The Ridge - extension to the Creag Dhubh Mountain Tramway

[Graeme Dunbar]

When is the railway set?

Asbestos cement roofing goes back to the 1900's, though I don't know when it was first available in corrugated sheets.

[tedp]

It is supposed to have been opened around 1900, so that's fairly early for a corrugated asbestos roof. I decided to change it to wriggly tin by chamfering the edges, as soon as I get round to detailing the roof.

Yesterday I spent at the Valkenburg museum, doing my obligatory First Aid and firefighting course. Each of us in turn extinguished a petrol fire set up in a tray of water, with a cut down drum inside, also filled with water. Half an inch of petrol on top made an impressive fire with 10 ft flames. The way to attack this is to use a CO2 extinguisher, and cooling it down to the point where the evaporation of the petrol is down to a lower level, and it won't self-ignite when you stop the CO2 'snow'.

Anyway, I digress. Today was a quiet day which gave me a chance to do the next step in constructing the Summit station building. I needed to make the foundations of the building at the downhill end, since these will be visible above the platform level. I used some offcuts of Wills dressed stone sheet, and treated them much the same way as the walls:



The next stage was adding mortar to the stone wall courses. The Ratio walls have a deep pattern with rounded stones, as opposed to the end wall at the downhill side. So I thought I would need a good depth of mortar to even them out a little. I started with a tray of plaster, water and a bit of black paint.

Here I messed up, as I normally use watercolour, but I couldn't open the container so I used acrylic paint. An error, since this created a tough coat of paint and plaster on the stones themselves, which was difficult to eradicate at the cleaning stage. However, the process will become clear from the ensuing photos. Only don't use acrylic paint!



Here the first coat of plaster mix has been applied. The colour is very dark, but it will brighten as the plaster dries:



Here is the result after two coats of plaster mix. The courses are now filled with the mix, and it is time to start cleaning the faces of the stones:



This is after the initial cleaning stage with a damp cloth. Note the plaster residue on the window sills:



In the end I had to resort to hand soap and water under the tap, and I finally got back some of the old pattern. Regrettably some of the black acrylic has settled on the stones and obliterated the stone painting work I did on Friday:



Not too bad a result, after half an hour of furious scrubbing. I really detested that acrylic I used!



Next, I fitted the door and window frames (which had been painted buff beforehand) and I put the building on the layout to check on its looks:

[tedp]

Today I had an on/off day with several distractions, but since I was at home I managed to do some work on the Summit station building. Late yesterday I had painted and fitted the doors and windows, and this morning I chamfered the edges of the roof so they started looking like wriggly tin. This was rather a tedious affair, since the material is very thick, so a lot of it has to be filed off. The workshop floor is now a regular desert. In addition I fitted an interior partition between the Ladies and the Gents, to preserve decency:



A close-up of the door and window frames, which I painted buff beforehand, and the door to the tearoom which is open. I lost the other Ratio doors, but I made up new ones to the Ladies and the Gents from Evergreen sheet:



Here is the building in place, with the platform surface installed. The thin roof edges are evident, although they need to be sealed off underneath:



That was halfway the afternoon. Tonight I fitted window panes and I made up signs for the station building. The signs were made in Paint and the bitmap tweaked a little until it looked right in MS Word. This allows you to reduce the image to suitable proportions:



Next, a few close-ups of the signs and the doors and windows. Note the frosted glass in the Ladies and the Gents:







The building still needs more attention - the roof is still unweathered and as I said before, the gaps need to be sealed. Also, the ridge needs a capping strip. More work ahead!

[Gerhard Novak]

Looks great. I love the plaster effect on the stone walls. And you are a speedy builder!

[Gerhard Novak]

I just saw something that looks like a diode between the sidings. Is it a diode and what is the function you get from that?
Thanks
Gerhard 

[tedp]

Thanks Gerhard. Once I get going I keep going, but often the problem is to get going!

The diode is temporarily rigged. It protects the end of the platform road against overrunning, since in normal operation the summit station functions as a 'blind' terminus. I cannot yet see the trams entering the station - I need to install a mirror. Eventually I will also fit the siding with a diode, but first the rails will have to be properly gapped and I will have to put in wiring so I can remotely operate the point and the dead sections.

