How I improved the rail joints on the swing bridges

To bridge the gaps required to give access to the patio and the sheds I installed a couple of swinging bridges. Initially these were simply planks with a hinge at one end (see How I bridged the gaps),

........ but over time I improved the appearance of the planks with a girder swing bridge, based on the girder swing bridge at Southwold (See How I constructed a swing bridge from uPVC trim) and a simple viaduct (see How I constructed the viaduct).

 Despite these cosmetic enhancements, I had never paid any attention to the rail-joints between the fixed and swinging lengths of track. Before each running session I would spend ten to fifteen minutes fiddling about with wooden wedges, pieces of lolly stick and chunks of tarpaulin lining-up and securing the rail joints. From time to time during running sessions these would become displaced and various items of rolling stock would become derailed or occasionally crash to the ground. For about a year I had noticed that the wooden post supporting the hinged end of the swing-bridge had rotted through and was no longer providing reliable support and at the start of this season the brass hinges on both bridges finally fell apart - why they put a steel rod through brass hinges never really made much sense to me! Although I could still run stock over the bridges, the amount of tweaking and fettling required and the number of derailments at the rail joints spurred me into action.

The replacement of the hinges was a relatively easy job, but the replacement of the post at the end of the swing bridge was a more involved process (See Progress Report 46). While I was waiting for the concrete to set I pondered how I might improve the joints between the rails at each end of the bridges. This posting describes the solution I deployed.

The first job was to provide some sort of catch for the swinging end of each bridge. Previously, I had relied solely on end of the bridge slotting into a chiselled groove and the weight of the bridge. Over the years, this system has become loosened by wear and in the case of the long swing bridge, the plank has warped slightly. To more precisely locate and lock the end of the bridge, brass door-bolts were attached to the end of the bridge and a hole was drilled into the facing blockwork to ensure firm and correct alignment.

Once the ends of the bridges had been sorted-out, I turned my attention to the more precise alignment of the rails themselves. Drawing upon several years' accumulated reading of model railway magazines I decided a similar sort of sliding bolt arrangement could be used for each rail - to ensure very precise alignment (I know from experience that a misalignment of even a millimetre or two is enough to deflect some flanges).

My rail-alignment-bolts comprise three components - two pieces of brass tubing and a bent galvanised nail. I would have used brass rod for the bolt but I didn't have any of the right size in stock and my local model shop was closed - so I improvised.

The bass tubes were tinned with solder, using my trusty 75watt soldering iron .....

... as were the ends of each rail.

I then sweated the tubing on to the rail. As the rail is a large conductor of heat I applied the iron firstly to the rail until the solder melted and then quickly replaced the iron with the tubing and applied the heat to the tube, running a fillet of solder between the two for good measure.

Once the two tubes had been successfully soldered into place, it was a simple matter of sliding the bolt into the tubes for pinpoint alignment.

You'll notice that I have also rounded the ends of each rail to help avoid the jolt if the looseness of the bolts causes the rails to slip a fraction of a millimetre out of true. To test the system, I ran my most fastidious rolling stock over the joints at breakneck speed - without mishap (so far).

This simple arrangement takes care of the need for the ends of the rails to be firmly fixed in place. I had tried that previously and in time, no matter which method I tried, the rails somehow became unfixed or the bridge itself moved out of line and so the tracks needed to be re-positioned. I am hoping that this method will prove more reliable

Once I have tested the system a few times I will re-ballast the track to improve its appearance and, to some extent, disguise the unprototypical hardware.

Planning the railway

For me. planning a layout is just as interesting as building and operating it. As you can see from my personal history of railway modelling, I spend a fair amount of time in the planning phase. In the case of my garden railway, the planning stage lasted around five years.

When I first laid out the garden, thirty years ago, I had half a mind to including a garden railway. Around twenty years later, this dream was realised.

The first few plans I drew were based on the garden design as it then existed.

From the start, I appreciated the importance of planning the railway so it could be built in phases. Firstly, this would allow me to spread the cost of construction over a more prolonged period and secondly, I felt it would help to maintain my interest over the years.

In the meantime, I continued researching - viewing video material and reading magazine articles and browsing websites for ideas and inspiration (see Where did I get my ideas from). I came to realise that, to maximise the potential of the garden and gain the most from the model, it would be better to redesign the garden. One particular video of a railway had the greatest impact on my thinking - it was Railways in the Garden vol 3 by Tony Morris. The video featured a railway which was built around the perimeter of a garden on raised beds constructed from several tons of rock. In the centre was a sunken lawn. I had already accumulated a good quantity of local red sandstone - some from a rockery which my parents removed from their garden, some which I had dug up from my own garden when landscaping it, and some bought by answering adverts in the local free paper. Metaphorical seeds were sown!

I decided to start from scratch and landscape the garden around the railway, rather than vice versa. I would lower the lawn to create some raised beds around its perimeter. Various ideas were considered:

Eventually, I homed in on a configuration which I felt would make the most of the available space ......

..... and so experimented with various ideas to make the most use of the space.

I toyed with the idea of basing the railway on a real prototype, in this case one of my favourite railways, the Southwold.

Ultimately, I decided on a less complex design which would allow me to build the railway in phases.

 Here's how the railway looks now

Initially, I had no particular prototype location in mind for my railway. However, after a stroll in the local countryside one weekend, I came up with the idea of setting my railway in the hills not far from where I live (see The line gains an identity and The route of the hypothetical line). After all, the red sandstone landscape was very much in keeping with the piles of rock in the garden!

