Continuing to tidy up the top end and track repairs generally.

First trip up the line before the arrival of some expected visitors - it pays to keep an eye out for obstructions!

Let's take a closer look. There were two of these goannas lying across the track but one ran behind the log. A quick retreat to fetch the other people but when we returned they were both gone.

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Aoi and Jiwon came to visit. Tully is enthusiastic as you can see.

The repaired structure looks as if it has been there forever!

Bridge Load Test Weekend

The stack of bricks in the bush has gone at last!

It is now seven years since we collected paving blocks and bricks and stored them beside the line near the big log. After recently completing repairs to the bridge and laying a short siding we were finally able to transfer the stack to a small wagon. So finally we had a chance to test all the bridges. The test load is about 400Kg, so any passengers lighter than that should be safe.

Perhaps the new siding at the big log should be named "Shenmu" (神木車站) as it is reminiscent of the fallen tree station on the Alishan Forest Railway that we visited last year.

Avoiding the Tree

Near the top of the line the gradient increases from 1 in 30 to 1 in 20 to allow the track to pass above the roots of a tree. This section is then followed by a short length of flat track until it can regain the route of the standard gradient. We are slowly building a low bridge around the low side of the tree to avoid the steep grade.

Here's the plan

Saki came to help.

But first to clear the line. Heavy winds had caused this branch to drop.

Setting the grade with our 1-in-30 incline "level".

Wide load! Bringing up bridge sections.

Tea break on the hill.

The next visit started with a few rides at Narara, Robert is guard.

Then back to Barchester Towers with Gary and young Miri. Saki and Miri seen here with a trial layout of segments of the new bridge.

Saki and Miri

At Narara: Brighton showing Sayumi how to use the new boom gates to control a level crossing.

Back to our track in time for a short run before dark

There's no shortage of firewood for a cold night

A bright winter's day, so off to the end of the line.
Sayumi discovers that a train does not get far without two rails. Since our last run a heavy branch had fallen on the track at the steep section, broken into pieces and dislodged one rail. A disadvantage of the bar-in-chair track system is that the rails can jump out upon impact from above. An advantage is that this kind of damage is easy to fix, so we were soon on our way again.

Sayumi ready for the return journey.

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There has not been much construction progress on the Barchester Towers main line recently but there were several visitors to the garden circuit. To welcome a little boy visiting from Dublin one end of the Sydney R class tram was converted to look a little like a Luas tram.

The Sydney P class tram 1497 can easily pull several people and all the garden trucks. To be safe the throttle knob has a string attached to a spring so it needs an adult hand to achieve full speed. The Sydney R class tram 1979 is less powerful and can only run at about scale speed. It has just two switches so toddlers can operate it easily.

The author of this web site finds himself on the board of the steam model and public miniature railway club at Narara and so has less free time for BTR and for this website. About time you might say, after 36 years of ordinary membership. Back at our track, developments include:

• Bridge 2. In the November 2018 storm a tree pulled its roots out of the hill and fell across the line at the Bridge 2 site. On its way down it pushed over another large tree below the line. Impact with the safety walkway beside the track snapped the pine logs like matchsticks but the rails themselves did not deform. We cut a piece from the fallen trunk and reinforced the bank with stones. The line is open again. The tree debris is untidy but we now have enough firewood for several years.
  
  At Bridge 2. There's a track somewhere under this lot.

  
  A student who did not get to drive much of the line that weekend!

  
  This tree had pulled itself out of the ground on the hillside above the line.

• Bridge 4. In the same storm the large dead tree immediately beside the line at the top end of the long cutting broke off about a metre above the ground. As it fell it was constrained by a creeper that had adopted it and it fell onto the bridge before rolling off. We found the creeper still attached, the rails bent, several bridge sleepeers smashed, and the main beams dislodged but not broken. This then marks the temporary top end of the line until we can fix it. Work has begun.
  
  Approaching Bridge 4 another tree has fallen. This one broke its trunk about a metre above ground level. It looked like it was just the creeper in the way, but ...

  
  On closer inspection we found the damage to be far worse.

• Alternative Batteries. We have been experimenting with 20V 4Ah lithium batteries from Aldi. They are much lighter then the usual 12V lead-acid batteries. Unlike the old batteries that last all weekend the lithium batteries will only do three or four runs up the hill but they are quick to charge and easy to carry. On the garden line they last all day.

• Rail Bending device.
  
  There are places on the garden line where the sleepers have difficulty holding our rather stiff profile rail. These places are where the curve radius is small and the ground is damp or where there is a joint on an outside rail. Ordinary carpenters F-clamps can not apply enough force so we made a giant caliper that can span both rails and bend the offending rail into line. This has worked well on the tramway section of the garden line and also on the tight bend at the bottom of the future zig-zag ("Mistake Siding"). This technique should allow us to replace the damaged tube rail on Bridge 4 with profile rail.

Note for railway pedants: The trams in Sydney did not pull long trains. However we made our vehicles look like trams from the front because the track radius is similar to that found on street tramways, the garden line track is flush with the surface of the ground where necessary, the cars can be ridden, and because children seem to like them the way they are. The bogie wagon and other long stock all have radial couplers to allow them to get around the garden.

Full-size original Sydney trams and a similar radius (full scale) curve can be seen at the Sydney Tramway Museum at Loftus.

The track gauge is 7 1/4 inches (185 mm).

これは私のミニ電車.

Well-wagon ready for duty. You won't see it this clean again.

Visiting the original R1-class 1979 at Loftus.

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This page is: http://dazed.org/btr/2018/scrpbk18.htm (Page 12: 2018 and 2019).

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This line last edited: 23 August 2020.