Wrack and Ruin

A mid-life crisis in narrow gauge

Driving the Last Spike

Driving the last spike Well, the railway per se isn’t finished - there still remains fettling and tidying and stations and borders and rolling stock, oh my - but the track is. The last yard fitted into the last gaps with nary a millimetre to spare, which you could see as a tribute to my Brunellian engineering but which is actually more luck than judgement. We screwed down the last plate, checked the line for debris, pushed the test wagon round once (probably the most back-breaking part) and then ran the green diesel round for a few circuits. And then we all went inside, because the wind was a bit chilly.

The finished circuit It works! Begger me, but it actually works. The loco made quite a few runs round the complete track, always managing to overcome small obstacles such as leaves and twigs after a brief pause (I suppose this means it is a Really Useful Engine). The track isn’t perfectly laid, but it’s not bad given the pains to which I didn’t go. I think I’d describe this as a low-effort railway (which is not the same as “no effort”, or even “effortless”). Turning the engine round and running anticlockwise, it became apparent that there is a moderately stiff gradient on the final corner (nearest the camera, above), but nothing too problematic. I think I waved a spirit level over the track once or twice during construction, more out of curiosity than diligence, so this isn’t a bad result. The bricks make it quite easy to pull and lift the track in small incremements, with the gravel quickly resettling to hold everything firm.

Of immediate priority is stabilising the soil around the outside of the permanent way. The cutting side has already collapsed once in the winter rain, and the compost bin is slowly sliding downhill, threatening to end up on the trackbed. I still need to buy some roofing slates to shore things up, and think about planting as the warmer weather appears. After that, we need a station site to give it a focal point, and then I have to build the kits received at xmas so there is something to run. Lurking in the background remains the quest for steam traction, the line’s raison d’etre. If I can resolve that, we can think about a more formal opening. Until then, here’s a quick trip round the garden (notice that the camera wobbles more than the loco).