To gain some idea of the growth of the railway over the years, this animation summarises the phases completed so far:

The railway has now been in place for around six years and is becoming bedded into the garden landscape. The present layout allows for a range of approaches to its operation. I can run trains end to end; I can set trains to tail chase around the main circuit or I can run out and back from either terminus. This animated plan with an on-board trip along the line from one end to the other shows how trains run from end to end:

Animated plan with on-board trip along the line

What I enjoy most is freight handling. I find a train of mixed goods far more interesting to watch and operate than passenger trains (see No 1 takes the pickup goods, A typical operating session and/or Computerised freight management).



For now, further development of the railway have stopped while I accumulate or anglicise more goods stock. However, those raised vegetable beds which my wife requested are quite strategically placed ........................

How I built the raised beds

How I built the raised beds (and clad them in sandstone)

Right from the planning stage I decided that the railway would be constructed on raised beds between one and two feet from the rest of the garden. My researches had concluded that not only does a raised railway make maintenance and operation easier, it presents the models more prominently. Also, I was preparing for retirement and its attendant decrepitude - one day I will not be able to kneel and stoop quite so easily!

Living in rural Cheshire, I am surrounded by red sandstone. In fact, when landscaping the garden I dug up a considerable mound of discarded sandstone and so I had a ready source of raw material. In addition, a couple of tonnes of discarded rockery stone advertised in the local free paper increased the mound substantially. However, I realised I did not have sufficient stone to construct free-standing walls entirely from sandstone and so an alternative approach was required. Having constructed a lean-to from brick and concrete ('breeze') blocks, I had a surplus which I experimented with, both as a trackbed (see How did I lay the track?) and as walling for the raised beds. The beds for the railway were constructed about four years ago and seem to have stood the tests and ravages of time and so, when my other-half requested some raised beds for her vegetables, I employed the same method (she hasn't realised yet that the vegetable beds are conveniently placed for a possible extension to the railway(!!)).

Building the bed

Firstly I marked out the location for the bed, using a breeze block as a measuring aid:

I then dug the footings for the wall, to the width and depth of the spade. I filled the trench with rubble which I enthusiastically bashed into place with a lump-hammer. This not only broke-up some of the larger chunks, it bedded them down into the trench:

I checked with the boss, who indicated her approval of the progress so far:

I then mixed the concrete for the footings - 4 parts sand, one part gravel and one part cement (see How I mixed the concrete) and shovelled this in on top of the rubble:

The concrete was smoothed down with a trowel and left to set for a day or two.

I then laid the blocks. A mortar mix of four parts sand and one part cement was trowelled on to the footings and a block laid on:

A fillet of mortar was trowelled on to the end of the next block and that was then laid behind the previous block:

 Each block was tapped into place with a rubber mallet and excess mortar removed with a small trowel.

As I was only laying one course of blocks I did not bother to check each with a spirit level. When laying more than one course I use a spirit level to ensure that each block is level and vertical before laying the next.

 Again, my work was supervised and approved by the boss.

As this bed was rectangular in shape, I decided to top it off with pre-cast coping slabs supplied by the builders' merchant. I have used small pieces of sandstone on the top of other beds, rather than leaving the surface open to the elements and susceptible to frost damage.

 My local builders' merchant did not sell corner pieces so I fashioned my own from a stiff mix of concrete.. Without a mould, the corners were difficult to shape as they kept falling off. However, I will add a fillet to each corner the next time I mix a batch of concrete.

 While I was waiting for my handiwork to set, I set to work splitting some of the sandstone chunks I had accumulated.

As sandstone is a sedimentary rock it is often possible to cleave it with a cold chisel and hammer. I found there is a limit to the width which can be achieved as, unlike slate, the strata are less well defined and some blocks are too crumbly to cleanly split. Also, they seem to split more readily if the sandstone is damp.

With some careful cleaving, I've found it's possible to get two or sometimes three rocks for the price of one:

Before cladding the blocks, I filled up the bed with a mix of manure and soil.

 As my soil is quite heavy and clay-like I also added a barrow load of sand to lighten it up:

The whole lot was mixed and raked, with as many stones removed as possible (which have been put into the rubble bag for the next project).

Cladding the blocks
A mortar mix was made (as above) to which was added some red cement dye and a generous dollop of PVA adhesive - to make it more sticky.

Once mixed, the mortar was splatted on to the blocks with a trowel (and a suitably rubber-gloved hand):

The chunks of sandstone were then pressed into the mortar which was squidged around them and tidied up with an old 1.5 inch paintbrush:

 I find this process quite therapeutic. With knee-pads strapped on and something interesting on Radio 4, I can quite happily spend a couple of hours cladding the walls of a raised bed.

 Once again, I had to gain approval from the boss:

After letting the mortar set for a couple of days, I removed the excess from the sandstone with a wire brush. I find it's best to wait until the cement has set sufficiently hard to hold the sandstone in place but still sufficiently soft to be brushed.

 As can be seen, my efforts are once more under close supervision. I use cheap wire brushes which I get in a pack of four from the local £1.00 shop.

Before ..................

 ..... and after..............

As can be seen, after four years, the sandstone weathers nicely and the moss becomes more established. My earlier efforts were done before I found cement dye - but even so, the effect seems quite acceptable.

In only a couple of places has the cladding fallen off. I figure this was due to mixing too much mortar in one batch on a hot day, which meant it had dried out too much when I came to attach some of the sandstone. To remedy this, I now only mix a small amount of mortar and also wet the concrete blocks by 'painting' on some water with the 1.5" brush before smearing on the mortar, particularly when the weather is warm and sunny (yes the sun does shine here sometimes!).

No doubt, any qualified builder or mason will be horrified by my efforts, but as I'm not building structures on which others' lives depend, I am more than content with the outcome.