Making The Field Railway Track Bed - Adventures With A Digger In The Mud

[@WojciechGamer]

I'm really happy you are now doing stuff on the railway again

[@futurecaredesign]

Yeah it was the first project that got me into this channel and I am glad it's back!

[@stephenhewitt5835]

Me too

[@TAWithiam]

In standard gauge railways, they say the 3 most important things for track maintenance are drainage, drainage, and of course, drainage

[@ron.v]

Yours is one of the few KZbin channels on which we can all click the "Like" button before we ever watch the video. We know it will be that good.

[@clypeum5063]

After establishing your route and testing it you should build a small rock crusher on top of one of the wagons and crush old concrete pavers (which you can get for free). Pavers are easy to handle and already small so a small crusher will Work well. You would have a nice Railway bed for very little money!

[@peddersmeister]

Running off his little engine thing😊

[@Kittyintheraiyn]

Where are you getting them for free? He's in Ireland mind you.

[@andrewlalis]

​@@Kittyintheraiyn they're free if nobody sees you take them

[@Chr.U.Cas1622]

👍👌👏 Yeah, inventor Tim would even be able to build his own rock crusher.

[@jambusspeakermouse1325]

I believe in a previous video Tim said Sandra didn't want gravel in the fields. I may have got that wrong though.

[@Chr.U.Cas1622]

Dear inventor Tim. Because I fear that there will be a lot of rain in the future, please kindly allow me to suggest respectively ask something: How about laying down two layers of old fence/wire mesh to stabilise the ground under the sleepers at least a bit? This should have the same effect as putting branches under the peat bog railway track you mentioned. But the recycled fence mesh will not rot away (even if it's rusty already) and grass can nevertheless grow through it. Maybe there is a scrapyard near your or friends have fence/wire mesh laying around unused? Best regards, luck and health in particular.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

Good idea - but I think the vegetation will quickly stabilise the ground. But I'll have a think..

[@rylandplassmann9095]

Hope Sandra gets well soon!

[@robotspark363]

Even with such wet conditions you're able to make a very promising and exciting trackbed! It's incredible how in one week (and from our perspective, one video) so much is done to work towards the railway being finished... Best of luck to you Tim! 💖

[@MorseB]

The trick is to build the railway as you go so you have easy supply and cargo access via rail! Looks great so far.

[@madleech]

I feel for you Tim! First time I hired a digger I had the exact same weather as you had! Mud everywhere! But oh so much fun. It still amazes me that you can just walk in and hire such exciting big toys 😂

[@kasbakgaming]

If you have that much clay in the soil, I wonder if you could use some of what you dig out to make bricks for building up the track bed? A layer of bricks along the sides of where the rail bed is going could help cut down on how much erosion occurs with all the water you have to contend with. And since you're building the rail line right past the area anyway, you could use it to haul clay mud back to somewhere dry that you could build a fire to help cure them, then haul the bricks back out as you build the track along.

[@RattiDave]

To misquote Bill The Bard, "Methinks the laddy doth protest too much". For your second try at using a digger, you were doing just fine. I'm glad you are working on the railway again.

[@Marcus-ki1en]

For the hole, how about a trestle? It would allow you to make a gentle slope (grade) and you would not have to worry about soggy bottoms later on.

[@Adrian-j3q3n]

Looks like you had a fun time. Good to see things moving along with the railway. Regards from Italy.

[@bendordoy4815]

I always enjoy watching your field railway videos.

[@jacobbutler4812]

Love the traditional bog line! Can't wait to see it finished and running trains

[@vbart1776]

Buy a quad runner and build four wheel carts. For the soft areas do standard spreading techniques like putting down logs, i.e. rail, ties but you don’t have to put it where the ground is solid. This is the reason why railways are only for very high volume areas anymore, Thatch or branch which as needed. Also, since you do not have a gradient problem like railways you could also do alternate routes which have higher slopes. Still a fun, hobby and KZbin series.

[@xanaxsnax]

Huzzah for rail content! Keep them coming, truly fascinating and yet somehow also calming.

[@jamesmisener3006]

Manure doesn't move itself, does it Tim! Might as well enjoy the solution. You might look at this as Tim is building a train set for himself at Christmas. There's nothing wrong with that, I'd say. Cheers 🇨🇦

[@dougdobbs]

Your persistence in the face of adverse conditions is an inspiration! I think you have the ideal conditions there to dug a pond and do some aquaculture! :) Well done, sir, thank you for letting us tag along on the journey!

