Building A Diamond Crossing Bridge For The Narrow Gauge Field Railway 

The West Ireland Agricutural Railway is coming together nicely, I will gladly watch the railway's further devolopment

While it's not the conventional way of doing things, as a rail enthusiast I can't help but enjoy seeing these the cheaper easier solutions you come up with. These are the kinds of things that you might have found in old time light industrial railways, like your single rail points, the removable crossover, and the construction as a whole, all built for cost and practicality, it's lovely to see. Same for all your projects. While I subscribed for the field railway, the simple farm problem solving is so interesting to watch! I find myself excited to see whatever project your working on.

They use a system like in Queensland Australia to allow sugar cane railways cross the mainlines. They are mechanised and have safety interlocks with the main line. Cheers Peter.

❤ Its 1:42am so why am I awake watching someone scrounging around in the weeds building a small railroad empire? Its fascinating! ❤

A brilliant solution Tim! Here in the US we had a railway museum that had one freight customer, once a week the track crews would drop temporary rails across a very busy two track mainline so that empty and loaded cars could be swapped out to the museum. Once it was done the rails were picked back up and mainline traffic could resume. Looked almost exactly like what you've built there.

The Golden State Railroad Museum and the Union Pacific used to do this, in a much more complicated and labor intensive fashion on standard gauge when the museum had to move something from their shops to their museum or serve a customer on the old Isleton branch. When UP took over the Southern Pacific they decided the old 90 degree diamond over the main line wasn't worth it, so they had to stop main line traffic to bolt rails over. Eventually UP put in a diamond closer to 45 degrees.

This is great, 150% outcome on 100% input and a fun day knocking about in the bushes with a buddy!

this is genius!! they actually do something quite similar to this in some places, where super light sugar cane tramways (usually 24" gauge) cross over standard gauge rail lines by means of little automated drawbridges. it's pretty cool to see in action!

For those left hanging like myself, a dutch arrow is a type of javelin.

To be fair, your way of getting across is similar to Welsh quarry railways. At Port Penrhyn, they had a removable set of rails for the narrow gauge to get over the standard gauge, quite ingenious.

As always, a very pragmatic and simple solution to a complex problem, Tim. Can I suggest that you hinge the 'bridge', so it's always in place, and can be easily lifted out of the way, but doesn't get lost in the inevitable undergrowth. Looking forward to seeing the cut excavations through the bank, how you're going to contain the errant sheep and where the terminus will be. Well done & thanks for sharing!

When I was a child, I also built a railroad in my yard. True, made of wooden rails. It never came down to the carriages or the locomotive)) Then my dad dismantled my road for firewood.))

I do like watching your problem solving.

Making it a diamond bridge was a beautiful solution. I like it.

They used this method a lot in the Welsh slate quarries (and they still use it on temporary field railways like sugar Cain etc), Nice work. Just have to remember its there when using the other line! I really enjoy all the videos but the railway ones are my favourites (I'm a gricer at heart).

You could use the bridge as a guide for a template and then make small angled joints in the workshop that can be bolted in place. You can then cut the track where it crosses, lower the track to the same level and bolt these angles into position. You will also see the correct angles for the frogs and make them the same way.

Nothing but rain 🌧️ so you lighten our day up when we see you Tim .GodBless.💟💟💟🤞🤞☮️☮️✳️✳️✳️✳️

good work rail team

The real genius is in the simplicity of function. Well done!

I like your rails! So much cheaper than "real rails". And I love the donkey. My favorite animal.

You're so smart, you CAN build anything!

I really enjoy the railway vidoes you do more then most...

Brilliant idea, had me a bit confused at first until you showed it at the end but of course I was half asleep watching this lol.

Good work, love to watch the railroad work. It is like balm for my brain :D

Fantastic, amazing, inspiring, mind blowing!

Soon be time for tea Boys. The Great Garlic Railway expansion is underway! Thank you for posting.

It must be nice having such helpful donkeys around the place.

Still the best best bits are the railways! Love it!

Yes, that’ll work. I love the pragmatic solutions 😊

A combination of madness, Irish luck, and great forward thinking love it well cool 😎

I think that's a clever solution. I probably wouldn't have thought of it. Nice work!

These videos are such a treat (as Sandra would say about one of her many childhood cakes she bakes).

That's a nice little bridge. I would've loved to see a diamond track crossing, but this can surely do the job for now. Great job!

sad I didn’t see this video earlier! Been wishing for more railway content all day haha

A wonderful solution! Great viewing as always. :)

Amazing work! You’re a genius.

3:12 😍 What a sweet animal.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!

I have a feeling years from now this little railway will be a tourist attraction

I like the use of kick switches exclusively it reminds me of almost decade old videos on coal mines and stuff like that and I noticed they used a lot of and almost exclusively kick switches you're actually the one who introduced me to kick switches. also this is why I love watching you work you come up with the craziest solutions that I don't think even I could think of and I think of a lot of things trust me. Although I do advise maybe stress/weight testing the mini bridge to make sure its sturdy if you ever start using engines normally I advise testing with tornado as I expect if the rails do break you don't want a loaded wood chip wagon toppling over and losing a bunch of perfectly good wood chips (it would also be nice to see tornado again and get an update on her condition as well as any future plans for her).

