A diary of Tramway Demiel

Today is a big day for me! After 12 months of making buildings,locos,rolling stock etc we start constructing the layout itself!
Now really its all down to glynis (wife). We've had the house on the market for ages with no real interest so we've decided not to sell (for the time being). I was going to lay loads of concrete and rivers, but i will settle for a ground level line with a river running through the middle and an industrial narrowgauge line supplying the papermill.

So, at the m0ment we have marked out an area 12 metres by 6 metres and i will start digging the river this evening. i've kept the size down because i will have to put a strong fence around it all to keep out the deer and the wild boar which sometimes visit. We are going to try to keep a pictorial record of progress, so if you see us making any mistakes, or can think of a better way of doing it, please let us know. Early pics this evening then!!

mikey (and the construction team)

Good luck Mikey & Co, have fun and keep the pics coming!

Clive

Not a lot done today. spent a lot of time deciding where to actually site the railway;



Chose this part of the land; not too far from the house (for running cables and tools) but far enough in case any tiles get blown off the roof.



It soes seem a bit silly just using a small part of this land, but then again i have to share it with the 5-a-side pitch (cant upset grandson!), and then again it would cost a fortune to lay track over all of it.
Tonight after dinner we are going to mark out the river which will just be an elongated pond that curves round at each end to secrete itself behind the village and the planned forest.

the only other thing was collecting a few plants to plant tomorrow;



more tomorrow

mikey

At last Mikey. It has taken the launch of a new forum to get it started eh?

Seriously though don't be too ambitious to start with. I would suggest a minimal amount of landscaping and construction to get a basic circuit of track down. With trains running successfully it will provide the motivation for expansion.

That's my theory but we know Peter Morgan works differently and he has this great vision and commitment to large scale landscaping before laying any track.

Good luck.

well done mikey for taking the plunge into building your line . especially pos of house moving

line construction is my fav part of moulding railway into garden and your plot 12 x 6 mtrs is more than most brit gardens i,m used to so it should be quiet impressive .

looking forward to pictorial progress

Well its 3pm over here and I have had enough for today!
We started at 9.30 this morning by digging the river; its 8 metres long by 50cms and I wanted a shallow depth of about 10cms (4");



We were hard at work all morning; our ground here consists of about 3" topsoil and then your down to the rockbed (all calcaire;limestone);



the river bends at each end so that it can be hidden by ;at one end, a bridge; and at the other by the papermill.

The next phase was to fill it with water to test the level;





a little bit more to dig out at the far end then tomorrow, line the bottom with some leftover roll of fibreglass topped with a butyl liner. The temperature is now 29 degrees and its too darned hot for any more manual work so as I am typing this I have a long cool pastis by my side. cheers!!

Mikey

A promising start Mikey - though I expect you'll be feeling the effects of that tomorrow!

today is my Ruby Wedding Anniversary. 40 years of marriage! (you only get 15 years for murder) anyway I did a deal with glyn; I would work on the layout in the morning and the rest of the day was for her!

Once the levels had been checked we rolled some fibreglass insulation in the bottom of the river to protect the lining;



We then layed the lining over the river, relying on the weight of the water to compress the fibreglass into the shape of the riverbed;



built a bit of a rockery and laid the bridge to ensure that the track had good clearance;



Well thats it for today! now its down to drinking and celebrating (?) the 40 years!!

Mikey

Congrats on the 40th, it is all downhill from now on as the spouse should by now have a good idea of your requirements and have a much better chance of providing a satisfactory service.

Thankyou Geoff, but I wont tell her that!! et merci bien monsieur Micheline (Billard)

mikey

Finally back on line after over a week, good old Orange!!
It is good you have turned the first sod! As you say, one difficulty is where to start when there are endless option, the luxury of space is sometimes a handicap. At least it looks as if I will have something to see if I manage to do the grand tour next summer.

wondered what had happened Peter! Yes there will certainly be something to see next summer.

A time of waiting for a while: the weight of the water is settling the liner nicely and we have saturated the area with weedkiller, (not a product that poisons the earth ,just kills everything green it touches!). Next stage must be the building of a fence as we caught two deer drinking from the 'river' last night!!

Mikey

Congratulations on your ANNIVERSARY by the way, 1968 must have been a vintage year as it was our 40th in August this year.

The internet is stll a bit flakey it was off for most of the afternoon. F/T engineer should be arriving 10 am tomorow!!!!!

thankyou Peter and congrats to you1 we are a rare breed these days!!. Looking forward to seeing your pics on here (that will be three forums i've seen them on,but thats good, more the merrier

mike

mikeyh wrote:

thankyou Peter and congrats to you1 we are a rare breed these days!!. Looking forward to seeing your pics on here (that will be three forums i've seen them on,but thats good, more the merrier

mike

The first 42 years are the worst
Are there more than this and GSM in the way of forums?

None that i have found to be worthwhile, but Peters work is also on the Canals forum, (really useful if you have a water feature. its run by Foxshaw Gardens)

mikey

There are quite a few forums now Geoff. See the links section for some and take your pick.
Have a look around the web and post anywhere (and everywhere) you want to.

Mikey or Peter, what's the URL of the canals forum please and I will add it to the links page.

Foxshaw gardens on line http://www.fgo.org.uk

mikey

A good start Mikey.

Are you going to form hills with the spoil ?
Its good to have a few grades on the line - really adds to the interest.

well we are six days in and I've learnt a big lesson. Unlike when I was modelling in N and OO where I could stay up all night if neccessary to finish a project, with a Garden railway you cannot hurry nature!
We applied Roundup, a strong weedkiller, and cannot progress until the weeds have died.
We have been able to develop the end of the canal/river by the addition of a bridge (to hide the end of the hosepipe) and planting a couple of conifers;



mikey

Nice pic Mikey. Have I missed something though? The small bridge, is that another of your creations? I don't recall seeing any pics of it. Like the colouring of it...

I didnt think it worthwhile putting any pics up on the bridge,even though it caused me more problems than anything else. Had to measure the gradient and bank depth carefully so that the bridge would always be out of water.It was oil painted and then, using the end of a large rawlplug dipped in paint the random effect of stones was put on and then weathered. Its had 4 coats of paint so should be OK. Think i've sorted the thatching problem now. watch this space. Anything new on the figure front?

Mike

Yes a good start

no progress this weekend (we're still waiting for the weedkiller to do its evil stuff) Anyway we're playing,sorry testing trains today!!meet the chief tester/wrecker!



mikey