Out to the shed and Garden in O gauge

Well time to admit I have definitely got ogaugeitis, and the inside self layout Anderson Barracks is coming along well and is great for running panniers and prairies. However the acquisition of an A3 and A4 has brought the idea of having somewhere to stretch their legs with a decent length train. On Anderson Barracks I can run the A4 with one Mk1. It just doesn't look right.

So I have a second garage which is 11m x 7m which can give up some space down one side for a storage yard with quite a bit of rearranging. Then there is the back yard which has space for a garden railway along the back fence and down the side.


Coming out of the garage we will be going across what MrsB refers to as the desert, where the car trailer parks. A 2m radius curve will bring it onto the back fence.


The back fence line will run uphill past our paltry rear garden with a couple of passing loops. Another 2m radius curve will then bring us to the side of the house.


Down the side will be a single track leading to a terminus, at this stage it will be a two platform and a couple of freight sidings. The whole run will be about 60m long.

There isn't room for a return loop so a turntable will be incorporated at the end of the terminus.


One of the bigger challenges is the gates to the desert. A 4m long sliding gate and a inwards swinging gate. The railway will need to be removable in these areas.

I have been looking at what to construct the garden section out of and I have 5 2.4m 90x90 H4 beams which will make good posts. I need to get a feel for what the spacing of the posts needs to be. The posts in the removable section in front of the gates will probably have to be steel. The right hand gate posts are removable but wouldn't be stable for a railway. So so bespoke engineering maybe required.

As for the railway deck, fibre cement boards or these new EKOdeck boards look good.

Lots of planning and information required. This should keep me occupied for a couple of years.

Cheers

Brian

 

Kim,

Thanks for the link to Ralph's build. I was looking at the C section galvanised studs the other day in Bunnings. A lot of metal cutting. I use a ryobi drop saw for wood work. will see if I can get a metal cutting blade for it.

So a couple of years down the track how has it gone. I am in a lakeside suburb so any rust? How is the expansion and contraction, any issues with the villaboard. How is the noise with the locos and stock running directly on the villaboard.

What did you use for the posts, looks like 50x50mm gal posts.

Enough questions for now.

Thanks

Brian

 

Thanks Bob, Good to know the villaboard can last the distance.

I was thinking of using wooden posts as I had them, but they can be used inside the garage.

Cheers

Brian

 

Thanks Graeme,

Just went and checked they are H4.



Will still investigate the use of Gal steel posts.

Cheers

Brian

 

Graeme, Kimbo, Others,

The baseboards will be the steel stud with villaboard on top.

You have got me thinking, I have a few options for the posts in the garden section:

1. Plant them as normal, I like the idea of the black epoxy at the concrete/air interface.

2. Use the retaining wall to bolt the posts to the inside of the wall using brackets.

3. Use the retaining wall and Alloy fence posts that have the flange and 4 bolt holes and bolt to the top of the retaining wall. See photos in first post to see the retaining walls.



4. Hang the railway off the Colourbond fence as like a shelf. It is only single or dual track so only 150- 250mm wide. Angle brackets bolted direct to the colourbond posts. Or add posts to the side of the colurbond.

Thoughts?

Cheers

Brian

 

Kim, I will definitely be using a combination, as I have to do concreted posts in the desert area.

Yes so do I, the Aluminium posts can be easily trimmed to length. I will use them all along the retaining wall. The curve in the corner may need something else, time to get the tape measure out and see exactly where a 2m radius will go. The only concern I have is that the capstones may come adrift or split when being drilled.

Yes this was my concern for this method as well. The fence is pretty solid but we have already had a truck sideswipe the fence in the rear lane.

What spacing did you use between the posts on Ralphs layout. Looks a reasonable distance in the photos.



I think I have a plan for crossing the gates. The Pink post will be concreted in. The Green posts bolted to the retaining wall. The blue post will be removable, probably a concrete footing and studs so I can unbolt the post when needed to be removed (not that often).

3 gates:
Yellow, opens inwards to allow access to the swing gate.
Red, longer to swing around and sit over top of left retaining wall when open. This will be a long gate and so maybe a wheel on end to support the weight.
White, shorter gate to swing past the trailer. (currently I only have the trailer in the desert but on occasion it shares the space with a car.

Need to do some testing to determine if this is viable.

Cheers

Brian

 

Kim, Thanks for the advice, I was in Bunnings yesterday and looking at the C channel studs. I couldn't find the noggins. Yes I tested the C channel for rigidity and they are rigid in one direction, I can see how when built into a ladder they would be very strong. They only sold them in up to 2.7m lengths, were did you get the 7.5m lengths from?

I will use 2m spacing for planning purposes.

Also looked for a metal cutting blade for my compound mitre saw and it was twice as much as just buying a cheap metal cutting drop saw. Will have to use a angle grinder or nibbler to cut the other half of the V on outside curves.

I also looked at gates when at Bunnings, although the gate plan above looks pretty I don't think it will work. Too many moving parts to try and align or keep aligned, and the inward swinging gates will foul on the trailer.

So I spent some time looking to see if I could avoid going across the big sliding gate. I have come up with a plan that goes around the back of the trailer, see below. The track at the back will be above the height of the trailer. That will require just one gate to access the smaller gate in the fence. That would be more complex but doable. The back of the garage is at the top of the diagram, the large grey box represents the trailer.

The plan will need some crossovers between the tracks and will go to single track past the plants along the back fence.

There is a 320mm height difference between where the tracks enter the garage and the mainline above. The later plan is to add a second level in the garage which will be 500mm above the lower level. These tracks should pass over the mainline with enough clearance and run downhill to join the mainline in the loop.

The curve of the loop near the trailer I will make foldable with temporary legs to give more room when backing the trailer.



This plan uses 2m radius inside curves and 2.1m radius outside curves. The plan also includes a reversing track, so I can send trains from the storage yard back to storage facing the other way.

Cheers

Brian

 

Ralph,

Thank you very much for that info, it is very useful.

Cheers

Brian