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(Updated 11th October 2000)
RVR CONSTRUCTION DIARY
On April 21st 2000 No 1 eases
a construction train consisting of C and K wagons over the
partially constructed Dragonrock
bridge.
This page, like all the rest!,
has a lot of photos and will take a while to load.
After a long period during which I have been too busy building! to
update this section, this is what has been happening recently.
As of 11th October the main line has been extended from Bottom Points
in a southerly direction
(see TRACK PLAN)
resulting in the construction of two major bridges and two new stations
and changing the focal point of the line from the zig-zag to the new main
line. Once this section is completed, emphasis will change to rebuilding
the zig-zag to eliminate to notorious 1 in 12 section at the top of the
middle road. This will take the form of a large loop on easier grades
that will eliminate Top Points altogether, so bypassing the zig-zag altogether.
HAZARDS OF GARDEN RAILWAYS;
EXPECTED............ and UNEXPECTED!
During November 1999, shortly after completion
of the zig-zag and the final section of line to Devlins, Sydney suffered
from a couple of weeks of torrential rain, and a large amount of ballast
was washed away and in some sections the line was left hanging in mid air.
The Bottom Road after the
rain, ballast washed away on the left and severe scouring on the right
at the entrance to Possum Creek
station where natural drainage
occurs.
In the best traditions of Australian bush railways
temporary repairs were carried out with some logs and trains continued
running while a more permanent solution was worked out!
The station platforms also suffered severely from the rain.
By May 2000 however, the damage had been repaired and (hopefully)
will not recur. Culverts and a small bridge were erected over the
watercourses and a stone wall built along the length of the Bottom Rd.
In areas of severe loss of ballast, a 1 to 1 mix of ballast and cement
was laid over the existing ballast, which seems to have cured the disappearing
ballast problem.
A Tasmanian style wooden
trestle over one of the drainage courses on the Bottom Rd and the two culverts
at the entrance to the
yard at Possum Creek.
The handrails are to prevent the shunters falling into the creek!
The stone wall now stretches all the
way from Possum Creek to the
new bridge at Dragonrock.
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Along with the expected Garden
Railway hazards of falling leaves, falling branches and washaways caused
by heavy rain,
the RVR also has Dinosaurs! (Well, up
to 1 metre long Water Dragons can seem like dinosaurs in this scale!)
There is a resident population of these large reptiles living in the creek
at
the bottom of our land, and a couple of them
seem to have
become railway enthusiasts! This photo
shows one of the small ones inspecting the track on the Middle Road in
late 1999, before the rain. They hibernate during winter, but have
now
re-appeared, and have now taken to digging
holes in the ballast! They are probably looking for insects, (their
main food source).
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DRAGONROCK BRIDGE
After a break in new construction over the
summer, (too hot and too many repairs to do!) the mainline was extended
towards the swimming pool with the erection of Dragonrock bridge and station.
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On the 21st April 2000 the installation
of the Dragonrock bridge began. The previous couple of weeks had
seen the spans and trestles constructed in the workshops. One of
the spans can be seen on the construction train waiting on Bottom Rd.
The temporary station building at Devlins can be seen in the top right
of the photo.
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Consisting of two underslung Howe trusses and trestle approaches,
and constructed from Tasmanian oak and sawn up fence palings, Dragonrock
bridge, so named because the Water Dragons sun themselves on the rock to
the left of the bridge, was substantially complete by April 22nd.
Bill Cooper's brand new Shay treads gingerly (Bill wasn't driving!) across
the newly opened bridge later in May. The bridge design was based
on that of the original Quarter Mile bridge on the Mt Lyell line.
The reason for the use of this design of bridge on a side valley, where
in full size an ordinary trestle would have been used, is because we need
to maintain access to one of the compost heaps, which is directly behind
the bridge.
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DRAGONROCK SIDING &
THE UNDERPOOL TRESTLE
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Dragonrock siding consists of a simple
loop, which is used at the moment to load firewood for the Possum Creek
smelter. There will, eventually, be a small shelter and platform.
Here F5 and FF16, loaded with firewood, wait to be picked up by the next
Down train.
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To take the line from Dragonrock around
the end of the pool and into Underpool station a typical Mt Lyell style
trestle bridge is
been constructed. However, on the 8th
September, construction
of the bridge had not started, but trains
were running into
Underpool via this "Contractor's bridge" consisting
of a couple of sticks holding the track up. The staff were not impressed!
