Flower bed

1.

To form a side panel, place two 60-centimetre lengths of 100 x 100 mm timber parallel to each other on the ground, 2,4 metres apart. Rest a 2,4-metre 50 x 150 across both boards so that the side of the 50 x 150 is flush with the end grain of the 100 x 100 at the top and the end grain of the 50 x 150 is flush with the side of the 100 x 100. Affix the 50 x 150 to the 100 x 100s using two lag screws per side, 38 mm from the top or bottom of the board. Repeat with a second 50 x 100, adding 6 mm below the first. Do this process again to form the other side panel.

2.

Place the two side panels parallel to each other, 1,2 metres apart, with the 100 x 100s pointing up. Attach the 1,2-metre 50 x 150s to the 100 x 100s using lag screws to form the other sides of the planter. Make sure the end grain of the 50 x 100 is flush with the side of the 100 x 100.

3.

Flip the planter so it rests on the 100 x 100 feet and place it in the desired location.

4. 5. 6. 7. 1

Mark the feet in the ground, move the planter and dig four holes, approximately 30 centimetres deep.

Place the planter in the holes. Grade as necessary so that the bottom 50 x 150s rest on the ground and fill in the holes.

Line the planter with filter fabric and staple along the top of the upper 50 x 150s. Remove any excess with a utility knife.

Place the 1,25-metre 50 x 100s on top of the shorter sides of the planter. Their sides and ends should hang 2,5 cm over the sides of the planter, creating a lip. Place the 2,35metre 50 x 100s on the longer sides of the planter in a similar fashion. After ensuring that the boards meet neatly, attach to the frame using exterior-grade wood screws.

Fill the planter with slightly less than one cubic metre of topsoil or planting mixture.

torpedo on land. That was the Pennsylvania Railroad T1 steam locomotive. The dual-engine, 4 500-kw train could hit 225 km/h, not much slower than today’s high-speed intercity trains. Then diesel came along, cheaper and lower maintenance, and the steam era suddenly ended. In the 1950s the T1s were scrapped. In 2013, a group of people who call themselves railfans formed the non-profit T1 Steam Locomotive Trust. Their mission is to build a new T1 – and to give it the attention and place in history they say it deserves. But to resurrect the train, they first had to resurrect the steel that built it.

The alloy originally used to build the T1s was a nickel steel cast by a nowdefunct Pennsylvania company, General Steel Castings. The trust was able to find the recipe, but no one had poured it in 40 years, so they resorted to trial and error. A foundry outside Pittsburgh, Beaver Valley Alloy, had the expertise and the Pennsylvania heritage for the job. It heat-treated the original recipe with a two-part process of normalising – heating the steel to a critical point, then letting it air cool – and drawing (a second, lower-temperature heating). Then it tested the results for hardness by pressing a diamond-tipped rod into the steel and measuring the resulting inden- tations. To fine-tune tensile strength and elongation rate (how much the steel stretches before breaking), a separate lab put 30-centimetre test bars of the steel through a battery of medieval tortures.

Over six long months, samples went to the lab and were tested. The steel was constantly repoured and heat-treated in slight variations until it was perfect: held at a peak normalisation temperature of 710 degrees. The train won’t be finished until 2030, but in February the trust cast the first of eight drivewheels. It was an impressive specimen: 203 centimetres in diameter. It’s the first such drivewheel made in America in 70 years.