My Astro Pics

May 30th On the 30th, I got all the proper railway sleepers jetwashed, to get rid of plant growth, dirt, oil and soot. This was to allow them to be treated with an oil based preservative. May 31st The following day, I managed to get each sleeper loaded onto the wheelbarrow and trundled down the garden to the trackbed. While loading and unloading, I almost gave birth to several of my internal organs. I'm guessing the sleepers are oak, are incredibly dense and weigh a ton! They were still a bit damp from washing, so I left them to dry. I salvaged some of the old weed membrane that we pulled up and got the decorative sleepers along the hawthorn finished.

The three sleepers across the front of the gate were also pinned down and screwed together. I had to redrill one of the pinning holes, as it fell directly in line with the air raid shelter bricks underground. To hide the odd spacing of the pins, the sleepers will be capped by some three quarter inch planking, which will help to tie them together, since they are only a single layer. With that done, the railway sleepers were now dry enough to start treating. Several of them have some quite rotten areas; after all, they were removed as they were no longer servicable. I picked the best side to be the upper face. The underside was given two coats of black bitumen, to help to water proof the surface touching the ground. Once fully dry, the top, sides and ends will be treated with dark brown "Creocote"; an oil based, environmentally friendly version of Creosote. Let's hope they haven't taken all the stuff that works out of it. Once they are painted and dry, I'll be in a position to start laying rail!

On the 1st of June, I took a day off from the railway to do some pointing work on the patio.
June 2nd I got back to the sleepers on Friday 2nd. The sleepers were turned so that the sides could be treated with the Creocote. They were turned again for the upper face and once more for the other side. In some places, it soaked in quite quickly so further coats were added in these areas.
I also dragged some more earth from the pile to under the right edge of the weed barrier, to allow the sleepers to be positioned a little further away from the gate. In the picture with all seven sleepers laid out, they've been spaced out pretty much to their final positions. A yellow steel tape measure can be seen along the left side of the sleepers, which is the approximate length of the rail. I ran out of bitumen the other day and have some more on order. Once it's here, I plan on painting the sides and ends of the sleepers to at least half their height, to help waterproof the lower portions, as I don't want to be digging out the ballast regularly to re-treat the wood. Later in the day, after the temperature dropped a bit, I pulled the trailer out and unloaded all the R/C aircraft. This was to allow me to remove the four pieces of rail from the back of the box. There are two 9 feet long sections and two pieces at 7 feet 6 inches. They are HEAVY; and I thought the sleepers were heavy! If they are 100 to 130 pound rail, the longest pieces could be up to almost 400 pounds in weight.
	Using some wooden levers, the rails were moved to the front edge of the trailer. Tie-down straps were wrapped around the rail and a piece of wood as a handle and they were dragged out to the edge of the drive. I think I'll make some wooden 'A' frames with lifting straps, to 'walk' the rails down the garden, rather than trying to lift them.
June 3rd On the 3rd, the sleepers were treated again with the Creocote wood treatment and left to dry.
	On the 4th, I painted three quarters of the way up the sides and ends of the sleepers with bitumen to help waterproof them. I also painted the footprints where the rail chairs sit, as water could gather under there.	On the 6th, I collected the steel for the second gatepost mount and welded up the parts. Late in the day, the inside, outside and upper surfaces were painted in Hammerite.
June 7th On the morning of the 7th, I painted the gatepost mount a second coat of Hammerite over all the areas that had been already painted. Once cured, it can be turned over and the underside can be painted. I also painted the anchor bolts that hold the main gatepost onto its concrete footing. After lunch, I began to transport rail chairs from the garage to the trackbed. Two chairs at a time, plus six chair screws was as much as I could carry in the wheelbarrow. They are very heavy. While there were already holes in the sleepers from previous chair screws, they were very tight to screw in, especially the last couple of inches. Even with the two feet long wrench, it took two hands and a lot of force to get the screws all the way home. Actually, I left them with about a sixteenth of an inch of play, to allow the chair to move slightly on the sleeper. This should help with alignment once I drop the rail into the top of the chairs. It took most of the afternoon to transport the chairs and to get them screwed down.