Ringbalin Light Railway G Division

With the cooler weather, work can now recommence on the G layout.
The "High" trestle looked a bit out of place with a rocky base under it and a track on level ground in front.
I decided to lower the roadbed in front and add a "Low" trestle to continue the rocky creek bed/gully theme, this will take the gully to the layout edge.
To make the low trestle I recovered a trestle that was used on my old layout, it was made out of plastic molding and looked shiny and un natural so I scribed "wood grain" using a razor saw and painted it grey to try and get rid of the plastic shine.
The idea will be to extend the rocks under the high trestle and out under the low one.
I have some offcuts of synthetic turf that I intend to use under half of the high trestle to simulate a grassy creek bank.
The Low trestle will also curve across the corner.

Lowered track bed front view​

Lowered trackbed​

Before and after bents

And a bit of planting has commenced with a tree (pale green the darker green is a vine from next door that will get a drink of Glysophate) in the large black "pot" and some iris underneath to try and hide the "pot". The "pot is actually an old gas cylinder cut down and it was in the front yard when we bought the house but SWMBO banished it outback so I had to get rid of it of hide it.

 

Further work has been completed;
The benchwork for the Low Trestle is in, as is part of the base for what will be a "Meadow/Paddock" (made of synthetic turf offcuts) on the bank of the rocky creek. A couple of the bents have been roughed in to see how they fit.
All under the high Trestle that does not have rocks will be "Meadow" as well along whole length of the line either side of the low trestle.
Under the Low Trestle will be rocks held by mesh and chicken wire..
The pile of the turf is a bit high and if it looks silly close to the sleepers I will paint a strip of brown and yellow along the edge to simulate poisoned grass.





The benchwork that takes the line down from the low end of the High Trestle to the level of the lower line is complete.
It is a bit steep at 5% but its is a mountain line after all, so a whole heap of playing/testing will be required to see if it causes a problem for the trains.





I need more Fibre Cement sheeting to complete the job so that will be the next stage.
Blog will be updated in due course.

 

I had a think about the 5% grade and decided that it may be to steep, so I extended the horizontal to 6.1 Metres (20Ft in old money) with a drop of 255mm (10 inches) this gave me a grade of 4.1% which should be OK.





Because the support rails are in between fence posts I had to put in a small post between the rails, I use some galvanized C Purlin to do it.

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Now that the 2 lines are at the same level they will now pass through a 180 degree 3.1 Metre (10 Ft) Diameter curve leading to a straight which will head back parallel to the lower line at the same height before turning 90 degrees.
I laid some boards out on the ground to get an idea of what I will have to do, looks like at least 3 posts to be concreted into the ground.



Blog has been updated https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

 

Bit of blatant advertising.
I have updated my blog to add a description of my G scale Bachmann 3 Truck Shay which I converted to battery remote control.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/3-truck-shay.html
As time goes by I will add description of all my locos plus the methods I use for the remote control.

 

Work on the low trestle area has started.
A few pictures to show the work, I have put some stones and roughed in some turf to get a feel for what I am trying to do.
Blog to be updated.

 

As can be seen in a couple of pictures above, the high trestle developed a low spot centered on 1 bent, initial investigations suggested that the dodgy method of skew screwing the support board had failed.
Further investigations revealed that 2 of the 4 screws at the end of the baseboard and one on the bent support had been sheared possibly by something heavy landing on the trestle.
I suspect either next doors moggy or "old poss" the possum using the trestle as a pathway after jumping off the fence.
This has now been repaired so work is scheduled for the low trestle work to recommence.

Blatant blog advert; https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
The blog has been updated to include descriptions of 2 more locos ( Side Rod and Sugar Cane), these ones have sound cards and motor delay so that the sound "Revs" build before the loco begins to move.
The delay is provided by running the throttle signal through a "Picaxe" microcontroller, sound input passes straight through but motor is delayed.
The sound cards are of a design dating back to the 1970's using discrete IC Shift Registers, these days the same could be achieved by microcontrollers.

 

The "Low" Trestle is finished and some baseboards have been installed.
Baseboards are made of Fibre cement sheeting (Villaboard in Aust) used to line showers
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Blog has been updated

 

Work has progressed quite quickly thanks to COVID-19 isolation
The line on both the high and low trestle have been screwed down and the scenery underneath both has been finished.
I am still contemplating whether to put an edge on the high trestle or not, plus I am thinking about some sort of safety rail to catch any rolling stock that may derail.









