From Micro Obsy to Dual Pier Observatory - via Hard Work, RSI, Back Ache & Melting Credit Card!

[ArmyAirForce]

By twenty past one in the afternoon, all four rails were fitted and I was starting to hammer in the chair keys. This didn't take too long, but once all the rails were secure, the short rail nearest the crossing gate, was sitting a bit low. Off to the workshop again, to cut some wooden packers to go under the sleepers. I levelled the ground as best as I could, but there were still some undulations.

The sleepers and now with rail too, were very heavy, so to lift them to get the packers under the sleeper, I made another trip up the garden for my trolley jack. I seemed to spent a lot of the day, walking up and down the garden for stuff! The jack allowed me to lift the rail and sleeper and try the packer in place. A couple of sleepers needed some packers and they all needed a little trimming to fit. With the rails all sitting flush, I stopped to clear up the tools and take some pictures.

[ArmyAirForce]

It was a good job I was working quickly, as at 14:55 hours, I saw and photographed the first train; albeit, it was N scale!!! This could well be the first train in the village since Dr Beeching's axe fell on the British railways.

[ArmyAirForce]

June 10th

With the paint on the gate mount fully dry, it was time to get it fitted. The concrete footing was drilled and four rawle bolts hold the mount down. Since the post was quite a tight fit, I covered the bottom of the post and inside the mount with Vaseline, so it would slide in without damaging the paint on either. The post was then held into the mount with twelve large screws.

Once that was fixed in place, the gate was lifted to its correct position and the bolt hole drilled and painted. It was left to dry a while before the gate was closed and the bolt slotted into the hole. The mount bolts and post screws were then painted over in black Hammerite. I finished the work with an arty photo, between two bushes.

[AstroNebulee]

6 minutes ago, ArmyAirForce said:

June 9th

The 9th was the big day! I wanted the rails fitted. Step 1 was to get my Dodge Weapons Carrier out of the garage and assemble the crane on the back. There was no way I was going to be able to carry the rails down the garden, but the Dodge would manage to get them almost all of the way with very little effort. Nylon ropes attached through bolt holes in the rail and connected the rail to the chain hoist on the Dodge crane. Another rope was tied to each end of the rail and was fastened to part of the crane frame inside the Dodge. This triangulated the rail to stop it from swinging around while I was driving.

The rail was picked up from the driveway, near the garage, reversed through a gap in the hedge onto the lawn, then I swung around, heading backwards towards the play house and level crossing gate. The playhouse limited how close I could get, so once there, the rail was raised with the chain hoist, then the jib was lowered, swinging the rail further back from the Dodge. It was then lowered onto the sleeper wall, next to the railway.

Once sitting on the sleeper wall, I lifted each end by hand, and placed a two inch diameter roller under the rail. The rollers were made from two offcuts of tent poles. This allowed me to roll the rail along the wall to where the trackbed was. Once aligned between the sleepers, one end was lifted by hand and turned 90 degrees.

Another plank running up the railway sleepers, allowed me to then roll the rail towards the hedge. I was fitting the shorter sections of rail at the hedge end and the longer pieces at the playhouse end. It took thirty six minutes from hooking up the first piece of rail to the crane, to having it sitting in the rail chairs.

Simply amazing and what a beautiful project. It's going to look fantastic. Love the railways.

Lee

[ArmyAirForce]

As the day drew to a close, I was indoors, but noticed the sunset colours on the wall inside the lounge. I grabbed my phone and went out to see what I could capture. There is of course, still a lot of clutter around the site. The tree trunks are just holding down the weed membrane covering the new lawn area until I start work on that and there's no ballast down yet, but after taking these sunset pictures, I thought the area would be great for some widefield star shots or star trail photos too.

[Swoop1]

Very nice work Stephen! I am enjoying following the progress of your branch line.

[Alan White]

Now that takes Observatory finishing to a new league, wonderful garden feature.
Your whole project is so well executed and with such careful craftsmanship.

 

[ArmyAirForce]

Cheers all. I was out ordering ballast this morning, but it won't be here until next Wednesday. A gravel calculator suggested it would take six 850Kg bulk bags to fill the area. At over £100 per bag for decorative stone, that was way too much on rock! So I've ordered five bulk bags of river gravel, which is half the price, and I'll see how far that fills up the area. That plan after that is to order one bulk bag of decorative stone, probably silver grey granite, as a final top layer.

When the new lawn area, along side the observatory, is done too, it would make a nice spot for guest astronomers to set up for the evening.

[Alan White]

As long as the larger stone ends up as the top layer all should be ok, 
Bigger stones work upwards over time in my experience.

[ArmyAirForce]

Bit of a catch up now.....

June 11th & 12th

I put some 4 inch wooden edging along the far side of the railway to form an edge for the ballast. The weed membrane was then wrapped over the top and stapled in place. The other weed membrane edges were glued down with mastic.

