Masonry, secrets of.....

[Andrew]

Red Gum was used between the tram lines in Melbourne. It was cut and sent from Echuca on the Murray River. The timber had a layer of tar over the top.

There are some paddle steamers that still have red gum paddle shaft bearings, as long as they are lubricated well they seem to last especially as the best speed for a paddle shaft was around 32 rpm, so it was not for high speed eqiupment.

I have even seen a red gum piston in a Marshall portable steam engine. Apparently the engine used to be a old paddle steamer fishing boat that some how damaged the piston. It was replaced by a bush mechanic to get the boat home, but went on to work for a number of years.
The boiler used to work at 100 psi, but the old captains told me that it was much better at 120 psi. I guess the combination of steam oil and steam kept the red gum going. Much of the timber we get today is either the heart wood from the centre of the tree or the outer layers. The older tree was very dense and when weathered, it was so tough you had to drill a hole before you could drive a nail into it.
I used to work at Echuca as a River Boat Captain on P.S. Canberra, built in 1912.
Cheers from Andrew
Sandbar & Mudcrab Railway

 

[tramcar trev]

Yes red gum is a bit like teak, lignum vitae and Huon pine. Will not rot under any circumstances..... Quite a few of the river steamers had redgum bearings fitted after the great need for bronze in WWII. And by jove its great to see a fellow retired riverman on here!!! WOW!!! I was a skipper/engineer on the PS Enterprise for 10 years with Peter Garfield before he went to Echuca to run the Canberra.

 

[tramcar trev]

I can see however that I will have to practise restraint as I could overdo it...

Don't you mean Kerb your enthusiasm .....

Yes... and I let it get away again....
Here is my finished terminus, well its not finished a long way from it but all that is needed now are some seats, some persons seated, standing etc and some street lights maybe 3 and it will look the part. I swept coloured grout into all the cracks then misted it with water..... Its kind of a good feelling that I can see some "real" progress but I dont see a lot of this paving beiing in the future, yes its worth the effort but I tell ya it's tedious work especially cutting in the funny shaped bits with a diamond saw in the dremel..... yes it should look nice with the overhead wiring, some lights, some passengers and the piece de resistance the brass plaque on the commemorative stone.....
Oh I did promise some pictures....

Oh there is a detail I missed in the last pic.... I wonder will I have to put it in with the Dremel or will it occur with use???

 

[MRail]

How about buffers Trev?

Just to keep the Elfins safe!

 

[tramcar trev]

Na Buffers are for wimps... but hey the paving there looks really very nice... I wish I could replicate that....
The detail I forgot was the grooves in the paving made by the flanges when trams overshoot the track....

 

[Ray Dunakin]

Wow, that looks awesome!

I have a small stash of those type of stones, bought them attached to a mesh for use as tiles. Wish I could get more, but the place I got them from discontinued them about 3 years ago.

BTW, I think they are travertine, and relatively soft so fairly easy to work with.
I have some similar small blocks of marble, much harder and they don't have the rounded edges. I tried to wear them down by tumbling them -- except I didn't have a tumbler. So I sealed them in a large tin with a handful of nuts and bolts, and let the tin roll around in the back of my SUV for several months. Eventually the edges rounded slightly, but barely perceptible. Probably would have worked better if I'd put in some grit.

 

[tramcar trev]

Yes definatly travertine and fairly soft; if brittle. The old marble chips in the old milo tin trick??/ Hmmm Yep some hard grit is the answer. I had some that were supplied with a sawn edge and I used a plastic tub with some carborundum grit and water in it in the lathe on low speed for 3 hours and they came out brilliantly....

 

[Cyclone]

That looks excellent. Well done..

 

[KeithT]

I just noticed the reference to wood block setts earlier in this thread.
The streets around Blackburn Town hall were paved with these covered with tar.
Their purpose? Well as a clue the road on one side was called Thunder Alley due to the iron wheels on the carts.
(There was a school on the street, Thunder Alley Girl's School!)

The racket must have disturbed the Burghers of Blackburn in the late 1800's and so they introduced 'soundproofing'.
So far as I am aware they are still there under numerous layers of tarmac.