Ox Mountain Railway

[trammayo]

Spent some time Monday, and yesterday, repairing rotten timbers on the line's trestles. To say parts were rotten would be an understatement!

Before....



After,,,,



Not a leg to stand on (well, almist) ......



Wood pulp - just a squeeze between the fingers ...





Most of the damage has been repaired with replacement timbers and some of these have had a coat of wood preservative. Still a lot to do to replace other structures to be able to bring the whole of the railway back to a usable state!

 

[trammayo]

Well the trestles should last this year out....

Repaired .......




The next repair (or bodge) was one of the bridge abutments. Originally intended to be brought inside when not in use, this and its opposite number, have been in situ for nearly two years. Built from scrap timber, they both suffered from terminal rot.

The temporary repaired one as was, and now is ........




The other abutment is currently being rebuilt in a type of corex - as used by election candidates for advertising their ugly mugs. The ones I'm using had already served as backboards on the trailer railway so are now on their third life......


This is half a "poster" - the holes are where the tie wraps went!

The de-laminating ply ....


More rot to follow as I progress!

 

[playmofire]

Looks a pretty mammoth task, Mick. Look forward to seeing the solutions.

 

[trammayo]

Looks a pretty mammoth task, Mick. Look forward to seeing the solutions.

Well, a little progress - managed to cut up the plastic and glue it all together. So I,m upcycling the recycled - third use for the majority of the materials used!

The glue is polyurethane .....



Tools, mainly the trusty "Stanley" knife and, for me, a Japanese Pull Saw. The latter was courtesy of Lidle with blade thickness of less than 0.5mm with an equally fine kerf. It really is a revelation in saw types! .....



The basic pier - needs a lot more work .....



Recycled timber and plastic angles (the latter cut from redundant square section rainwater pipe and used on the two former backdrop pieces) form the interior strengthening. .......



The bottom edges taken a multiplicity of angles to acommodate the drive gradient and cross fall. ......


More pics in next post.....

 

[trammayo]

continued...

Trying it in situ.....




The drop down wheeled leg on the metal bridge should return to horizontal - or it would if the locking pin hadn't succumbed to rust!




I may have to do some slight height adjustments to the pier (about 8mm) and, of course, it wants the structure finnishing off prior to painting.....

 

[trammayo]

..... It needs quoins. Having deliberated about purchasing a plastic angle strip and nibbling sections out of the same (so it would be in one length), I remembered I had sdome soffit fixing channel .....



I need around two metres to get the 74 corner stones I need. Here is the effect I am trying to create (the pieces need to be cleaned up of course - no masonry pun intended) ....




That's as far as I've got. There is more plastic to apply - horizontal tabling (ex uPVC fascia offcuts and some new 10 x10 plastic angle), plus some more strengthening at ground level, etc.

 

[idlemarvel]

Nice piece of recycling. Why is it that those dratted 1:1 paths and driveways always get in the way of our much more important railways!

 

[trammayo]

Nice piece of recycling. Why is it that those dratted 1:1 paths and driveways always get in the way of our much more important railways!

I have SWMBO's permission to go elsewhere (front garden) but it would have to be a level crossing - capable of use by both 1/2" to a foot and 12" to a foot!

 

[trammayo]

Got some more work done (just one shallow corner stone to cut and apply). .....





I have loads of plastic offcuts so I'm thinking of creating more masonry effects - but not to-day!

 

[PhilP]

[QUOTE=".. I have loads of plastic offcuts so I'm thinking of creating more masonry effects - but not to-day![/QUOTE]

As they are offcuts..

Does that make it..


Wait for it .. .. ..



Free-Masonry!

 

[trammayo]

just testing google chrome

 

[trammayo]

Yesterday turned out to be a brilliant day with regards to the weather - temperatures exceeding 20 Celsius!
I decided to draw the trailer out of the hay shed in the afternoon to see what I could do with the new aluminium roof.



I had to sweep off the winter's accumulation of dust and hay, then finally remove all traces of dust. I then washed it with industrial thinners which dried off in seconds. So it was all looking good and ready for painting. I decided to exercise discretion and uncoupled the trailer from the car - even though the gentle breeze was blowing away from the car ( I never did get off all the spots of white primer off the old car!).



Having stirred the acid etch primer, put on suitable gloves and overalls, I climbed the ladder and applied the paint. It was a long and tedious job - climbing up and down the ladder many times - but the 130 sq foot area was coated within an hour. It was so hot the paint was soon touch dry (maybe not the best result?).

Then it was time to re-couple and reverse the trailer back in, close the doors, put the hurdles back up to protect the doors (goats love wood!), shut the gate, let the goats back in, then retire for the day!

If I feel up to it, I might apply the undercoat - days like yesterday are there to me taken advantage of (and it's going to be dry for a few days to come!).

 

[David1226]

Ah... more to come.... so the above was just a trailer.....

David

 

[PhilP]

Grimace, smile, groan!!!

 

[Chris Vernell]

Ah... more to come.... so the above was just a trailer.....
David

The penalty for this is transportation.

 

[trammayo]

I like a sense of humour - it's about the only sense I've got!

 

[trammayo]

Having to devote my time to other matters, as we all have to, means my progress is slow. However, I took advantage of the sunshine yesterday and primed the bridge pier with PVA. Then I mixed neat cement with the remaining primer and brushed that on.

This is the side that most people will see ..


The two 'inside' faces are not really seen when the two bridges are in position, whilst the opposite side to the one above faces the workshop. I could have gone a lot further but I do not have the time (my first outing with the trailer layout is in three weeks time so I have to make sure that all is OK with that).

Opposite face ...



.... and one of the inner faces.



I need to prime (with acrylic) the cement coating, then I can 'colour in' the stonework.

 

[David1226]

I am sure the other members of GSC appreciate your support....

David

 

[PhilP]

Nice to see you have something concrete to go on!

 

[owlpool]

Nice to see you have something concrete to go on!

a pillar of the community