A gravel calculator suggested six bulk bags of gravel to ballast the track. I had around a quarter of a bag of river gravel, left over from the soakaway behind the sleeper wall. I decided to spread this out and get a feel for how far and how deep it would cover.

This suggested the six bulk bag estimate was probably pretty close. I ordered five 850Kg bags, knowing I still needed to order top soil for the lawn, so could always get one more later if needed. River gravel was also half the price of decorative gravel, so I planned to use that, with perhaps a layer of decorative gravel as a final layer.

June 13th

The ballast was going to be over a week before delivery, so I made the fence to the left of the gate, as this needed to be screwed on before filling around it with ballast. The posts I got from my neighbour were slightly over long so they were trimmed down. The first post was screwed to the hawthorn sleepers and the height was then projected across to the gatepost so the height of that could be cut. All the fence parts were painted in Dark Oak shed paint, however, the rungs of the fence all needed cutting to length and a matching width out of the varied scrap pieces from my neighbour.

There was evidence of rot, splitting and woodworm in the planks, so there was some gluing and clamping first to fix the splits. To harden up the rot, I mixed a batch of waterproof PVA glue, water and shed paint and painted several coats onto the planks, allowing the mix so soak in. Eventually they were given a couple of normal coats of shed paint to fnish them.

[ArmyAirForce]

June 21st

Around noon, a big delivery truck turned up and dropped off five 850Kg bags of river gravel. The one day I wanted overcast and cool, it was at least 24 degrees. I started decanting gravel from the large 850Kg bag, into smaller half ton bags, to split the load into three. Two large bags were split giving me six loads to move.

The Dodge was brought out of the garage again and the crane mounted. I then drove to the front of the house and hooked up the first bag.

It was hot work, but eventually I got the six bags driven across the lawn and dumped on the new lawn, ready to start spreading. By this time I was melting in the heat, so packed up and came indoors.

After 7pm, it was still 22 degrees, but I went back outside to start spreading gravel. The gravel was quite dusty, with a fine silt all over. Having this wash onto the the weed membrane was just going to provide somewhere for weeds to grow. So all the gravel was washed as I scooped it out of the bags, to get the worst of the silt off before spreading it around. By 9:30pm, I'd emptied one 850Kg bag.

[ArmyAirForce]

June 22nd

Further gravel washing and spreading continued on the 22nd, filling the area across the end of the track, closest to the hawthorn hedge. This area ended up taking a full 850Kg bag to fill it.

June 23rd

I spent much of Friday the 23rd decanting the three remaining bulk bags, into six other bags, giving me a total of nine at a little under 300Kg each. Nothing was done over the weekend as I was at  Fly-In in Yorkshire on Saturday and a local Jeep event on Sunday.

June 26th

On Monday morning, I got the Dodge back out, re-assembled the crane and started transporting the gravel to the bottom of the garden. Eighteen trips from the front of the house to the back in all. This took me until lunch time. I took seven bags to the build site and because I may have a little more than needed, dropped the last two at the back of the workshop. If I need them for the railway, I can move them, otherwise, they are in the right place for spreading on the drive.

Out of the seven bags dumped on the new lawn area, another two bags of gravel were washed, tipped into the wheel barrow, wheeled around to the fence section and tipped out. That was then spread around with a garden rake, used upside down, so the prongs didn't cut into the weed membrane. The rake was the easiest way to move the gravel around the sleepers and rails. Everywhere has at least a thin covering of gravel, but along the gate and three gaps between sleepers all need building up in height.

[ArmyAirForce]

With all the hard work, I've been too tired to be bothered to use the observatory recently. It really is exhausting. Even with the Dodge crane, I've still moved four tons today and in the heat, it is hard work.

I did however do a couple of widefield conjunction shots on the 21st and 22nd of June, catching the Moon and Venus on the 21st, then the Moon, Mars and Venus on the 22nd.

[ArmyAirForce]

June 28th

I've posted this once, but the forum transfer issues lost it, so you may have already seen this update once!

The 28th was a day of heavy showers. I was out spreading gravel again, but there were frequent pauses, hiding in the shed, waiting for rain to pass. The plant in the first picture is now shedding flowers into the gravel. Having blown them all away with a leaf blower, I covered the area with a plastic sheet. I need to cut this plant back at some point soon, but for now, the plastic will protect the area.

I partially opened the gate and that allowed me to access the track with the wheelbarrow. The remaining areas between the sleepers were slowly filled and raked out. Once up to the top of the sleepers, I was then able to barrow loads to the edge of the track and build that up to the wooded edging. When it comes time to do the earth embankment, I'll have to cover the gravel so I don't spill top soil on it. The conifer in the foreground also needs a little trimming.

[ArmyAirForce]

The area along the gate was the last to be filled for the day, though it still needs building up a little more along the decorative sleepers to the side and far end. I still have one 300Kg load by the railway to finish this area. I'll hang on to the other 600Kg by the workshop for now, in case there is any settling that needs a top up. There's no hurry to spread that on the driveway.