[@Swaggie255]

I love these home railway updates, trying to give me an excuse to build my own

[@Not_Dane_Heart]

I am so excited for the continuation of the railway

[@jpeg1991]

Good too see great progress being made Tim! Diggers are fun. Please tell Sandra to take care and to not fret about making any videos until she's all good and mended.

[@geoffreykail9129]

II think that your best option for the low spot is a bridge. It will leave you a place for rain water to go. Filling will bloc a low water coarse.

[@roberthocking9138]

I was yelling the screen, you’ve got a machine right there that can move all that wood 😂 the weather was truly awful the first day, I wouldn’t have even gone outside 😁 .great job Tim

[@Brian_Of_Melbourne]

Or perhaps have done more preparation before the digger (and its cost) arrived.

[@thomashverring9484]

I'm not sure how I came by this channel years ago, but it may have been the first railway videos, the monorail. I love it!

[@ThePCPitStopInc]

Nice to see your working on the railway again I very much wish you and your family a merry Christmas hope to see more of your projects any new updated plans for your velocar enjoyed your series on that. Stay Safe and Warm

[@springwoodcottage4248]

You may find it interesting to research Percy Hobert’s Funnies that were used on D-Day to cross over clay whilst under fire. Other than the crocodile all of the Funnies would give you useful ideas. Incidentally the Grey Fergie tractor, launched just after World War 2, could be equipped with tracks to go over mud & such. Thank you for sharing!

[@noahrousseau8801]

Really exciting to see some work starting on the new railway! it’s amazing what you can get done with even a little digger

[@toyotaprius79]

Better to tear down fences than trees 👍 look forward to seeing the line progress!

[@-Katastrophe]

Drainage might be important to consider in the low/wet spots, you may want to consider installing some drainage ditches or pipe under your rail bed.

[@Hyratel]

the amount of drainpipes would likely double the net cost of the railway, and I'm not sure how well it would drain all that clay (clay LOVES to hold onto moisture, and conversely, tends to shed water once compacted)

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I learned this year that its easy to get the hang of the controls after a day or two. But getting the ground to go flat is super hard. Also a big excavator makes everything much easier if you have the space.

[@PeteFox-i8d]

Thanks Tim

[@amberyooper]

That's some horrible looking mud! I'm glad you had a good way to work with it.

[@sjaakvaag]

Good bizzy, good lucky.

[@Santafefrank]

Thanks Tim it looks great 😃

[@meirionevans5137]

Good effort, Spruce brash is good material to lay on boggy ground. Very tough.

[@Chr.U.Cas1622]

😱 Oh my, what a challenging muddy mess. Although Murphy's law kicked in quite heavily, you nevertheless did very well in your wellies. 👍👌👏 Congratulations 🎉 I only wish that you had rented an excavator with one of those thumb attachments on the boom so that you could've removed the tree trunks with the digger (instead of doing all this heavy lifting). it looks like that this year living in your country is in need of even more rubber boots wearing than ever before. But you nevertheless fought through all those difficulties like a knight in shining armour on a white horse. I don't mind that it was the raincoat that shined and your "white horse" was actually a yellow cat. 😁 ;-) Of course I'm eagerly looking forward to watch the next video about the useful garden railway Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and especially health to both of you. Post Scriptum: Get well soon, Sandra.

[@andymanaus1077]

Hi Tim. I own a mini excavator and it's a great little machine. Unfortunately, the cost of hiring mini diggers is inflated by careless hirers. Very frequently people exceed the capacity of these little machines and return them damaged. While hirers are liable for the damage it is often impossible to recover the full cost of parts, labour and downtime. Responsible operators like you end up subsidising the careless ones. If you decide to hire another mini excavator, consider getting one supplied with a "thumb" attachment. Thumbs are becoming more and more popular with excavator operators. They make the removal of logs, hay, thickets and many other things much easier. If you find that sections of the clearing are too soggy even after some dry weather, try mixing some dry cement into the top six inches of soil along with some stone ballast.

[@fivefootthreetothreefoot]

As somebody who has witnessed bord na Mona peat trains in action I can very confidently say your railway will work. In many cases bord na Mona did not even use plastic sheets. They simply layed track directly to wet peat. This could then support peat trains of thousands of tunns. If the rail ever sank too much they just put a wooden plank underneat. It is very surprising just how much One bit of wood can support in bad soil so mabe in the bad bits use some wooden sleepers as well as the plastic. One thing is to make sure that the line in the soggy part is very level as if it is not then a pool will form and the rail starts to sink. For peat lines this used to distort the gauge but those rails where not secured to the sleepers as well as your pegs so in your case it would probably pull apart at the fish plates. Also the peat rail used to also sink badly at the fish plates as these had no support so make sure they have sleepers underneath at the fish plates. Another thing BNM did was they had a hollow underneath the sleeper which have a huge amount of support. When Many of the peat lines were lifted you could tell where the sleepers were from high area's in the mood rather than low areas you would see when a normal no neat line was lifted. The sleepers sort of acted like canoes on a lake supporting the line Keep up the great work. I genuinely believe that your track is built better than the Bord na Mona Track in terms of joint strength.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

Thank you! Yes, I must go and have a look at those railways before they all disappear.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

great video lots of progress !

