Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

Another job I forgot to mention was done in mid September. I pulled everything out of the shed and built a number of shelves around the walls. This gave a more useable space, rather than everything piled up on the floor.



It became much easier to get any one piece of equipment out as we didn't have to move several other things out of the way first. It was a couple of days work, but well worth the effort.

 

14th October 2022

Back to the gate and a little history. Since childhood, I've had a long interest in railways - mainly the steam era. In my younger days, my dad and I built many model railways, which were displayed at exhibitions. We started in OO scale, before moving to N scale and one World War 1 layout in OO9. We built both British and American layouts.

During the purchase of the house, I discovered there had been two railways that ran across the bottom of the garden. The earliest map I have is from 1857, showing both lines. First was a horse drawn wooden wagonway and by the 1857 map, a second line belonging to the North East Railway is shown. By 1895, the wagonway was no longer in use.

When I first found the rotten driveway gate behind the garage, it immediately reminded me of an old level crossing gate and a plan popped straight into my head. I was going to build a railway garden feature.

The gate had several rotten areas, where the wood was just bolted together but not glued. Over the years, moisture got between the planks and rotted the timber. However, I figured I could cut out the rotten areas and replace it with fresh wood.



28th October 2022

By the end of October, I'd cut out and replaced many of the small areas of rot. The bottom plank was too far gone to save and was replaced completely, as was the main diagonal support. It took a lot of clamps to hold each repair while the glue set, so it was slow going.

 

6th November 2022

It was really cold outside by this time, but we dragged ourselves out to do some work before the ground started to freeze.



Using the pile of earth dug out for the foundations of the observatory, we started to spread it out behind the observatory and the area to the right, to begin to flatten out the ground. We couldn't really level the area, as there was a significant fall across the whole garden, down to the bottom. Instead we opted to flatten out the lumps and bumps, to give a more steady fall. The area immediately to the right of the observatory was to become a new lawn area, with the railway beyond that.

 

15th November 2022

By the 15th, all the metalwork had been cleaned up and painted in at least two coats of Smooth Black Hammerite. A few of these bolts held the hinges in place, while the rest had originally bolted all the planks together. This time around, all the planks would be glued to prevent water getting trapped in the joints. The bolts were more cosmetic now.



16th November 2022

Back out in the garden again! There were two conifers at the bottom of the garden. The one closest to the camera was only green at the two outside edges and dead all the way up the middle. It can be seen a few posts back. It was in the way of the future railway and being half dead, we cut most of it down with loppers.

I'd be back another day with my chainsaw to finish off the trunks close to the ground. The conifer behind it was bald where it got no light because of the chopped conifer, but I had a plan for that.

 

19th November 2022

After painting the metal hardware, I spent a couple of days sanding and filling the woodwork, then began painting the gate on the 19th. It was going to take several coats to hide both the new wood and dark green original paint.



22nd November 2022

A few days earlier, I'd ordered a sheet of galvanised steel and collected it on the 22nd. It was marked out, cut, the edges filed smooth, mounting holes drilled and then it was primed.

 

24th November 2022

A couple of days later, it was sprayed red on one side and white on the other.



26th November 2022

Along with the galvanised steel, I got some 3mm sheet steel. These parts were welded up into a mount to support the gate post and allow it to be bolted to the ground. This would also be painted in black Hammerite.

 

27th November 2022

I planned to slate the area behind the observatory. To keep leaves and hedge clippings out of the slate, I was going to add some low fence panels at the back of the roof runners. They were given several coats of paint in the workshop so they'd be ready when it came time to fit them. By late November, it really wasn't nice working outside.



30th November 2022

On the last day of November, we had a large number of railway sleepers delivered. It was chucking it down and they must have also been stored outside, as they were all soaking wet. They were brought indoors the following day and stacked up in the workshop with some spacers between them all. I then put some heating on and left the dehumidifier running. They needed to be much dryer in order to paint them with shed paint.

 

1st December 2022

Time for the big reveal! The completed gate was carried out to the workshop patio for a picture. The plan beyond the observatory was to make another small raised lawn, using about half of the remaining land down there. I'd then have my crossing gate dividing the lawn from the remaining area. Beyond that, I wanted a ballasted area with around 16 feet of fullsize railway track - a nod to the past history of the site. Beyond the track, I wanted a small embankment, full of flowers as a backdrop to the track.



The railway sleepers I'd bought were for edging for the new lawn. They were in my workshop a while, being aired off and turned frequently, to allow airflow around all sides. I was going to have to approach some heritage railways for the real sleepers and rail.