Blog will be updated with more pictures.

 

Work then moved to baseboard construction with the villaboard base being cut and installed.
The plan is to lay the track and cover as much as I can with the artificial turf offcuts I have,

Across the back Fence


Down the side fence




Again Blog to be updated.

 

Track has been laid.

 

Clearance testing on the high trestle was undertaken and all is OK in fact a whole lot of testing was undertaken to prove the reliability of the track.
The silver bridge shown in an earlier post has been removed because when I came to lay track across it I found that it had a 21mm height difference between the centre and one end, I am guessing that it got bent in the removals trick when it came up here.





And some drama was unfolding between the trestles while testing was being done.

 

I have now updated my Blog so it reflects the work from the start to stage1 completion.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

 

Stage 2 has begun it involves bringing the 2 tracks around a series of curves to run into the "town area.
As there are no fence posts to attach to I have had to cut my own and concrete them in, they are made of galvanized "C" purlin (used to build sheds etc).
Pictures progress so far.






I have also built and planted out some garden beds under the track of stage 1, the plants are Acalyphas which are a tropical plant that have colourful leaves and can be hedged. There are a number of varieties available so all the leaves are not the same.
The idea is that they will grow to the height of the fence and spill into the gap between the upper and lower levels. I have also planted a couple behind the high trestle to hide an ugly pot and to give a leafy backdrop behind the trestle.
There are also an Australian native groundcover a prostrate form of Grevillea banksia.

 

Its been a busy month with no posts about the railway but heaps of work being done.
Just a few pictures to show what has been going on the railway, not a lot but descriptions and all the piccies are on my blog (In Latest Posts) because there is to much to squeeze into one thread.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/search/label/Latest Posts
Some landscaping (including Firepit) and baseboard construction has been underway, Coleus Corner is finished, a lattice fence has been put up, and a lift up bridge has been started.





This is the bridge opening idea I am following, the hinges are below the bridge instead of the norm of them being above the railhead. Bit more engineering but not really that daunting.

 

Its been a while since my last post so a couple of picture to show progress of the layout.
I have now laid the baseboard so I can lay track to form my "Lower" Loop the "Upper" Loop is a work in progress.

My blog has been updated showing all the progress so far.
Latest post.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/search/label/Latest Posts
Construction Logs.
https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/build-stage-1.html





Work on the HO Division layout has come to a screeching halt as construction of the G Division has taken precedence while the weather is cooler.

 

It's been a while as I had to wait till my shoulder recovered from an overuse injury (SWMBO keeps banging on about old age) but I have now started taking the upper level, line that came down via the "High" trestle back up "Uphill" to where it started.

To save timber I cut a steel C purlin so it formed a ramp of sorts that carries the track up to a point where it curves and rises up to a bridge which after it crosses will again curve and rise till it gets back to the Upper Level.

I had to join 2 pieces of track part way through the curve and to stop a kink at the joint I soldered the joiners in place to give added strength (I have used this method in HO and it worked well).

I have some artificial turf offcuts and I have placed a piece against the "ramp" to hide it, I will contemplate using more if I can work it into the scenery.

At the moment all components have been "roughed in".

Work on The HO layout progressed a little while recovering so it was not all bad trainwise.

Pictures explain it better than I can, and as usual the blog will be updated in due course.

 

Blog has now been updated

https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/2020/09/7-stage-3-september-2020-upper-loop.html

 

I now have 2 loops operational and did a bit of scenery on the layout.
I installed a crossover so that trains can run around both loops in both directions, it makes for some interesting operating sessions.
A bit of "testing" was required before a compliance certificate was issue to authorise operations.
Blog "Construction Logs" have been updated to show the construction progress in more detail Ringbalin Light Railway G Division: Construction Logs (ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com), below are some pictures to whet the appetite.

 

It took a while but the Stainz to Cane Tank Engine conversion is close enough to call complete, just needs a few finishing touches like coal in the bunker some non slip plating in front of the tanks and exhaust piping to the smoke box.
As luck would have it, the coupler height of the Stainz shunting device (do not know the correct name) is the same height as the whole stick wagons.

A Couple of pictures to whet the appetite till the blog gets an update; it will have all the details about the bash and the control and sound functions..

This is the inspiration, a cane loco in Ipswich Railway Workshop Museum

My project