Peter Insole
Western Thunderer
I'm sorry about delaying with any replies, but I have spent the last week dodging showers and dealing with a deflated mood by just knuckling down to a major clear up! I am still hoping to have an "Inauguration ceremony" of some sort, (hopefully this coming weekend) and would like everything to be as tidy as possible for the event!
If the truth be told; I had thoroughly exhausted myself with the effort of building the extension, so was not really in a fit state for anything too exciting - let alone strenuous last week anyway?!
A big, belated "thank you" is overdue to all, for the kind remarks and practical assistance with this project.
I will attempt to answer your very good question too Tony...
The original plan for the railway was little more than a means to provide an outdoor running capability for the engine - that was primarily intended for indoor operation! I really should have anticipated the inevitable escalation into a full-blown, all singing and dancing, garden railway!
Mr. O., had already made plans, and was busily buying materials for his "adopted" garden, and I saw the opportunity to combine his desire for slate chipping pathways with my own for running trains! At the time, a pauper's choice of rail was rather limited to using UPVC strip however, and that material benefitted from the continuous support provided by the previously acquired, geodetic, "ground stabilisation matting"!
Although in retrospect, railway formations and footways should never be mixed (unless the rails are buried in true tramway fashion) but we have a very narrow plot that left little choice for any alternative anyway! Even after making the rather bold decision to go for proper profile, aluminium rail, and quite apart from cost considerations, the maximum height of 16mm was chosen in order to reduce the possibility of trips and twisted ankles!
Slate chippings are indeed very pretty, and given our (slightly tenuous) family connections with Cymru, are quite pleasing. They are however next to useless as track ballast - for while it is happily non compressible and perfectly load bearing, being a mass of little flat, sliding, non interlocking, rock renders the material quite incapable of holding sleepers laterally! There is no such issue with laying rails on the matting, but on conventional trackwork, a decent, granular and drainable material for grip is absolutely necessary! I decided to use heavier than usual (for 5 inch gauge) sleepers on the loop line, and set them deep in Derbyshire stone - allowing for a top dressing of purely decorative slate in order to more closely match Mr. O's aspirations!
There are two main disadvantages with the matting though: It really requires a solid foundation of well compacted hardcore to maintain levels, and although there was plenty of rubbish available to "hide" beneath the formation, it was an awful lot of extra work smashing it up and pounding it in!
The second problem is more the result of choosing the low, 16mm rail, as apposed to the next size available: (21mm) - and designing the whole affair for the primary benefit of the grandchildren! The trouble is, they have a tendency to move about without having yet learned how to use their feet properly! They often run with a scuffing, toe down action, and also tend to suddenly stop, swerve or otherwise unexpectedly (for us oldies anyway) change direction! Such actions have the general effect of widely distributing carefully laid ballast, but more particularly, often end up ramming and jamming some of the chippings up under the rail heads - thus conflicting with wheel flanges and being the cause of many a bumpy ride, as well as the occasional derailment!
Timber sleepered track - although more expensive per metre - is very much simpler to lay in the first place - only requiring a membrane lined trench, but is also, more importantly perhaps, a great deal easier to adjust, re-align and re pack when the need arises.
Another plus is that the rail bridges the gap between the sleepers, and ballast seems more often go under, rather than over - as well as sliding easily off the smooth areas of timber. We have had far fewer "incidents" on the previously laid junction points - and none at all in the station area!
Fears of durability or gauging issues with the peculiar matting system have so far proved to be unfounded, and it certainly "did the trick" of encouraging further development in the first place... but I would definitely not recommend its use in future!
Heavy duty matting - of the type used for vehicular traffic, might be quite a bit more expensive, but laid as intended with a fine "pea shingle" or plain turf, and a using a higher profile rail, could provide a useful solution for ground level trackwork in some awkward situations? I would be just as suspicious of using that stuff as any other form of plastic sleepering - anywhere near live steam locomotives though?! Timber can get set alight, but is fairly easily doused. Charred sleepers can retain their integrity, (up to a point) but melting plastic is not nice at all!
