1/32 Devoran Quay

[Osgood]

May I recommend to you the use of a black water dye?
It should work well in your slender trough, providing lovely reflections of structures and stone sides, suppressing agal growth and enhancing surface water plants, whilst being harmless to fish and water life.

This brand is readily available: Liquid Dye - Ponds, Lakes, Fountains & Water features

 

[Simon]

Thank you for your comments, I'd never heard of black water dye(!)

Dave and Tess came over today to try and progress the project in what has been a lovely sunny day.

While we started with tea, obviously, Tess explored the bottom of the garden. She managed to get back up most of the steps without assistance...



I had started earlier by laying out some track and attaching it to that on the bridge in order to check the alignment and look of the whole thing.



Here is the whole set up viewed from the house.



After much fiddling with spirit levels and wedging and placing of steel flats Dave is here welding the first "baseboard edge" steel to the end of the bridge, which has already had a piece of steel flat welded in to form the "end" of the baseboard.



In the meantime, the boy Harry arrived to cut back an over-sprouting goat willow from beside the path.



Much checking of levels in all directions was done...



With the second steel in place, after lunch Dave formed up and welded the first pair of angled legs to the frame.



The first pair of legs in place. Although the legs are driven into the ground, there is a horizontal angle welded across their width at ground level which will support the structure against the ground surface. Dave came up with this neat idea as being all made up ground, a steel driven into the ground does not give any "purchase" until about three feet down, and then nothing too clever. Track dropped back into place to check alignment, it is lower in the frame on the left hand side which gives the impression of being off centre in the picture.



As the sun drops Dave welds spacers in between the steel flats, these will help give the concrete a good purchase between the steels when it is cast in place. At this point the camera battery failed, but before we went in for dinner we got the second pair of legs and spacers welded in, roughly where the silhouetted G-cramp is positioned in the below picture.




There are lots of challenges ahead, but this now feels properly started, setting up this first piece of the "steel jigsaw" was always going to be the most challenging part and I think we have accomplished it successfully.

All being well, we re-convene next Monday for further construction, in the meantime I am looking forward to going out there tomorrow and seeing what we have done so far in proper daylight.

Simon

 

[jonte]

Great start, Simon!

May I wish you all the very best with your future ‘enjoyment’

Jonte

P.S. And what an idyllic setting in which to enjoy it all.

 

[Keith Phillips]

Great progress Simon. Wonderful to see things starting to take shape.

Looks like it will be a lovely spot for a bit of shunting. That view is marvellous.

All the best,

Keith

 

[Simon]

Thank you very much for your kind comments, it is indeed a very wonderful garden and I feel very lucky to have current stewardship of it, I will endeavour not to upset the Garden Gods with my travails....

Here are some shots of Monday's work taken in the light earlier today.



I connected pieces of track together to get a sense of the alignment, the levels clearly need some attention(!)

Simon

 

[Simon]

More progress today, not as sunny as last week but we made pretty good use of the light and a fair bit more base is now set out.

Dave welding in the third supporting frame, this near the toe of the first point.



The second length of steel clamped ready for welding to the end of the first section.



The second steel in place, welded to angle iron uprights driven into the ground along its length. Front section of steel laid out and sticks marking line of its edge.



Front steel in place, welding square section cross pieces in place.



Cutting more angle for uprights, paintwork laid out on to new framework to check alignment etc.



The base is laid level through to area of pointwork, it is then laid with a slight upward gradient to maximise its chances of emerging on the other side of the wall at a useful level for a fiddle plank over the paving beyond. It will get much more interesting as we start on the siding and line down to the quayside base, which will have to transition to a steeper gradient and swing through 180 degrees, while the "public goods" siding levels out at a higher level, but still lower than the running line, or something like that....

We are scheduled to have a further session next Monday.

Postscript:



Track laid out into new framework on the following day.



Simon

 

[Simon]

A bit wet and chilly out there today, but Dave braved the weather and we made more progress.

Digging out for the track base headed towards the house. Despite a gradient the track base is some way below ground level on the other side of the wall, which is causing a bit of a rethink about what may or may not happen on "the other side".



Here Dave is butt welding the next steel for the edge of the track base into the new "excavation".



