Dyfrdwy Tramway: Planning for winter maintenance…
The best thing about a garden railway is that is is very much a real and living thing, it is with you whenever you're in the garden, train or not, rain, sleet, snow and sunshine, evolving and living through the elements...
The joy that brings also means it weathers, it ages, it requires maintenance. I gave my Simplex 40S a run to check things were generally sound and have spotted a few areas of concern that need addressing in the near future.
I staged a scene of some rocks being loaded on the wharf, for delivery up the line where the foundations have been eroded by heavy rain and subsidence. In reality, the grass and earth have washed out from under the cement, causing it to crack a little here. I will add a stone retaining wall and back fill with sharp sand and cement to effect a repair.
The tramway is lovely this time of year, it has really greened up after the summer draught and the short train looked wonderful winding its way along the only 'dedicated' section of right of way.
I hope you've enjoyed these few photos, I always enjoy running a train out there - all this spurred me on to another project of mine, a third slab wagon which I will write about in a future post. Until next time though, more soon...
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An absolute delight James.
ReplyDeleteThank you Philip.
DeleteHi James
ReplyDeleteYour garden railway is in the best traditions of both a model railway and the real thing. To me it looks and feels so much better built at ground levels rather than on stilts that many garden railways seem to require. That always seems more like the Coos Bay logging lines in Oregon than a British style prototype. I realise that perhaps your “tramway” has its genesis in a Welsh quarry but to me seeing it today with the gate in the background reminded me of my visit in 1970 to Derbyshire Firebrick on the edge of the Peak District. Most of the their rail system ran from some road tipping docks up into the plant carrying sand for brick making, but as my notes say
“ the longest part on the system runs from the waste tipping point at the works, then a short piece of roadside running before leaving the works and heading off along overgrown track across farmers’ fields to reach a number of tipping areas. At one junction a track headed through a farm gate and shunting operations were watched by a herd of cows”. Fortunately the train was not going that way as herding cows seemed out of the question. On that day long ago, operations were in the hand of two elderly Rustons but others including a Motor Rail were stored on site.
Your garden railway keeps those scenes alive
Best regards
Alan
Thank you for the comment and email Alan. Wonderful photos and I can see the parallels.
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