Much as I love the idea and appearance of inset tramlines, I am sticking with ordinary for the coming run-round, turntable/engine shed spurs, and the long siding up to the "driveway"!!
Pete.
If the truth be told; I had thoroughly exhausted myself with the effort of building the extension, so was not really in a fit state for anything too exciting - let alone strenuous last week anyway?!
A big, belated "thank you" is overdue to all, for the kind remarks and practical assistance with this project.
I will attempt to answer your very good question too Tony...
The original plan for the railway was little more than a means to provide an outdoor running capability for the engine - that was primarily intended for indoor operation! I really should have anticipated the inevitable escalation into a full-blown, all singing and dancing, garden railway!
Mr. O., had already made plans, and was busily buying materials for his "adopted" garden, and I saw the opportunity to combine his desire for slate chipping pathways with my own for running trains! At the time, a pauper's choice of rail was rather limited to using UPVC strip however, and that material benefitted from the continuous support provided by the previously acquired, geodetic, "ground stabilisation matting"!
Although in retrospect, railway formations and footways should never be mixed (unless the rails are buried in true tramway fashion) but we have a very narrow plot that left little choice for any alternative anyway! Even after making the rather bold decision to go for proper profile, aluminium rail, and quite apart from cost considerations, the maximum height of 16mm was chosen in order to reduce the possibility of trips and twisted ankles!
Slate chippings are indeed very pretty, and given our (slightly tenuous) family connections with Cymru, are quite pleasing. They are however next to useless as track ballast - for while it is happily non compressible and perfectly load bearing, being a mass of little flat, sliding, non interlocking, rock renders the material quite incapable of holding sleepers laterally! There is no such issue with laying rails on the matting, but on conventional trackwork, a decent, granular and drainable material for grip is absolutely necessary! I decided to use heavier than usual (for 5 inch gauge) sleepers on the loop line, and set them deep in Derbyshire stone - allowing for a top dressing of purely decorative slate in order to more closely match Mr. O's aspirations!
There are two main disadvantages with the matting though: It really requires a solid foundation of well compacted hardcore to maintain levels, and although there was plenty of rubbish available to "hide" beneath the formation, it was an awful lot of extra work smashing it up and pounding it in!
The second problem is more the result of choosing the low, 16mm rail, as apposed to the next size available: (21mm) - and designing the whole affair for the primary benefit of the grandchildren! The trouble is, they have a tendency to move about without having yet learned how to use their feet properly! They often run with a scuffing, toe down action, and also tend to suddenly stop, swerve or otherwise unexpectedly (for us oldies anyway) change direction! Such actions have the general effect of widely distributing carefully laid ballast, but more particularly, often end up ramming and jamming some of the chippings up under the rail heads - thus conflicting with wheel flanges and being the cause of many a bumpy ride, as well as the occasional derailment!
Timber sleepered track - although more expensive per metre - is very much simpler to lay in the first place - only requiring a membrane lined trench, but is also, more importantly perhaps, a great deal easier to adjust, re-align and re pack when the need arises.
Another plus is that the rail bridges the gap between the sleepers, and ballast seems more often go under, rather than over - as well as sliding easily off the smooth areas of timber. We have had far fewer "incidents" on the previously laid junction points - and none at all in the station area!
Fears of durability or gauging issues with the peculiar matting system have so far proved to be unfounded, and it certainly "did the trick" of encouraging further development in the first place... but I would definitely not recommend its use in future!
Heavy duty matting - of the type used for vehicular traffic, might be quite a bit more expensive, but laid as intended with a fine "pea shingle" or plain turf, and a using a higher profile rail, could provide a useful solution for ground level trackwork in some awkward situations? I would be just as suspicious of using that stuff as any other form of plastic sleepering - anywhere near live steam locomotives though?! Timber can get set alight, but is fairly easily doused. Charred sleepers can retain their integrity, (up to a point) but melting plastic is not nice at all!
Much as I love the idea and appearance of inset tramlines, I am sticking with ordinary for the coming run-round, turntable/engine shed spurs, and the long siding up to the "driveway"!!
Pete.
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