November 5, 2015
Our first bit of running after dark. Putting a magnetic backed LED light on the metal radiator grille gave
enough light to see where we were going on a Halloween night that was a lot darker
than it appears in this picture
Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Locomotives
October 18, 2015
Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Bridge
October 11, 2015
We have at last completed the basic oval of track and marked the point where 'East meets West' with golden track spikes in the final sleeper laid. Now we can have journeys of up to infinite length!
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Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Construction
September 30, 2015
Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Bridge
September 20, 2015
We still haven't really got the hang of regular progress reports. A month or so
of dodging the weather and measuring, marking, cutting, drilling,
cleaning, painting and welding means the ironwork for the bridge deck is
now in place.
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Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Bridge
August 7, 2015
A few days ago we completed one abutment at last. Final stage was to fix
in place the plate to which the main beams will be attached. Decided it
would be a good idea to drill and tap some small holes in the plate and
use bolts in these holes to allow precise adjustment and get it
perfectly level. The bolts were removed and holes filled after the grout
it rests on had set, leaving a perfectly flat steel plate to fix the
main beams to. The plastic bags in the background of the second pict...
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Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Bridge
June 18, 2015
Sad news reached us today when we discovered that Eric Walker (builder of our steam engine No. 10) passed away last Christmas. We had a lovely time and were warmly welcomed by Eric and his wife
Gloria when we enjoyed an inspirational visit to his Kirton Light
Railway. Since then we have received much help and encouragement from
Eric with building our KLR. We've appreciated Eric's help over the years
and he will be sadly missed by us.
There was much more to Eric's
life than the building o...
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Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : General News
June 13, 2015
A few days of bright sunshine earlier this week meant we could make a
jig to hold the holding down bolts in position and add the last half ton
or so concrete into the abutments. The polystyrene cones around the
bolts (to be removed once the concrete has set) allow for final
adjustments to the positions of the bolts to make sure they fit into the
base plates that the main beams will be fitted to. The voids left by
the cones will be filled with construction grout to hold the bolts
firmly...
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Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Bridge
June 8, 2015
We've just come inside after baling out the water that had collected in
the top sections of the bridge abutments not yet filled with concrete.
We were being bitten by midges so it must be warming up. Hopefully we
can now move on from how we left things at the end of last year (as
shown in the picture below) and get the holding down bolts that will
hold the bridge deck onto the abutments concreted into place.
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Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Bridge
May 19, 2015
Here
are a couple of screenshots of our bridge design taken from our
Solidworks drawing. To give a sense of scale, the main beams (shown in
grey) are about 10 feet (3metres) long and 6 inches (150 millimetres)
deep. We're waiting for the weather to get warmer and drier before
concreting the holding down bolts into the abutments. We're still
hearing the phrase 'risk of frost' on the weather forecast in this part
of the world.
Posted by Rupert Connor. Posted In : Bridge