By the end of the day, I'd emptied another four bags of gravel, around another 1200Kg and have most of the area filled to its final level. I've decided not to go with a top layer of silver/grey granite. I quite like the colour of the cream/brown/grey mix of the river gravel. It will also save me another £100. After the last of the gravel has been spread out, I'll be moving on to levelling the lawn area, ready for seeding. The final layer of decorative sleepers on the wall will probably be left until all the building works are complete.

[andy fearn]

wow, and congratulations on a fantastic project. your hard work and enthusiasm is really paying off now. your attention to detail is amazing.

[Graeme]

On 26/06/2023 at 23:57, ArmyAirForce said:

I put some 4 inch wooden edging along the far side of the railway to form an edge for the ballast.

 

 

As long as it doesn't cause a tripping hazard in the 4ft!

 

[ArmyAirForce]

June 30th

The Fuchsia was shedding flowers at the slightest breeze, so cutting it back was a priority to save the ballast from being covered, particularly with strong winds forecast. I started chopping away, cutting it back and down in height and in the end, had filled a half ton dumpy bag full of cuttings.

After sweeping up the bits on the plastic sheet, it was moved to around the conifer, as that also needed trimming. While the hedge trimmers were out, I also cut back the purple bush on the lawn, which while it was only trimmed a couple of months ago, had also sprouted eighteen inch long stems. Just as I finished that, the rain started and it just got heavier. That ended work for the day.

[ArmyAirForce]

The trimming left the railway area much more tidy, but it will look so much better once the embankment is built and planted and is showing some colour.

July 1st/2nd

There was more rain on the 1st, but I managed to paint the inside edge of the lawn edging sleepers with bitumen before the rain came. Sunday the 2nd was better, though still a few showers. I started barrowing topsoil from the bulk bag by the workshop to the new lawn, then raking it out level.

The first layer was slowly walked over to pack it down before a second layer was added to bring it up to the final height. This gave me an indication of how much topsoil I'd need for the rest of the lawn. The rest of the day was spent trimming the laurel. On the morning of the 3rd, I ordered eight tons of topsoil to finish the lawn and the embankment. That should arrive on Wednesday morning.

[ArmyAirForce]

July 5th

At around 8:15am on Wednesday morning, a big truck turned up loaded with 8 tons of topsoil. Rather than a tipper truck, it had a crane and grab to unload it. I tried to rig a bulk bag to hold it open so the soil could be dumped into the bags, but the soil weight kept flattening the bag. So I gave up on that idea and just got the soil dumped on the drive.

I had a number of bulk bags from previous deliveries, though some were being used to cover the new lawn area to stop weed growth. I had an old plastic tarp with some holes that I spread out on the lawn area instead, so that I could use the bags for moving the topsoil.

[ArmyAirForce]

By the end of the afternoon, I'd partially filled fifteen bulk bags with around 3~400Kg in each to be within the lifting ability of my Dodge, without overloading the rear springs. It was really tiring, so assuming I can move tomorrow, I'll get the Dodge out again and start transporting it to the back garden.

In other news, the two veggie planters are filling out well with carrots, cauliflowers, cabbage, potatoes and strawberries. I had a temporary net over the strawberries to keep the birds off, but finished a more practical netting frame today, with opening lids for easy access. I need another larger one for the other planter, but that's probably a rainy day project.

[ArmyAirForce]

July 6th

No pictures for today. I had the Dodge out to move the soil, so it's nothing that you haven't already seen. I got eleven of the bags transported to the back garden, with nine of them dropped on the left side of the lawn and the earth ramp from the lower lawn. Two bags were dropped by the workshop as I was running out of space. I left the right side of the lawn empty, so that I can pull back the weed membrane to start spreading the soil. Once the right side of the lawn is levelled and the current bags are empty, I can drop the next load on the right side and work on the left.

[Graeme]

On 05/07/2023 at 18:30, ArmyAirForce said:

By the end of the afternoon, I'd partially filled fifteen bulk bags with around 3~400Kg in each to be within the lifting ability of my Dodge, without overloading the rear springs. It was really tiring, so assuming I can move tomorrow, I'll get the Dodge out again and start transporting it to the back garden.

How's your back?

 

[ArmyAirForce]

1 minute ago, Graeme said:

How's your back?

My back is fine, but my elbows, shoulders and the tendons in my forearms aren't my friends right now!

[ArmyAirForce]

July 7th

On the 7th, I started spreading soil. The nine bags on the lawn, have now all been emptied and raked out to flatten the surface. Around 3.5 tons at a guess. It's not level, as the height of the garden drops from left to right towards the railway, but it's moderately flat now.

It's not quite up to the final lawn height and I haven't filled the ramp from the lower lawn yet. I need to bag and transport more soil from the front garden before I can go further - Sunday's job.