Love the railway videos, keep up the great work :)

Put one side of the bridge on a hinge Tim! Then it’s like a kick switch in the sky 😊

Good job and an elegant solution. As far as portable welding goes Matts Off Road Recovery has a few field repair videos where they have connected stick welding cables to 12 car batteries and produced acceptable welds. May be worth a try next time you need to do some remote welding.

What a brilliant simple and effective crossing. 9:17 - We still need to hear from Will what are "Dutch arrows". 🙂

I like the way Will thinks. "Just make your own approval system."

Tim’s just a genius.

Nice! Maybe you could put hinges on one side to make it a drawbridge?

THIS IS LEGENDARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you picked up that bridge I was just amazed. Even though I was watching very carefully it was still a surprise. To bad your not working on a carbon capture system, we would be alot better off by now, cheers.

YESSSS❤❤❤❤

Entirely satisfactory! Thank-you! Ps the Ford raising railway bridge near here used to work in much the same way.

This was alot of work! I cant believe this was the easier solution

It is such a pleasure to watch you come up with practical solutions in your projects. For the most part, simple is often the best.

Marvellous as usual! Love the helpful donkey!

cant wait for the next part of the railway

Well done. I suggest drilling a couple of holes one side and hinging it so it doesn't totally need removing. You'd need to radius the bottom corners of course to clear the fish plates.

So fun seeing the railway grow

I'm still greatly impressed with your ingenuity and never ending enthusiasm. Can't wait to see the building of the next few hundred metres of track. Thanks for sharing. Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪.

What a fantastic idea for a crossover. Simple and cheap. Well done

Marvelous! I've seen a RU-vid video of a narrow gauge railway in Australia (I believe that's where it is) which uses the exact same principle!

man you are making history in world

A removable flyover. I want to say this is wrong, yet I have seen this done on full size museum railways in America with success. Your bridge is lightweight, simple, and works. Kudos to simplicity!

You found the mattock! Hallelujah!

Marvelous. It's turning into quite a network. 😊

2:25 "Farewell, my people need me!" *rolls off into the sunset*

cant wait to see more of the train!

Very satisfying the way that bridge just fits in there perfectly

Looking great

Super clever making the crossing a bridge

Looking very good Tim 😊

Very impressed.

That is an ingenious solution.

Tim has quite a flair for Budget brilliance on developing his railway

What fiendish ingenuity!😁

Real progress, great to see!

Bro is single handled with a lot of support createing his own railway.

You need to look at the US trains cross a welded fast line by raising the unwelded track just a few inches and using the flanges to hit the welded rail to slowly cross the fast welded line ..It's brilliant .

Thank you for another wonderful video.

Good solution, I like it!

Brunel would be proud!

I previously worked in the railway in Australia Queensland and they used a very similar setup for crossing our railway lines with Cane railway lines for the sugarcane railway but their bridges were a little bit more sophisticated and would raise up-and-down with hydraulics.

Great video thanks for sharing with us all the hard work and creativity y'all put into the problems that arise. The best line in the video was "just a few hundred meters that way" LOL Good luck with the hills and all the brush.

Love it , such fun work

great. Wanna be like you when I grow up

Wonderful!

been waiting for this thank you Tim, great video as always cheers

Pretty slick 👍

"Dutch Arrows"! I've heard them called "Scotch Arrows", and "Bobby Arrows" too :)

All that weeding made me think a weeding attachment for your train might be in order. I like flame weeders personally because of the lack of moving parts, I also live in a relatively wet part of the world where fire isn’t a major concern.

Good job Tim! :)

I saw a youtube video of a crossing in Southeast Asia somewhere which used this concept. One set of rails crossed over the other in a similar fashion, and could be raised like a drawbridge when the other line needed to be used. I think the railway(s) were used to haul sugar cane.

Great video as always! If you’re interested, the components of a real diamond crossing has names. The “lead-ins” that guide the flange into the flangeway are called wing rails, though they’re sometimes called guide or check rails. The corner-point at which the perpendicular regular rails (called stock rails) meet is called the “frog”. This terminology applies to points/switches too! Just fun to know the jargon, lol. Wish I could build a railway like this someday.

This reminds me of tales I've heard of "temporary" switches installed by MOW crews of old. Apparently they managed to install point rails to take the trains off of the main line and then direct them up and over the mainline rails without a frog onto a temporary side track. Once finished, they could remove the "switch" to allow mainline traffic to pass by. (I wish I could find some primary sources to confirm this!!)

Nice one! This is a solution you can find in old O&K catalouges for field railways. Nicely done, and also some bit of playing as well, good to see that you are having fun and Will as well.

Very nice video Tim!

“You are that mini digger, Will!”

This was actually used at some places where low priority railroads (local narrowgauge for example) crossed a high priority railroad.

I love watching your vedios . If i lived closer to you i would glady give you a hand as required

I love how low-tech this is. Just weld some bits of metal together, shove some old sleepers in, and you've got some new railway. Someday, I want to own enough land to justify a garden railway. Also, a thought. If you could get hold of an old pallet jack, the handle assembly might be good for moving wagons around. It's hinged, it's got a two-handed grip, but it's narrow enough to haul with one hand. Considering you can get brand new ones for £250, old dead ones too jammed up with crap or with wheels worn too thin to be useful might be dirt cheap.

Saw something similar on a film about the Indiana Interurban Railway. The main line railway wouldn't let the electric line cut their line, so they build an identical setup that would lower over the diesel road to let the trollies cross the line.