Ash Vale Light Railway

Basically it was 18/19m outdoor ply, although that picture is the very early stage of building...
 
Roofing felt was added and pvc edging to hold the balast in
 

 
 

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Thanks, that looks nice, simple, effective and like it won't break the bank.

Hullo Daniel,
 
I like the track plan and I look forward to seeing the layout build progress.
 
Re brickwork, I've visited a layout in Cambs, where all the paviour type bricks had been glued together using silicon. Easy to dismantle if you get it wrong, and a good method if you can't lay mortar....

Well, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather today to do some loose-laying and checking. (Sadly no Testing)

After acquiring a couple of SH R3 points from Glendale, I've modified my passing loop plan to eliminate the R1 points.


I think I might have to reduce the length of the straight section a tiny bit to allow a little more clearance where the tracks converge.

I also loose-laid the triangle which connects the main loop to the terminus.


Of course, I had to get some stock out to test clearances. Sadly the track is too dirty and uneven to consider testing.


I now also have a small supply of bricks and rubble, which was removed from my garage when a rear door was installed. This should provide a start for civil engineering

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Well, taking advantage of the decent weather on Bank Holiday Monday, I made a start on the baseboards for the terminus station, assisted by my friend Adrian (who is a garden railway veteran, though in HO rather than G).

I've given up on the idea of using bricks, as I had very few in decent enough condition for re-use.
Instead I'm using 'Metpost' fence post bases, supporting cut-down fence posts and a standard ply and timber top, covered in roofing felt for waterproofing.

Step 1 was to loose-lay the track and decide where the supports would go:


Next the baseboard tops were built.


The fence posts were hammered into the Metpost bases and then attached to the bottom of the board. Finally, roofing felt was laid on the boards for weather protection.

The bin liners are covering the framework that the adjacent baseboards will attach to.

Of course, I had to check that the stock fitted OK.


Next phase: The three tracks will merge into one alongside the fence (so you can walk alongside them) and then fan out into three loco sidings.

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Well you have been busy mate.
 
This topic also threw up some interesting track laying ideas i may store for the future.
 
Look forward to seeing a lot more of your railway as it matures.
 
Jason.
 

Since my last post, things have been moving on slowly and steadily.
A couple of months ago, I completed the baseboards for the loco sidings alongside my conservatory. I then hit a snag when it came to preparing to lay track.

Having read the various posts on here about ensuring electrical connectivity, I decided to go for the belt-and-braces approach and bond track sections.
However, as others have found, it's hard work soldering LGB track, even with a 120W gas iron.
Eventually, after having a high-velocity blob of solder come within 5mm of hitting me in the eye, I decided to give it up as a bad job.
I'm now using fishplates + graphite paste for joins between new/clean sections of track, with Hillman rail clamps used for second hand/dirty sections (after cleaning the ends with a fibre-brush.

After this decision, things moved quickly, and today I finished off the track laying in the terminus and sidings. (With additional entertainment provided by those kindly people at Farnborough airfield).


A view along the station wih the Stainz on testing duties. The loco sidings can be seen in the background.


A more general view of the terminus itself. The vegetation is going to have to be kept in check for normal running.
The two roads nearest the camera will have an island platform between them. The rear road will be for loco run-round/freight. The short siding will be for the station pilot or a spare loco.


Checking the platform roads for length, a couple of GSC members might recognise the stock on the middle road.

The end of the day saw the first train movement, with the Stainz moving up and down the station. This was achieved by using some LGB track terminals (which had to be attached above, rather than below the track as there isn't a way of getting them underneath track once it's pinned down).

Next step is to build the control panel and wire everything up. The advantage of using rail-clamps is that I can put a crimp on the bolts and supply power through that, rather than trying to solder the wires onto the rails.

I also plan to start work on the next baseboard (so the throat point doesn't end up hanging in mid-air. This will be an interesting exercise, as it's the board that contains the triangle section and will also be venturing into the jungle part of my garden.

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Coming on really nicely mate all looks very well built which should help with soomth running, please keep us updated with progress.
 
Jason.

Looks very nice indeed.  Please keep on posting the pictures! 

Well. progress towards the end of last year hadn't been as good as I'd hoped (work, women and weather getting in the way).
However, I've made it my New Years Resolution to get the railway finished track/baseboards wise this year, and I've been making a good start over the last couple of weekends.

On Sunday 9th, I built the small oddly-shaped baseboard adjacent to the existing terminus, which will be one corner of the triangle.

Like the terminus, it is standard ply top with timber frame, covered in roofing felt.
The photos shows it in place, with some track loose-laid.

Then, I spent last weekend dodging raindrops installing the baseboards as far as the back fence.


Here, I'm using 6in wide decking as the track bed.
The baseboard alongside the fence is screwed onto horizontal chunks of fence post, which are then attached by metal brackets to the bottom of the fence (once I found sections that weren't completely rotten).
The rest of the decking is on top of short fence posts, which are inserted into spiked Metposts.
At the time of the photo, not all of the supports were in place, but by the end of Sunday, all baseboards were in and secured.
The track here is only loose-laid at present until I've put in the boards for the other two sides of the triangle (to make sure everything aligns correctly).

I've got a week off work next week, so, weather permitting, hopefully I'll make some more progress.

--
Daniel

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Looking good so far.  Glad the weather is holding up for you.

Hi, looking like you will have a great railway.
One observation - you have used insulated fishplates on both rails for your station sections. It is not necessary to break both rails - it works fine to keep one side of the track conrinuous and just break the other side. This also makes wiring up much easier as you only need one wire to each section.

I agree, common return does make life easier, but I went for the double-insulated joins as I want to allow each section to be switched between two controllers (which could potentially be on opposing polarities).

That way, one person can be doing some shunting in one platform or the sidings, while someone else brings in a train from the main line.

Point taken.

 
Looks like good solid progress.

Progress continues, despite the rain.



The baseboard for the next leg of the triangle is in place and secured. You can tell where the track was sitting during alignment by the dry spots on the board!

The track along the straight leg is now also secured into place.

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Progress continued today, with the baseboards for the third leg of the triangle installed and track loose-laid on it.

The two points are still loose, and the baseboard under the one on the left is just temporary, until I work out how far I need to extend it for the next seciton.

Unfrotunately, there's a bit of a gradient on the curved section, but hopefully it won't be too much a problem

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The 'Head of Steel' continues to move forward, slowly, but surely.

Today's progress

The overall view of work done so far.
The next phase is to complete the loop round the pond by connecting the point on the left to the other end of the triangle on the right. This will give me a continuous run for testing while I'm working on the main line (which branches off at the new point will and run behind the tree).
If the weather holds, I might even get it done tomorrow.

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Well thankfully the weather held (despite some rain last night) and I was able to complete the last bit of the initial circuit.
 
As it was getting dark, I rigged up some temporary wiring, to allow the Stainz and 4-wheelers to run the first train round the circuit under its own power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olnv5BdBQ9U
(Apologies for the poor quality, my camcorder's not great in low-light).
 
I've now decided that, now trains are running, the railway needs a name, so I've settled on the 'Ash Vale Light Railway', and renamed the thread accordingly.

superb matey - keep at it