Here
No 1 carefully traverses this flimsy structure
with a works train, keeping very closely to the 3mph speed limit!
Trains ran over this bridge for about 2 months while the permanent bridge
was constructed.
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MAKING THE RVR "SHAY FRIENDLY"
As many modellers have found out, the Bachmann
Shay is BIG! The only section on the RVR that has been a problem
however, is the tunnel on the middle road, which was just slightly too
narrow for the Shay. The problem first reared its ugly head when
Graham Morphett visited in March, but with the conversion of Bill Cooper
to large scale, (Bill lives about 10 minutes walk away, and is a regular
visitor) it was deemed appropriate to do something about that narrow tunnel!
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A few minutes work on the
inside of the tunnel with a
hammer and cold chisel and the
tunnel was wide enough
for the Shay
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Tom inspected the work to
make sure that Dad had done it right!
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RVR BUILDINGS
The RVR has managed to aquire a few buildings,
with more on the way.
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The first building to be completed was the station building
at Bottom Points. It was based on one of the buildings that used
to stand at Teepookana on the Mt Lyell line, though much condensed and
adapted. It
was constructed of timber and corrugated aluminium over a plywood
box, my standard system for constructing buildings.
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Possum Creek's goods shed, constructed from corrugated aluminium
cans and styrene over a plywood box. It is based on a condensed version
of a standard Tasmanian Government Railways goods shed.
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VIEWS OF THE LAYOUT DURING
EARLY CONSTRUCTION
Here are a few views of the layout taken in
1999.
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The AME carefully backed the, as yet,
unpainted RVR No1 up the hill with the works train when the newly
laid Middle Road was being tested on 26th August 1999. In the foreground
is the original retaining wall, made from Privet sticks, a pestilent weed
that infests our block and the surrounding bush. It has now been
replaced with a stone wall and a bridge, while a culvert and timber retaining
walls have been constructed on the Middle Road. The section above
the train is the infamous 1 in 12 grade that will be replaced with a deviation
in the near future.
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Looking back down the Middle Road on the
21st September 1999 with the AME carefully backing the train down under
RCS
radio control. Once I joined the LGB
and G Scale Club of Australia, I was able to continue tracklaying along
the Top Road towards the next station, Devlins, thanks to the Club's supply
of cheap "Club Rail"! The deviation will result in what was the Middle
road arriving at Top points a couple of inches lower on the same formation,
swinging out to the left and behind the photographer on a completely new
formation and reappearing on the right of the photo and proceeding around
to Devlins where it will rejoin the current formation. The site of
Dragonrock bridge can be seen at the far end of Bottom road.
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An overall view of the layout as it existed
on 26th August 1999 from the "lookout" at the top of the hill. The
Assistant Mechanical Engineer is driving RVR No 1 under radio control as
it hauls 2 four wheel and one bogie flat wagon up the bottom road to the
worksite on the middle road, the formation of which can be discerned to
the left of the train. This formation was laid out with the string
and sticks method that appears to be the way everyone does things in this
gauge, after earthmoving took place a layer of weed cloth was laid and
then a layer of ballast was spread over the top. The track, which
had already been soldered into 2 metre lengths and painted was then laid
and the connecting fishplates between the 2 metre lengths soldered together.
After final alignment and levelling, (or in this case, final 1 in 12ing!)
ballast was dropped and spread with an old brush. Experience has
shown that the weed cloth is worse than useless, it doesn't prevent weeds,
but it does allow the ballast to be lost more easily, so I no longer lay
weed cloth under new construction. I have also modified my use of
loose ballast, as mentioned above, using a 1:1 mix of ballast and cement
in areas subject to excessive water runoff. Working out the levels
is now a lot easier since I constructed a "water level" as per the recent
article in "Garden Railways".
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Back to the beginning, 23rd July 1999,
6 weeks after we moved in! This photo taken on the first day of construction
shows the site of Bottom points with the first couple of metres of temporarily
laid track. The RVR's first loco, RVR No 1, (before conversion from
an LGB Stainz) and a Lehmann flat stand waiting for somewhere to go!
Now the zig-zag is finished and the main line continues towards Dragonrock
over the bridge outlined above, past the siding at Dragonrock and around
under the pool on a large trestle bridge.
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