PARKWOOD 32/45MM AND GAUGE 3 RAILWAYS
Parkwood Railways Spring 2019 working day with Alan Poxon
Checking the new pointwork
Dual gauge stainless steel points & crossover
Adjusting the check rails
Nine more points built ready to install
Formation awaiting trackLevelling the ground for the final return
Removing the surplus stone
Levelling the ground for the final return loop
Technical repairs after lunch
Checking against the original plan.
AUGUST 2018
More concrete infrastructure and spiral almost complete
February 2018
Progress on the indoor trackworks Autumn 2017
Graham Pearce describes how a sloping lawn was turned into two railways:
I was riding around on my 7 1/4 Royal Scott at my friend Ivan's garden railway, which is about 2 or 3 acres, when I thought, 'wouldn't it be nice to have one in my own garden with people coming round playing trains?' But I did not have 2 or 3 acres so had a look at a few options to see what would fit it my own garden. I went for mainline gauge 3 but couldn't get the required radius's in the centre so opted to have an island to run narrow gauge as well. First we made the plan for the railways, then the hard work had to start. We started by digging the post holes for the raised track and got the concrete in. I made the steel posts and track bed which I painted in a special primer, reputedly used on the Forth Bridge, to cut down future maintenance work. I chose Tricoya Extreme MDF board which has a 60 years guarantee on it for rain, frost, heat and what ever you can throw at it see www.meditetricoya.com.
Next came the footings for the dry stone wall. I got the professionals in to do the dry stone walling. Then came the winter of our discontent and it seemed to rain for 40 days and 40 nights! When the dry stone waller had started to sink up to his knees in mud we realised we would have to put land drains in which put us back a good few months. Eventually we were able to get the concrete wall tops done, using wooden formers. It was quite a relief when the hardcore went down and we were able to walk round the garden again
We now have track for both the Gauge 3 and Narrow Gauge, which at the moment is just 45mm, so we can have running days but there is still lots to do including getting a 32mm track down and landscape the island for scenic running.
45 and 32mm track
