty eight feet!
Hmm, I wondered if we had enough of the original "portable" plastic track? Worth a try?!
We did!
A joint with the tabbed plastic track was achieved by lifting and packing the main line, and nailing some scrap wood to the sleepers. With the wagon wheels having a broad tread they would ride on the timber strips either side over the largish gap between the rails!
By the way, the funny little jinks in the road where a way of dealing with a shortage of straight sections!
I doubt anyone ever imagined seeing a Stagecoach driver loading railway wagons, just before setting off to collect his bus at the Depot...?!
Meanwhile, I was franticly trying to keep up with the enthusiastic, and rather overly efficient gang, by making up the first panel:
The deliveries still kept coming...!
I was curious to know how much each wagon load weighs? One thing I can say for sure is that I would be hard pressed to lift one. The only way I could manage to empty the contents into the trench was by running them right to the limit of rail, and tipping them on end with both hands under the rearmost headstocks!
Whew!
Half way round, and I'm utterly exhausted - but absolutely delighted with it!
It was a lovely day, all round too!
Pete.
