Tunnel Portals

Hi Steven,
further to your enquiry in G Scale Central heres some pics (hopefully) to go with my reply in the latter.

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Since I made the horseshoe portals five years ago, I have had to attack the lower edges with an anglegrinder to allow my Bachmann cente cab diseasel to circumnavigate the line. Apart from that I doubled the track and allowed for wider stock by just casting square portals.

If you are interested, I can show and describe my modular castings for double and single bridges and viaducts.

Mick

what a beautiful tunnel portals i ever see!!!...what a exellent job u did tht...good heaven!!!....wish i want the same as u!!!! hw long did u make tht til u put it?

wow what a beauty!!..loves it.....hw long did u make tht?......it look brillant..........wish i have tht!!!!!!.........but it so good one!!

Hi Steven,
Thanks for your kind words - but they are simple to make! Everything I have cast in concrete has been basically flat - just like casting a paving slab. Decide what size you want your portal (overall dimensions and the opening size - allow at least 6 inches for width of opening [more if track curves in and out of tunnel] and maybe 10 inches high {this gives you just over 9 imches clearance for loco allowing for height of track})

My moulds were all made from scrap wood (even pallets!). Screwing wood together allows the mould to be dismantled if the casting is difficult to remove. If you can use a handsaw, a drill and a screwdriver your 99% of the way there!

I'll post something on bridges and viaducts tomorrow (have to resize all photos).

Mick

hi tammayo..here is a photos of it yr ago.....

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Hi Steven - like the look of the woodwork - nice material to work with. Its a bit easier to trim wood or move it rather than attacking concrete as I had ti do! Still working on resizing my pictures. I had hoped to include a diagram but can't get it down small enough to post.
Mick

Here's some pics of a concrete bridge I built five years ago - the arches and decking were also used in my viaduct.

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The bridge/viaduct arches have a thinner parapet wall than the rest of the arch. This is done by laying a piece of suitable sized wood in the mould. Also, to imitate the coping or top stones, a piece of moulding (scotia - concave wood moulding) was fixed in the mould and, after ther mould was filled, anothe piece was screwed down on top - thus giving a chamfered edge to the top of the wall. THe trowel was used to crudely scribe the stonework in the wet concrete.
Re-inforcing is important, a decent strong mix (4 sand and 1 cement) and leave a few days until set.
Here's some more pics.
Mick

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wow tht is so interesting informations about yr way of building it,,,exellent results........loves tht arches .....very clever indeed......hw many bridges and arches did u make it so far?

here is my 2nd wooden tunnel portals that i took a pictures of them.......weds 10th march 2010s......see this ivy plant creeping all over the top portal to hide the back......cover up...wink

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Hi Steven, wood is a nice material and blends in very well in the garden. I like the ivy - I have encouraged mine to spread (have to trim it back sometimes) - once it gets established its away!

I just built the one bridge and viaduct in concrete - the rest is in wood (trestles and a cantilever bridge) and one simple truss in metal (old bed iron mainly). Here's some pics of the viaduct.

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Here are some more pics
Only the viaduct piers are different - everything else used the same bits (only more of them) as the bridge.
Mick

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... and here's some other bridges as mentioned previously...

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what a exellent stuffs u have out there!!!!....i loves tht spectrum ton diesel.....i had them years ago..but got sold to a bloke but i do want to get it agian coz im doing another layout this spring......what types of gravel do u use it? pea gravel? or?

aslo trestle bridges as well........aslo bridges....

Some nice work there!  Some more piccies please

John
Principal Operator of the H&M Garden Railway & organiser Wellington Garden Railway Group
I don't take myself seriously, so I apologize if you do.

Hi Steven,
I use Westland Horticultural Grit - I looked at all sorts of gravel but this was the nearest in scale size. It cost about five euro for a 25kg bag so should be a lot cheaper in the UK (where it comes from). One point, because is it quite small (average 4mm size) it washes away in heavy rain unless you can contain it - like an edge to your trackbed.
Mick.

Hi John,
I've been busy resizing pics most show the various phases of construction (or pre) and some show as of today (galloping moss and windburnt conifers!). I'll see what I can post.
Mick

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And some more. First tunnel was shuttered concrete built around wood former and the second was built up and capped with scrap polystyrene packaging before sculpting concrete on top. The mountain is made from old rubble and demolition material capped with concrete and either trowelled up or worked with a stiff paint brush. I painted it green using oil based undercoat.
Mick

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Finished tunnels

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