Alas, Pele vents her frustrations from Kilauea in the form of a lava flow! Ash is atypical in any meaningful amount on O’ahu. Neat, neat idea though!
Tom,
The wall (and a good portion of my girls!) is stained as you described. The photo is pretty bad due to the sun, but multiple tones are visible. Prior to staining, I did deepen my grooves with my Dremel (love that thing!), setting it at a low speed. The India ink is on hand, but I want to see how everything looks when it dries before I apply it. I used a pretty dark stain as a base, so I may have inadvertently obviated that step! I should be able to remove my not-so-deccartive concrete shards by the end of the week, shoring up a good section of the run with this retaining wall.
Oh, I shattered two swords at my fencing club, which provides some high tensile “rebar” to brace this new “wall.” Should I do that, or will the dirt and stone fill be sufficient to hold the “wall” in place?
Thanks as always, and have great week!
Aloha,
Eric
P.S. I will, if nothing else, have a photo of the project after it is installed.
India Ink should be applyed to the raw wood. It is water based solution and will soak deep into the wood. Over time as moisture seeps through from the backside of the wood the ink will migrate back to the surface. Stains are oil based and will seal the ink in place. Suggestion; put the wood header board in place and let it age 4~6 weeks to allow the VOCs to evaporate then apply the ink, cover with a thin coat of the very lightest stain you have after the ink has dried for a couple days. The real effect you are trying to achieve will happen in about 2~4 years as the color will change to ‘barn wood grey’.
As for the ‘re-bar’, should not be needed. If it is the type of sword I’m thinking about, it may introduce a ‘sheer plane’ (think miniature earthquake fault zone) that will allow, and possibly accelerate, road bed materials to move. Not sure what you mean “stone and dirt”. If you build up the roadbed with shoulders 1/2~3/4 inch wider than the ends of the ties, you should be good to go. After the first rain you will see some washout, not a big concern, just add more ballast. As the elevated roadbed ages it will firm up and become more stable. If you have wing walls for the head wall it should stay in place just fine unless hit by an 0-5-0.
Ah. Ink first, then stain. Live and learn! We will get this first wall in place then by this weekend, which will let us proceed to the wing wall and culvert project, hopefully brining this part of the operation to a conclusion.
We’ll put the lessons learned into the next timber wall, which we can tackle as wing walls and culverts start to come out of the mold. Should carry us through the summer.
Thanks as always, Tom!
- Eric
Tom,
The wall went in this weekend. The first photo shows the top-down shot as I trenched out its location:
Then we have the wall in place. My helpful PLAYMOBIL crew agains provides perspective:
From a visual standpoint, this is a HUGE improvement. Operationally, since I jostled all the joints on my 12" and 24" section track, things were, for the moment, touchy. Naturally, we had visitors…
I will have to make one more wall to complete the lengthe of this project. The concrete elements are on hold as I make my annual inspection and repair of our window frames.
This is HUGE. It really gives the impression that the railroad sits on the highpoint of a floodplain. Thanks again for letting me bounce some ideas off you!
Aloha,
Eric
Just remember that there will come a time when you are the one to share experiences, what worked and what didn’t.
Tom, thanks for your kind words! I look forward to that day!
In the meantime, my oldest daughter and I took advantage of being laid low by a minor 'flu to start in on the next wall. It is all scribed and ready for the India ink. All stop as we look for toothpicks!
Aloha,
Eric
Tom,
I placed the second wall today. I found, also, that the first wall had begun to lean forward a bit due to the crew climbing up over the retaining wall and into the garden to access the guppy pond along this part of the line. Since, I was digging, anyway, I just straightened it out. I should have set it deeper, but I have a feeling this will be a recurring repair.
We will get to the concrete wing walls eventually, and will update this post when that phase of the project begins. Tomorrow,however, the dive boat calls, and I must answer!
Aloha!
Eric
I see you have an occurance that I never had to contend with. A fleet of 0-2-0’s can easily cause movement unexpected.
Those 0-2-0s are part of the challenge, part of the motivation, and most of the joy of this project!
Most hardy agreement. You & I (and others) are the ‘now’ of the hobby, the little ones are the future.
To that end, as we were polishing some nasty rail joints, my oldest 0-2-0 said:
“So if we had a live steam engine, we wouldn’t have to do this, would we?”
Good…Gooooood…My young…apprentice!