This is the story of the Ringbalin Light Railway a line that exists only in the realms of my rather wandering imagination. The railway is G scale (45mm track), being built in a 15.5M x 8.5M area of my backyard and will be an elevated one, mainly because having 2 artificial hips crawling around on the ground is just not fun. The material I am using is recycled Aust hardwood decking with concrete fibre board (used to line showers and bathrooms) as the base. The hardwood is from the house deck that was replaced recently, this stuff is that so that I cannot screw into it without pre-drilling, if I don't pre-drill the screws just shear off. I am using a ladder construction method with it being a dual level. The pictures taken from the shed door may give a bit of an idea of where this is all going to happen (that bush and a tree behind it just have to go).
After a visit from a nice man with a Bobcat, wielding a chainsaw and using a stump grinder the bush and tree were removed and an area was cleared to allow the railway to pass.
The original plan was for dual track on the same level but after a random suggestion from SWMBO that I could build a mountain in a corner the wild imagination kicked in and a total redesign happened. The track is now going to be on 2 levels with one level being 400mm higher than the other to simulate crossing the valley side. Pictures show a before and after of the redesign plus a mockup of how the trains will be in relation to each other.
The plan has evolved a bit more with a town/yard area to be built across the what will be the front area, when viewed from the house. The upper level will now come down the 400mm over a 4% grade to run through the town and then rise up again over another 4% grade. The furthest extent of the layout is in the vicinity of the post near the piece of lattice. Pictures show a mock up of the idea, now its just a small matter of making it work how hard can that be?
The ladder across the back fence is now complete so construction is now moving to the corner where the track will curve toward the side fence and the upper level will start its descent down the 4% grade (see last picture of previous post). To give some perspective of the size the fence posts are spaced at 2350mm, the fence height follows the contour of the ground so some levelling has had to be done (see pictures 2 & 3). The bridge was added because; 1. it was left from my old layout in Bomaderry NSW (so a bit of phoenixing is taking place) and 2. I did not have to make a ladder across that section which saved some timber and my back. The bridge deck is made from piece of a metal bunk bed, the truss part is from an old dog bed, the infill for the truss is from the bottom of bread crate, all of which were found at the local rubbish dump recycle centre. In fact except for the wooden spacer blocks and the screws all of the layout is made from recycled from things that were headed for the rubbish dump or were recovered from my old layout. (pictures of old layout to come).
Some pictures of my old railway that I tore up when I moved to my new house (retirement location). Sadly the suspension bridge could not be saved due to the deck part rotting and the metal parts rusting away. The trestles was made from garden stakes but rotted away at ground level and they too could not be saved. The bridge I have reused was originally a liftout so I could get around the corner to the rest of the lawn with the mower. The track came with me and is going to be used again.
The railway has been renamed to the Ringbalin Light Railway (the old railway above was located in Ringbalin Cres so a bit of a connection), there will now be 2 layouts with the same name the G Scale one and a new HO one (Gormo has been helping me find layout designs). The name change was brought about after I spoke to a bloke at the local model train club, which I will most likely join, who told me that theft of model trains in the local area is prevalent. He suggested that if I identify the suburb, town etc then I may attract some attention. He has had 2 lots of trains stolen and 2 persons involved in the last theft were members of the club, they joined so that they could learn where members layouts were, a sad state of affairs. I am working on a Blog where, in the future, I will post progress reports etc. if I can get it working. Edit; Well it had to happen; I found a plan that Gormo sent me that I liked but unfortunately was larger than the area I had set aside for a layout. The only possible solution I could think of was a "land grab" with the size going from 10' x 6' to 10' x 10', the board of control commented that the area seemed bigger today than yesterday so I explained it is but I had pruned off some tracks on the plan. Not sure if Hmmmm! is a sign of approval or not.
Bit more progress on the G Division with the first Bent trestle bridge that I building. The trestle will be approx 14 Foot long, curved, have a 3% grade to bring the upper level down so that it will run through the "town" across the front when it is built. I am building it out of 12mm square hardwood garden stakes and offcuts from the merbau decking (used to replace the old deck timber which is now the track base support) which is glued together with exterior PVA glue and nails. I have put wire mesh under the bents so that I can put stones under the bridge to simulate a rocky valley/gully. Still working on the blog and things look promising, fingers crossed.
Well I finally could get out to work on the G Division this morning as the weather was kinder (only 31C and cloudy but is now teeming rain). I completed the trestle to about the halfway mark, so now I have to do a bit more framing including digging in a post (that will be fun in the heat). Some pictures of progress so far, looking at it now I may have to figure out a way to catch anything that falls of it (that will never happen as my track laying is perfect ) That horrible black thing is a cut down gas cylinder that will be pushed into the corner and a plant will be put in it to try and shade the corner. Detail of how I made the trestle bents will be on my blog when I get a roundtuit. https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
Graeme it’s great to have a blank canvas to plan and build a garden railway. The trellis work to hold the baseboards looks great and I love the wooden structure to your bridge.
Well after getting a "Roundtuit" I was inspired to update my blog with pictures and a bit of a blurb about the G Division. Blog for both G and HO divisions can be found here; https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html Hope you enjoy reading it, it's a bit rough around the edges but I can smooth it up later as I begin to learn and understand how to. I plan to put some "How I did it" pages up later.
Quite jealous of the great outdoors, based on your previous layout and the work so far, this one should be impressive Paul
Hi Graeme, Yes I agree it is lovely to have blank canvas, as you can alter things as you go along with your build. Not sure if you have seen my messages on Platform1mrc or not we have a 32mm garden railway at home which is posted on You Tube. Ours is like yours built with a blank canvas. It's still not finished after 2/5 years work. I love the wooden viaduct you are building it will look good when it's finished. We also have a major project starting in March we have been given a plot of land to build a railway for our Cornish Group and members of the General public to enjoy. Further updates will be posted when I know more, I believe a 45mm track will also be incorporated with the build for anyone that has 45mm locks and rolling stock and can run on our railway once built. Keep up the good work looking forward to seeing more of your project. Kindest regards, Gloria..
If I have my way this production is going to be bigger than Ben-Hur. The genie (my imagination) is out of the bottle, I have been doing a bit of "soft rock" installation on the HO stand and made some "foliage" to give the corner mountain some character. Standby for pictures and a blog update.
I took advantage of a cloudy day, so the trestle is finally finished. The bents are 300mm (12" in old money) apart, so the whole thing is about 3.9 M in length (13 Foot), the drop over the length is about 100mm (4"). More pictures on the blog shortly https://ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html