Greetings Ian,
I have followed the posts and you seem no further ahead now than when you started.
I built a railway here a few months ago and had to make concessions to ensure the Head Gardeners' support . As someone who loves trees, and your palm sounds a beauty, I feel you have to try and find a good solution to "the in front of" option. Anyway I do hope you find a solution soon, and maybe the guy who laid out the place might have a "bright (but free) idea.
By the way we have palms and cordeline trees here in the "English Riviera".
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
Ian, go to www.shutterfly.com and open a free account and put your pics in there. Once done, double click on the pic to get the right size, right click, properties, highlight the http etc, right click & copy. Into the garden railway post, and click on tree etc and post between the img's.
Cheers,
Kim
I have got photos of the tree, but Doreen hads tried to post them for me but it hasn't worked. In the past i used to send them to Troy and he would post them for me.
Whoever suggested redoing the railway, this is actually what i am doing and i must go down this path. The track used to go behind the tree and i can still run it behind the tree but i am trying to straighten it out, (the track that is).
Palm trees in the tropics grow very quickly and are quite hard to kill or even hurt, so even if i take a quarter of the tree away, it will not suffer or look unduly damaged.
Rgds ian
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
Whoa!!!!!!
Ian only wants to cut a hole in the tree, not remove the entire township!!!!!!!!!!!
Back that beast up a tad!!!!
Tom Trigg
Ian, any chance of a pic yet? You used to post pics on the old forum, using the tree symbol is just the same as then.
My princicple with my railway has always been to make it fit the lay of the land and not the opposite, so i have no intention of bulldozing the lot nor am i going to do anything toward making major changes to the flora or anything else. Don't forget this is a very expensive architect designed house with an equally expensive architect desingned tropical garden. The railway lives in it not the other way round.
Incidentally of interest to drinkers, this area is a white tiled outdoor bar area, complete with a bar, comfortable raised bar chairs and shade. The railway is part of the scenery and maintaining a tropical look with palms and ferns is of paramount inportance. New ideas have emerged now about running a stream through this area 1 as well.
So forget about silly ideas such as removing the tree using a bulldozer or anything like that.
ttrigg wrote:Ian:From what I've been reading you have four (4) solutions to your problem.1. Remove the tree: Not an option! (end of this option)2. Lay track in front of tree. Visually poor option, too close to existing track! 3. Lay track behind the tree: Viable option; but WILL NOT solve the desired track correction (to straighten out the section)4. Slice through the tree trunk(s) as needed to achieve the course correction desired. Will cause short term trauma to tree, will require periodic maintenance to maintain the required clearance.I say "break out the chain saw and go down the middle"
I'll start er up!
GearDrivenSteam wrote:Trees can be moved.
True, but I prefer to take the easy route.
Bob mate unfortunately i can't buy the property next door, it is an expensive street that has been streetscaped and hardly anyone i know would be able to afford to buy it even if they could.
Unfortunately i cannot leave the tree alone, i must overcome this problem to go on with my project.
William your idea is a good one but i must damage the tree somehow to go on with what i am doing and i want to minmimise that.
Ian, there is another option you apparently haven't considered. Purchase the property next door, sell or give any structures thereon to anybody who will move them off the property within 90 days, and move your trains there and leave the poor palm tree alone! You could then even plant a brother or sister nearby for it to commiserate with.
Think of the broad sweeping curves and long straightaways you could have. You could get big new engines and run loooooong trains. Paradise within paradise!
Jack, Dave and Vic.
Thank you for your offerings but all of your assumptions may not be correct, Dont forget it has about 20 trunks as such and about 4 of them are serious ones. I don't think it will get much taller than it is though, it doesn't seem to get much taller at all really.
Tropical plants have huge recovery powers and i have actually put a gouge in some other trunks elsewhere on my layout to about halfway through with no discernable effect.
The old track used to go behind this tree but i am trying to straighten the track out and going right through the middle will only effect about 4 trunks and the lesser of the 4 serious trunks. Queensland golden palms do not have boughs more fronds.
How about some one vollenteering to post a few pictures for me? all will become clearer then.
Thnks evryone
ian
Going thru a palm sounds like a sure-fire way to kill it.
Palms are different from regular trees. Their trunk system is very different from a tree. Go in front, back or around, but not directly thru it. Trimming a little of the outside of the trunk sounds like the least damaging way to do it if your left no other option. I would consult someone familiar with palms first.
Have fun with your trains
That is a tough problem. I don't think that going through the tree is a very good option as the growth of the tree with destroy the track in short order. I think the least problematic solution is to go behind, it will damage the tree a little bit to be sure, but it won't be seen and you will have the track where you want it.
In the big picture cutting a little bit off a tree is not a crime by any means. We must conserve nature as much as possible, but trees lose limbs all the time and it will recover very quickly. Ian, trim the tree and lay your track.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
As it will finally grow to 9 metres I suspect that whilst thro is an option maintaining it could be troublesome
http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Arecaceae/Dypsis_lutescens.html
interesting idea of moving it but as has been said neither simple or cheap
Redneck read the brief again, this is just what i do not do and will not do.
William, that is a brilliant suggestion, however i think i will need to contact a different mob as this is the tropics and things are different here. For a tree to grow to 4 odd metres and be as full as this one is, with about 20 trunks (4 serious ones) in 4 years, you will understand that the tropics are a source of rapidly growing flora of all types.
Robert mate Palms and any tree in Australia have terrific root systems to live; as this is a very dry continent (the driest actually) but that is a very good idea though and although it will be hard; i will look into it.
S& G I didn't think much of what you had to say; it is obvious that you havent seen a Queensland golden palm they are absolutely beautiful and very expensive to buy as well. Your attitude is quite parochial and i would suggest that you don't have a very distant horizon in your thinking. What would a spruce, blue or toherwise be doing in the tropics? how would i get such a thing past Australian Quarantine, even if i was silly enough to follow your advice.
Keep up the suggestions though gentlemen. thank you.
Rgds Ian
Ian,
These guys here are the best in there field. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arborist
You need a Arborist in your area to come and look at it. If you can find several that would check and advise you for free or some like when I was landscaping did it for a small fee.
Good Luck, William
The tree must not be caused to suffer because of your RR expansion. We can always build new RR's but nature's creations sometimes cannot be replaced. Protect the tree.................
Go in front................
Not really more between a wall and a tree. Every hour or so i vacillate between the 3 solutions, Doreen likes the in front solution but i am leaning toward the right through the middle so we willprobably go behind.
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