Thanks lads for the kind comments and picture of the week I wouldn’t be where I am now without Kim’s help and support, cheers Kim Lunch break at the moment, here’s this morning efforts.... 5m incline behind 1st shade house which then enters second shade house S curves around the front of the citrus trees Start of the 10ft radius curve End of the curve will open out to a 12ft radius Looking at the s curve from the other direction Hoping to make this curve a feature, thinking about making it a girder bridge
Thanks Toto, Ian Good progress today. Extra post require on the long curved section. The angled pole will be removed once the concrete has set nice and hard. Ralph
...termites can have a chew if they want to, the rest of the wild life in Ralph’s garden will no doubt take up residences in the frame work, it’s really just those pesky Drop bears we have to worry about...
Today’s efforts... 95% completed but ran out of noggins and rivets yet another trip to Bunnings. Ralph.
This is going to be one serious garden railway... I'm really enjoying watching how it develops. Superb work Ralph and Kimbo and thanks for sharing the pictures also.
Cheers Ron and Paul Today marked a major goal in the construction of the garden layout, the metal frame work is now complete, gate latches done and working very well...now just a matter of villa boarding, wiring, track laying wiring track....... Ralph.
Wow, some serious engineering now, that's amazing! I'd love a curved track bed made out of that stuff for a bridge I need to conjure up for my line. Great progress!
Ralph that is going to be one mighty Railway . I will need to come and inspect it I think. What an epic build you and Kim have there. Great work!!!
Steve make sure it’s when the track laying starts we’ll need a bit of help laying 120m+ of track Great day yesterday Ralph, nice to put a tick in one of the many “todo” box’s Clive- it’s a great material to use and work with, light, very strong and no chance of rotting away. We have found that using the wooden curved formers I made, a really simply easy way to form a reasonably smooth curve. Kim
Clive, Steve, thankyou for the good comments !! Clive :- the material is Galvanised steel, ( usually used in stud walls ) Stud is 75mm x 30 x 30 x 1.6mm, and the Noggin is 73mm x 30 x 30 x 1.6 which fits inside Stud. Steve :- good to hear from you Ralph
Thanks Ralph, Kim, very interesting. I see my local Wickes sells that steel stud channelling, I am definitely going to investigate further. Another question, though, if I may: are there any details of the wooden formers and how they are used to get the right curves, please?
What a build. Well done on completing the supporting steel. A major accomplishment in itself. Looking forward to the next stage. First class. Toto
That is one serious endeavour! I will watch with interest as it develops. Thanks for sharing, I love a good build, especially an Engineeery type one
Hi Clive, I made the formers out of a couple of 3/4 inch pieces of sheet timber approx 1.2m long x 50mm wide (laminated chip board) screwed together. The bigger the better but I only had 1.2m bits lying around. I used a length of string with a pencil at one end and a nail on the other end hammered into my bench,set at the distance of the radius which was 8 feet on the one and 10 feet on the second former. Scribing a pencil arch onto the boards I then jigsawed them and gave the edge a sanding. To use them we simply cut the stud wall top and bottom at regular intervals using a drop saw, you can do it with an angle grinder with care. Then clamping the curved former to the side of the stud you simply bend the stud to the former and use plenty of clamps to hold it. Then we inserted several noggings at regular intervals, if you look at some of the pictures, we positioned them where we had cut the stud and then riveted either side into the nogging. At this stage it all a bit twisty and not very rigid but as you put the outside stud on to the first nogging adding a couple of rivets either side of the cut, you can then bend the outside stud to the previously fitted noggings adding a larger clamp across the whole assembly before riveting to outer stud to the noggings, as you work along the section it becomes more and more ridged until you end up with what could be described as a “curved ladder” section which is very strong. Probably sounds more complicated to do as written down, but it’s really quite simple and works really well. A couple of tips....1) the inner curve when bent makes the cut line open out, no worries there, but the outer stud cut line can fowl as you curve the outer section. Simply cut a small triangle section out and then as it curves in the two sides of the cut line will close up. ( depends on the radius size, the 10ft caused us no problems) 2) make sure you add rivets to the bottom of the noggings as this will take the twist out of the sections and obviously make it more ridged. Kim