[@JennyD-r3u]

HS2 could learn a lot

[@stephenhewitt5835]

👏👏👏

[@rjung_ch]

Brilliant, thanks Tim! 👍💪✌

[@RealLuckless]

Getting a thumb attachment to go with the bucket is one of the best upgrades on a basic digger setup like that.

[@crestfallensunbro6001]

he is only renting it so i dont think any kind of modification is on the table

[@stephenhewitt5835]

Nicely done Squire 🇬🇧

[@bhami]

I've never heard "digger" used to describe that machine. Many Americans would call it an "excavator", but I (71-y-o American) have always called it a "backhoe".

[@xanaxsnax]

I live in Oregon and they are more commonly called Diggers or Excavators. There’s even a local company PDXdigger. Backhoe sounds like someone you’d meet on a street corner 🤣

[@SiqueScarface]

4:30 Terry Pratchett once wrote a novel "Diggers". Maybe they are naturals to drive those.

[@robertsanders4651]

We had similar trouble here last week we had 1.5T digger hired to do some drainage and the rain kept making sloppy mud everywhere 😅

[@tubularap]

Congratulations with the extension. It will roll and look great in the spring.

[@cobba42]

500 for a week? I wish I could have found something that cheap when I needed one 3 years ago. And while, yes, nobody starts out an expert, it is great fun learning to drive one. best week in a vehicle I had!

[@libertyauto]

Watch out Andrew Camarata, there's a new excavator operator in town. Thanks for your videos.

[@tomtruesdale6901]

Very nicely done considering the weather you had to deal with. Can't wait to see more.

[@tracybowling1156]

Great job, Tim! You've done a marvelous job! As usual!

[@Kurt-tq6ew]

Great progress Tim despite the weather 👍🏻

[@anthonysutherland9487]

You could build a simple loco with a small petroleum mower and a belt that can be tensioned to drive the wheels. Much better assistance than human power.

[@teabagmcpick889]

Get well soon, Tim's Sandra

[@RCAFpolarexpress]

Good Evening Sir, a very nice mechanical thumb on your excavator will be handy to move your heavy wet wood logs 😇👍OUTSTANDING WORK 👍😇👌🧐💪Cheers 🍻🍻

[@bigunone]

The only problem with renting a digger is about the time you get good at using it, it's time for you to tak it back!

[@adenwarren9665]

cant wait to see the next update!!!

[@Countryboy2105]

Btw I love your videos Cannot stop watching😊😊😊!!

[@buffplums]

Your railway is growing. I would imagine the next project is to build yourself a little locomotive. You could get an old air compressor tank and maybe an old ICE and use the high pressure air stored in the tank to power the engine. Probably a 2 cyclinder motorbike engine but you’d have to modify the valve timing to remove the compression stroke

[@aidanscapeing]

if the muck sticks to your boots its too wet to work. the white clay is called Mala, its pure rubbish, it was used to fill up the center of ditches around the countryside when they were being built.

[@hoyks1]

Through the mud with a corduroy road.

[@anapananapa]

I want to be like Tim when I grow up.

[@joethompson11]

Amazing what you can do in 5 days!

[@TomLeg]

What a wind! I hope Ireland doesn't et blown away

[@thewunder-lusters9644]

Mud, mud, glorious mud!!! 😄😄

[@TheZitherish]

A bit of couche grass to knit it all together, it’ll be fine.

[@mischef18]

Question do you ever get a few days fine in a row up your way. Anyway looking forward to see the track go down and moving waggons on it. Great effort in such wet conditions too bro. Safe travels y'all. Ken.

[@RikkiCattermole]

If you use the horses to compact it, I bet they'll enjoy it!

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

Horses only have two natural enemies - packs of wolves, and bog holes. They'd be terrified of the soft mud

[@londonnight937]

Keep at it Tim! Can't wait for updates!

