Breaking Ground - Finescale - of a sort

[Peter Insole]

According to the news, it finally looks as if this seemingly endless, gloomy, wet and windy weather is coming to an end!

The permanent way has taken an awful pounding this year, and we have been fighting something of a loosing battle - with the formation being notably disturbed in all areas with more moss, weeds, grass and all sorts of other unwanted herbage than previously experienced!

Grandchildren: Master E., and Miss L.R., came round for the day on Sunday last, but with the garden in such a state I feared that having some time on the trains was probably not such a good idea! They didn't appear to be that bothered, but just before they were due to go home, young E., put on the meekest countenance he could muster, and pleaded to "see" the line!

Relenting rather too easily, I unlocked the gate and let them in. Miss L.R., headed straight into the long grass towards the swing, while Mr. E., spent the whole time solemnly pacing up and down the entire length of track!

What a dreadful old meanie I really can be eh?!

The following day turned out warm and dry, and spurred on by a terrible sense of guilt, I grabbed all the tools and set to!

By later in the afternoon, a works train was finally able to reliably run...



...and full use made on transporting loads of broken concrete slabs from a pile behind the potting shed!

These will be used shortly for shoring up the formation of the new track extension!

Pete.

 

[ovener]

Thank you Pete. I always enjoy your entertaining tales from down the line. Although I only have room for a small RTR 2mm layout around the edge of my work room (a lockdown sanity saver), and a 4mm shunting plank on a shelf, I have idly daydreamed about a small garden railway here. I don't think Mrs. O. would approve anyway but unless it was about the same gauge as yours, I fear the rats, squirrels, moles and badgers and the general jungliness would probably destroy the pway in short order! As it is the spiders and flies are quite disruptive to the 2mm layout...Just noticed the poor railway cat seems to have expired near the loco bothy More power to your elbow sir.

 

[Peter Insole]

Oh dear, what an awful long time has passed by since I last posted on this thread!

Calling last year a washout is something of an understatement, and engineering, let alone playtime was severely restricted. Quite apart from the general unpleasantness of working in almost continuously damp conditions, saturated soil becomes damned heavy and difficult to shift!

Although the ground is still cold and wet, the weather during this last week has been distinctly Spring like, encouraging me to start thinking seriously about the rapidly approaching season, and the enormous backlog of tasks to undertake on the railway before services can resume.
I do confess that for the first few days I would go down the garden, turn around and shut the gate again, with a despondent feeling that it was all way too much for me to cope with!

Mr. O. had a day off work on Friday, and was keen to start tidying up, so I grabbed the opportunity for some moral support - plus the possibility of being able to make use of some youthful muscle!

One long overdue job was to put up a trellis for supporting a thriving, climbing rose... before the stems get too thick!



I had been considering how to build up a framework on top of the concrete wall, but was not sure of the best method. One detail, that can't be seen in the photos, is that there is a bolt hole moulded centrally in the top edge of each panel, and Mr. O. had jammed a line of sticks in them to temporarily support of the growing plant.

Unfortunately, or otherwise as it turned out, the earlier wooden rose arches had both failed too soon as a result of poor design of the top sections, and had been stored since in a dismantled state beside the potting shed. Mr. O. willingly agreed to a salvage and repurposing job, and so the existing, and still perfectly sound framework more or less determined the method of attachment.

I cut six short lengths of varnished steel angle, then drilled and attached them with stainless coach bolts to the concrete panels - and they in turn were screwed to the bottom trellis rail.



In the above image, Mr. O. can be seen fitting flat steel "L" (repair) plates at the corners for added structural strength.

While the finished job is quite firm as it is, I intend to fit a couple of extra steel angles running up to the top rail at either end, utilising spare threads projecting from the wall attachment bolts.

Carefully (!) threading "Rosie" through the geodetics, with her precious and very delicate buds, but also armed with a myriad of vicious defence weapons, and a seemingly vindictive temper to match, was an "interesting", four handed trial!



Our hope is that in time, the plant will continue to prosper, and grow on to go some way towards obscuring that dreadfully sad, utterly pointless standing section of corrugated iron on the adjacent waste ground!

Not only was the overgrowth dealt with, but the near abandoned seasons worth of undergrowth was cleared as well, revealing again the full length of the permanent way...



With an added surprise:

The Primroses are escaping!




It is such a crying shame that the offspring are all travelling in the precisely the wrong direction, and will have to be taken out!

The flowers might be delightfully dainty, but the plant bodies themselves will become quite bulky, tough, fleshy and persistent throughout the year. Running over them with flanged wheels would get bumpy, horribly messy, and is simply not an option!

It is going to be a bit of fun trying to rescue and "persuade" as many as possible of the little babies to settle down somewhere else?!

Pete.