[Gerhard Novak]

OK, Understood. you run into the siding - the diode interrupts the power - you change polarity - you can drive out again. Means all your trams/locomotives have to run into the same direction.
Will there be a chance one day to see your black rock mountain tramway in an exhibition (not too far away I hope) ?
Gerhard

[Graeme Dunbar]

I was thinking "of course they run in the same direction, it is a terminus" but I realized you mean the locomotives are all wired "right rail positive" (or left if one doesn't follow the norm) for forward direction.   :)

[tedp]

All my stock indeed is wired the same way - right rail positive.

Gerhard - I may exhibit the tramway at the Valkenburg show, but not this year. Part of it goes to Expong, for the Dave Brewer Challenge.

Last Monday, after a very busy Easter weekend, much of which was spent volunteering at the Valkenburg museum, I managed to do a little on the station roof. I put on a paint pattern of rectangles, suggesting individual sheets of corrugated iron. Initially it looked a bit like WW2 camouflage:



Then I started to tone it down with grey and black washes, and I added rust brown to the dark grey sheets, suggesting one batch of the sheets had started to rust from the bottom end up. The bottom end over time would be wetter than the top end.



Two more views from a normal angle suggest it looks better than you'd think. However, I still need to weather it more subtly before I'm satisfied, and the ridge has to be closed still:





The roof still needs more work. The harsh initial photo was taken under direct light. It needs toning down - umber may do the trick, and at that altitude the main growth you will see on a roof is lichen. I will have to take a close look at the photos I made of rocky patches on Snowdon summit.

Yesterday however I have been working at something new. I'm not yet quite happy, but I think I am slowly going somewhere. I assembled a photographic panorama by stitching together several photos taken from Snowdon summit. The sky and the foreground needed a huge amount of editing. I spent a lot of ink doing small test prints and then found that the two parts of the backscene (behind the Ridge and behind the summit unit) somehow were at the wrong level. More editing still... The present file is 13548 x 2107 pixels, a jpeg of 13.4Mb!

The idea is to have a photo quality print made which is bright enough to resemble the mountaintop light. Here is a small size copy of the entire panorama:



And here is the backscene part for the summit station, following furious editing of several source photos of Snowdon - the scene is hardly recognizeable. Most of the rubble will be hidden behind the scenic contours. The tiny figure on the skyline is my wife - that part of the photo was taken when she was on her way to Snowdon summit:


And finally, here is the backscene for the Ridge, assembled from several photos, with a section cut out between the view down to Clogwyn and the view down the other path, which will be obvious for those familiar with Snowdon summit:


The idea is to have a trial print made on low quality paper, and check that by fitting it behind the layout. After adjustments I hope it will be good enough to make a high quality print for the backscene.

[Krizzy]

Ted
I know you are basing your mountain railway with some Isle of Man influence as well as Snowdonia but there is some bad news from the island. Just seen on the north west regional tv news is a report of one of the Snaefell tramcars derailing and overturning up the mountain. The pictures show a complete wreck. Fortunately the report mentioned there were no passengers on board. I suppose you could say it Fell off, sorry.

Roger

[tedp]

I just searched for 'snaefell mountain railway derailment' and up came this: http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/pictures-runaway-mountain-tram-crash-drama-1-7824668

The news item starts saying 'Tramcar number 3 had been parked just short of the summit station this afternoon when it ran away out of control and crashed north of Bungalow station.'

Fortunately no loss of life, the car is a complete write-off. I have a hunch it wasn't put on a handbrake properly, but that's conjecture.

Bad news all the same - you must be shocked even more than any of us, being descended from a Manx family.

[Krizzy]

Off thread it is the Steam Packet that interests me. Just found out the First Minister is in talks with Liverpool regarding the siting of a new IOM ferry berth down river from it's current berth in front of an iconic 'World Heritage' site. The Liverpool ferry is currently in a Birkenhead drydock having sustained bow damage while berthing in Douglas. What with the tram and the ferry they say everything comes in threes. Let's hope the third is not the Douglas horse tram already under threat of permanent closure.

Roger

[DeadHorse]

A bit late now, but the Wills SSMP223 Corrugated Glazing is a lot thinner than the SSMP216 Corrugated Iron and once painted looks the same. It would need bracing though as its too flexible without support.

[tedp]

Yes I know about the corrugated glazing - regrettably all I had to hand was Kibri corrugated sheet, not even the Wills stuff.