After lunch (and a rainstorm) we got the second steel welded into place together with its cross struts, seen going on here.



As the light failed we also got the first steel for the second track base welded into place.



A lot of today was spent in setting out levels, the idea being that all track bases are level across the formation whilst gently rising in height towards the house. A big problem today was in hitting in the steel angle and uprights into the ground to attach the track base to, this because this ground was some sort of a building many years ago and there are some humungous pieces of stone just below the innocuous looking grass surface.

Which might be linked to this fabulous photograph that a neighbour flagged up to me this week, showing the outside of the house that is attached to this garden as it was circa 1910/20.



So it turns out I'm building a railway in a tea garden!

Dave's friend Paul grew up around here and remembers the place being a transport cafe up in the early 1960s, with lorries parked up and down the road outside. He used to call in and get a bottle of pop on his way back from school.

The building is on the old A4 through Batheaston - the cafe apparently closed with the growth of car ownership and the introduction of parking restrictions along the road in the mid 1960s.

Quirky it is.

 

[Osgood]

Wonderful proprietor's name!!

 

[Suddaby]

It would seem appropriate to go narrow gauge Simon!
Kevin

 

[Simon]

Narrow Gauge - Pshaw!

Anyway, I already am, non of that seven foot something malarkey round here.

And I "did" even narrower gauge many years ago with the "Stench Electric", running from Stench Junction via Rat End to Netherstench.

I still have the rolling stock, all suitably lettered SERC........

 

[Simon]

Currently drizzle in Bath, we still intend to do some more today, the forecast is dull but dry and I am about to go and buy some more steel flat ahead of Dave's arrival.

This is progress so far, the other picture is "Clun Castle" and its train on its way into Bath, both on Saturday.

It sounded very nice!

 

[Simon]

So much for the forecast, it rained quite a lot and we got quite wet...

But, track bases towards house now finished. All looking a bit like the Somme from a mud point of view, things can only get better!

Level-wise, any further extensions towards the house run the risk of being like those joke cartoons of model underground railways we have all giggled about.

I think at least one funky looking tunnel mouth has to be on the cards though, whatever lies behind it.



After lunch we started on the goods yard entrance framing, the light failed very early...



On this section the framing starts dropping away to create a gradient down into the goods yard area.



Compared to the above you can see a steel bar has been welded in across the new section, the point is on the downward gradient.



Too dark, time for dinner!



We will reconvene next Monday, in the meantime I need to go and purchase more steel angle for vertical uprights.

And now there's lots of scope for concreting!!

 

[Neil]

... Level-wise, any further extensions towards the house run the risk of being like those joke cartoons of model underground railways we have all giggled about. ...

Do you have a cellar?

 

[Simon]

No, but I have a shovel and spade!

Only joking, I think.....

 

[Stuart]

And I "did" even narrower gauge many years ago with the "Stench Electric", running from Stench Junction via Rat End to Netherstench.

I still have the rolling stock, all suitably lettered SERC........

These ones?

 

[Simon]

Yes and cripes, that was a very long time ago.

Built circa 1979 from memory, the whole route was wiped out when Brian Clarke's dad put a double concrete garage over that part of the garden, it didn't improve the ambience!!

Simon

 

[Simon]

Here are some daylight views of the damage inflicted. Looking back towards the house, the line which has some chance of going further is that on the right, which makes most sense in that the left hand route acts as a headhunt to the "yard".

Setting up the yard bases should be more entertaining, much bending and imagination required

Looking on the bright side, given the planting ideas I have in mind I think this set up will offer some good photographic views/angles, which was one of the design criteria set at the beginning of the project.

Yeah right...

 

[Osgood]

I see what you are doing - are the steel supports set to 5" or 7 1/4" gauge?

 

[Simon]

Ah yes, well spotted, but it's more complicated than that; the right hand route (pointing towards Truro and the West Cornwall Railway) is broad gauge, while the left hand route (pointing to the Central Cornwall Railway) is narrow gauge, further south is mixed gauge, probably

 

[Stuart]

Yes and cripes, that was a very long time ago.

Built circa 1979 from memory, the whole route was wiped out when Brian Clarke's dad put a double concrete garage over that part of the garden, it didn't improve the ambience!!

Simon

From the November 1987 SMT magazine