Garden wooden structures and Time

[Kirbstone]

Our damp weather persists and climatic damage to once pristine wooden creations means that one needs to renew and replace to maintain. With advancing years this is more difficult. Fatigue raises its ugly head and the need to delegate to younger (paid) people transfers the burden, but they have their own ideas, so change is inevitable.

It is now 24 years since I built most of our large garden infrastructure and one of the big 'killers' is unchecked bramble and tree growth. MOH forbids me to do radical pruning, so the jungle advance continues to render large tracts of our grounds impassable. She likes to cruise around on her ride-on doing lawns, paths and verges &c., but the areas in between are left to Nature, in the main.

One example is how sheer weight and invasiveness of vegetation plus damp has destroyed the perimeter of our rose garden. A young (50yr.-old) employee is trying to salvage it and at this stage I'm only passing comments.

Tom

[Mouse]

I built a deck out of virgin railway sleepers a couple of years ago. One of the observations by my family and friends was that by the time they had rotted through, it would not be my problem to replace!

[Kirbstone]

Hi Mouse,

Yes, Railway sleepers are mighty timbers, none of them 'virgin' as they are all heavily impregnated, nay soaked in..strong creosote, thus guaranteeing the thick end of 100 years in use. Having been given some, we used them low down where we could to form raised beds &c. Their bulk and weight makes their use high up very difficult.
I hired a land-rover-driven trailer-mounted large circular saw with a blade that went through nails, so we got ours down to manageable size and weight.

Tom

[Mouse]

Hi Mouse,

Yes, Railway sleepers are mighty timbers, none of them 'virgin' as they are all heavily impregnated, nay soaked in..strong creosote, thus guaranteeing the thick end of 100 years in use. Having been given some, we used them low down where we could to form raised beds &c. Their bulk and weight makes their use high up very difficult.
I hired a land-rover-driven trailer-mounted large circular saw with a blade that went through nails, so we got ours down to manageable size and weight.

Tom

I called them "virgin" since they were fresh cut sleepers out of Larch sold for making garden structures. My wife wanted to be able to walk on them without shoes, so no creosote... We had the question on whether to leave them with no coating, or to coat them with some product and re-coat every few years. Obviously the people selling product recommended buying their product every few years. The people selling wood, suggested that the high oil content of the Larch would protect it for many years without any coating and it was better to let the wood breathe. Since we are lazy and in 20-30 years, probably be beyond caring, we have left them to the elements and so far they have mellowed into the garden and become a pleasant silver colour.

[Kirbstone]

Mouse,

Like teak on yacht decks, a settled grey colour remains attractive always. Sold new, especially for garden structures, I suppose the main concern would be to eliminate splinters by careful sanding and rounding of sharp edges &c.

What we were given most probably had had steam trains thundering over them for 100+ years!

Tom

[Mouse]

Mouse,

Like teak on yacht decks, a settled grey colour remains attractive always. Sold new, especially for garden structures, I suppose the main concern would be to eliminate splinters by careful sanding and rounding of sharp edges &c.

What we were given most probably had had steam trains thundering over them for 100+ years!

Tom

All of the surfaces were belt sanded and the edges were rounded to provide a nice surface for walking on in bare feet. So far my wife and family are very happy with the deck. As to a railway, the deck now has a G gauge railway that has been inlaid into the top surface, which was one of the reasons I built the deck out of sleepers.

[Fred in Skirts]

All of the surfaces were belt sanded and the edges were rounded to provide a nice surface for walking on in bare feet. So far my wife and family are very happy with the deck. As to a railway, the deck now has a G gauge railway that has been inlaid into the top surface, which was one of the reasons I built the deck out of sleepers.

We need a picture of the deck and the train!!!!

[Mouse]

We need a picture of the deck and the train!!!!

Your wish is my command....

[crfriend]

I'm loving the colours on the boxcar. Completely anachronistic for the UK, but what the heck?

[Seb]

@Mouse Haha, that picture just led me down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what the special looking loco is pulling your train... First I thought it must be an 1860-70 one but the more I look at it the more it looks like a 1910-20 shunter, you'll have to enlighten us!
And then I started wondering how many other countries trains run on the left side beside Sweden and the UK. Turns out its quite a few.

[Fred in Skirts]

We need a picture of the deck and the train!!!!

Your wish is my command....

Thanks for the picture!

I have sent you an E-Mail so watch for it!!

Fred

[Fred in Skirts]

The locomotive in the picture is of a switch engine (shunter) used by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in the USA West. It was gas powered and only one axle was powered so they used side rods the make all wheels powered. It was used some where in the 1930s and one is currently in use by the tourist line that operates on the the old railroad.

The box car is a modern car belonging to the Chessi system a conglomeration of many large and small railroads.

The caboose at the end is from the Alaska Railroad and was used as the office of the train conductor (boss) of the train crew.

Hope this cleared up everything!

Probably made it cleared as mud!

[Kirbstone]

Mouse,
I love your excellent model railway on your deck and
Fred,
From your avatar I ought to have known you'd have an encyclopaedic knowledge of locos, rolling stock &c. Impressive!

Returning to my thread however, I've dug a couple of photos out, taken some 24 years apart which recommend that one should up stumps and move to S. California, where it is much drier. My remaining bro-in-law has lived in San Diego for 40+ years now.

Tom

[Mouse]

At the risk of taking the thread away from Tom's subject, I will answer the "wood" questions. The deck was built in 2022 from 36 2.4m new Larch sleepers, cross section 100mm X 200mm. The second picture in my DIY thread shows the construction of the deck in a skirt and site boots, since the sleepers were heavy http://www.skirtcafe.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24731 The whole reason for building the deck out of sleepers was so I could inlay the rails of a G gauge (45mm gauge) railway into the top surface with no danger of weakening the deck. This was to take the railway from the hole in the conservatory wall to the permeant way built into the garden 25 years ago. Not to take over the thread, I will stop here and start a new thread on railways. http://www.skirtcafe.org/forums/viewtop ... 43#p262043

[Seb]

Hope this cleared up everything!

Thanks Fred! my curiosity is stilled