[@ferguscosgrave7510]

Well done

[@Junkboy888]

Hey look, there's some lovely filth down Here lol Man that rain and mud lol

[@timspoor]

Great stuff, we love the railway and garlic content!!

[@johnwildwest1]

In the spring when it dries maybe try using a whacker plate on the soil might save allot of shoveling Tim good luck 😉

[@braxtonmathews6434]

Great progress Tim! Might need to invest in a pipe mount for yiur camera

[@GreenJimll]

How long before Tim get's side tracked by building his own home made digger arm mounted on a railway wagon so he can level track bed and lay track around as he goes?

[@robotspark363]

You could probably fit one of those toy diggers they used to have in playgrounds-the ones they would have in the sandpit and you would use levers to move the arms about. Who knows how much easier it'd be than a regular shovel and mattock though!

[@Nowheres_Channel]

Goodness, that would be interesting to see on such a small gauge!

[@BuzbyWuzby]

Here in England the holes that the (Irish) navvies dug out in order to use the soil to build embankments Etc. are called 'borrows'

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

Thank you - I shall hang on to that..

[@Peter-g1v]

Ah, the joy of it all!

[@bertologist]

Do you have enough small tree or shrub trunks to build up a corduroy track bed in the swampy parts?

[@Emu0181]

0:58 I was just thinking, why doesn't he just...oh

[@Assassinlexx]

Help with the camera. Use a child size umbrella with a couple of straps to hold in place. Think again about using a old battery wheelchair to pull the rail wagons.🤔👍

[@adrienst.raymond6801]

You can just unplug those pesky alarms. Plug them back in before you return the equipment but it will really save you and your community the headache

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

Next time!

[@marcofurlan417]

Hey You could try to sell "shares" of the railway to finance it. After all, that's what they were doing during the Golden Age of Railway. They don't have to be actual legally binding shares (but they could)

[@woozleboy]

With larger/wider sleepers, you can spread the surface tension out, but eventually you'll need rock ballast for drainage and water control. Real life engineering in the field is fun, huh?

[@rudyjanke5942]

Youll need to run your team of horses with a disk through there for a few days. that way itll gate dry and smooth

[@minisareus]

You might have to put in some land drains or culvert pipe tim

[@jeffrichards9329]

Agree with this. A railway right of way that’s properly leveled and elevated over the wet parts is very similar to a dam. Unless there’s some other route that drainage wants to take, it’ll likely pool on one side of the track. On the bright side, if you put a generous culvert in that low spot, that’s less fill you’ll need to make it level. Very excited to see all this sudden progress on your railway!

[@GARDENER42]

I don't understand why we don't have hydraulic 'thumbs' on excavators like they do in the US - makes moving stuff like logs easy.

[@criticalmass181]

500 Euros?!?! I thought you'd have built your own for that. It'd make a pretty compelling video series, if you did.

[@RubyRhod]

*lends a digger* *wood in the way* Tim: I must be fast, diggers are expensive! Couldn't you have prepared a bit beforehand?

[@Hugo-xr1mg]

Mud Digger Mud Digger Mud Digger We Do The Mud Digging with the Mud Digger this is going to be so fun, we love your stuff tim :D

[@confuseatronica]

also "soggy bogland"

[@Ellnebo]

might it be worth planting something in the rail embankment with roots that can bind the loose clay together.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

You're right - but I think they'll arrive on their own very quickly anyway

[@Joeschmo776]

I would recommend getting a thumb for your excavator, trust me it’s saves your back

[@abrr2000]

at this rate you'll soon have enough track to start selling tickets to ride it :D

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I just noticed its probably impossible for you to do live takes because of the wind noise right? I noticed this year when I was digging on my project.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

I could probably get round it with the right equipment, but the damp conditions quickly destroy delicate electronics anyway

[@shebrightmechanics4033]

Would do a ton of good to run a compactor through the path to have a decent rail foundation so it doesn't sink

[@BillyGraves-s4h]

Please can you get a loco soon even if you just make tornado work properly I rly want to see that happen

[@stevenmusante4681]

Forgive my ignorance if its a bad idea, but have you considered digging a few french drains? I figure a few well placed holes filled with gravel could go a long way. I could be underestimating how much rain you get.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

The problem is the bedrock - it's never far from the surface so there isn't really anywhere for the water to drain to

[@arlingtontrains7]

Great job 🤓

[@WayneCarolan]

I fully get the reasons why you picked a micro digger however I probably would have went for a slightly larger machine like 1.8 tonne with a thumb. It would have saved some heartache. The grader bucket on the slightly larger would have probably made your challenges a little easier.

[@YIKES615]

Messy work Tim.