A little more done over Easter break, and last weekend. And I got a wee reminder not to get too clever just ‘cause something worked once…
Finished the mine spur roadbed and got it stained, all that’s left to do here is staple some windbreak over it to hold the ballast, then it’s track time!
I also got the risers and centre spline in for the loop. Worked out reasonably well, rear of the loop rises at 1% for about 12m starting halfway along the yard bench, then transitions into a 4 – 5m flat bit, then comes back downhill at 1.2% before joining the main bench at the same place as the mine spur leaves.
Lotsa words, here’s a pic…
So I ended up getting about 6” of grade separation between the mine spur and the main as it (one day) enters a tunnel and disappears, about where the clamps are.
I got my reminder when I went to add stringers to the loop spline. I’d bought the timber wet – all good. But there were 3 days of warm winds between cutting them to size and getting around to installation and they’d dried out. No biggie – just soak them, right.
Nope. Once dry, wood doesn’t soften up in water. At least not with a 3 day soak in scummy pond water anyway. Web searches confirmed it to be true, apparently. So I’ll count that as learning something I never knew… 
A week of pondering, and snapping a few more sticks just to prove that it really didn’t work, I realised I had enough, err, ‘stuff’ lying around to make a pipe steam bender.
I clamped up a test piece overnight on the tightest curve (12’ dia). Spring back was about 50% so a complete fail for ‘steam bending’ but it was all I needed to soften the wood enough to bend it without snapping.
Today was a frenzy of cutting, steaming, fitting, screwing, gluing, rinse, repeat till I finally ran out of screws… Only a few fill in bits to go. With luck I can just get some fresh wet timber and not bother about having to heat it. Although it is quite fun… 
Thanks for watching,
Cheers
N
Time to get a fridge moved into the container maybe?