3rd December 2022

Surveying the scene outside, there was going to be a lot of work to do. While building the observatory, we'd tried to keep weed membrane spread over as much of the ground as possible, to minimise new growth. This area alone was larger than our front and back gardens at the old house! The two bushes on the right would have to go, as would the crowned tree. We originally planned to leave that, but its position wasn't going to work out.



I was at least now getting some use from the observatory after all the hard work. Here's just a few pictures.

 

6th December 2022

As the sleepers dried out, I began painting them with shed paint. As you can see, the workshop was a bit full. I was stacking the sleepers at an angle at one end of the workshop, where three sides could be painted and left to dry. They were turned for the remaining side and that was painted, then once that was dry, everything in the workshop was moved around to paint the next batch.

I went around them all with three coats, so it took quite a lot of moving. Once all the shed paint was dry, I then painted bitumen on the bottom of all the sleepers that would be in contact with the ground and up the back of all the sleepers that would form a retaining wall for the new lawn and railway.



8th ~ 16th December 2022

A couple of days later, everything outside turned white and stayed that way for a while. I was quite content painting sleepers indoors!

 

A New Year, A New Project! - The Year of the Lawn & Railway

2nd January 2023

While I'd taken a guess at the number of sleepers we'd need, it was just a guess. I wouldn't know for sure until I was spreading earth out and establishing ground heights. On the 2nd, I carried out several sleepers to try and get a better estimate of the height needed for a more or less level lawn area. It looked to be around five sleepers.



11th January 2023

I'd also ordered a load of re-bar and welded some 1.5mm steel tops to them. The half metre stakes were cleaned up, painted in Hammerite and would be used to pin the lower level of sleepers into the ground. I needed the ground not frozen in order to start digging out a flat bed for the sleepers, so the outdoor work would wait a little while.

 

31st January 2023

Through January, I'd also been planing two sleepers completely flat so that they could be joined. They were cut to about four feet long, then glued, clamped and screwed together on the 31st. This would form the second gatepost.



6th February 2023

By the beginning of February, I'd finished painting all the sleepers. There were thirty eight in this first batch, stacked up here with more in the corridor outside the workshop. It was still cold and wet outside, but it wouldn't be long before I was back in the garden.

The second gate post had been planed, filled, sanded and had the top shaped to match the original post. I still needed to buy the materials to weld up a second post mount.

 

11th February 2023

By mid February, I was back out in the garden. It was still very cold, but so long as it wasn't windy, I could manage. As soon as the wind picked up, the cold made me eyes water and I could no longer see what I was doing!

Thankfully, February was fairly calm and even sunny. The work outside began with the fence behind the observatory. I fitted some horizontal battens between the roof runner uprights. I used plastic decking planks at the bottom since they would be in contact with the ground and wouldn't rot.



14th February 2023

On the 14th, the two previously painted fence panels were brought out and bolted in place. As mentioned before, these were to make a divide between the Hawthorn and the observatory area, which would be covered with slate. Hopefully the fence would keep the hedge clippings off the slate.

I also planned on making a path all the way along the Hawthorn hedge so I could stand ladders on a flat surface when trimming the hedge. Being about 100 feet long, the path was going to be quite a project in its own right.

 

16th February 2023

Two days later, I began digging out the edge of the lawn and laying sleepers. With the ground being damp, but not wet, it made digging the clay easier.



Each ground level sleeper had two anchor pins fitted to keep it aligned and to make sure it stayed in place. The pins were half a metre long.

 

22nd February 2023

On the third layer, I added a two feet long sleeper at ninety degrees to the sleeper wall. This had an anchor pin added to the left, to help support the wall against the earth behind it. I didn't do anything to the far end by the conifer, as the ground level dropped down here to the bottom of the sleepers.



The following day, I completed layer four and had turned the corner at the observatory. This left a four feet wide ramp that would lead to the new upper lawn.

 

24th February 2023

We were back to clearing stuff on the 24th. We had considered keeping the two bushes half way along the wall, but after further measuring of the railway space, realised they needed to go.



The crowned tree was also felled, as that too was going to be in the way. It also wasn't showing any significant signs of regrowth after crowning, other than a few twigs at ground level.



Lastly, the remains of the half dead conifer was cut down to ground level. All the cuttings were bagged up in six bulk bags, ready for a tip trip. That was the day done. There were still a number of other tree stumps that needed to go, some from trees felled long before we moved in. We'd get someone in to grind all of those out.