Garden Railway Forum

Just for fun, this thread is for pictures / videos / links related to early garden railways. I find it fascinating how the hobby of playing trains in the garden has been around for so long, and it is interesting to see what has changed (and what hasn't!). I am more familiar with the larger (ride-on)...

A painted cylinder assembly: (There's a lot of work in all those studs) https://live.staticflickr.com/4837/46300932971_8200f81016.jpg 20180410_185648 by simon mace , on Flickr Meanwhile, Joe at south west steam had been working away on the wheels and motion, which meant the rolling chassis could be ...

The next parts to come home for painting were the smokebox & chimney assembly: https://live.staticflickr.com/810/41110681742_65d8569c04.jpg 20180330_165801 by simon mace , on Flickr As these would be subjected to pretty high temperatures I used a spray on barbeque paint. This has a pleasing semi...

Don't know really - but I cant see a reason it wouldn't work.

Having to buy a large quantity might be the problem. Although a single 2.5L tin would do a whole fleet of 16mm locos....

Littledale has to be right up there as one of the best garden railways in the country. It's a beautiful line, and has a really strong sense of identity and scale through all of the stock and features (i particularly like how well "centurion" fits in with the two river class locos). Would l...

Sorry, i should have been more clear. I have been using their "combi colour" brand for the most part: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313062262218 (Check out the range of colours!) I have also used their "painters touch" range for the smaller quantities of common colours (the red &...

A good bonus of this paint brand is that a very wide range of RAL colour codes are available. I particularly wanted the maroon as used by the modern day ffestiniog for thier new build locos. A bit of digging on line revealed that thos was RAL 3004. I then ordered a tin via a supplier on eBay. Had to...

A bit of a thread drift, but this is how the van turned out:

2019-04-07_12-11-06 by simon mace, on Flickr

Nope, no primer. The Rustoleum is intended for application directly to a roughened surface (hence the name). I have found that a course flap wheel gives a good amount of surface "bite". I have used the same brand with good results on my van, there are people (with more patience than me) wh...

Prep was simply a flap wheel in the grinder, clean off with white spirit on a rag, leave to dry, then brush the paint on.

I like to leave it a full week between coats, but two coats is usually more than enough when used "neat".

The frames as bought; https://live.staticflickr.com/877/41154909691_fdea0c399f.jpg 20180225_175348 by simon mace , on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/886/41154895591_2c2087c1b6.jpg 20180225_174951 by simon mace , on Flickr You can see the level of detail in these pictures. The model really does...

I purchased the pile of parts late in 2018, under the agreement that south west steam would do all of the machining / fabricating / assembly work (at an hourly rate) while I would do all of the painting. This saved a bit of cash, and allowed me to take my time fussing with paintwork. The work was un...

My engine was one of a pair started together long ago by a local model engineer. While one engine got finished and saw quite a lot of use, the other (my one) never got beyond a bare frame, boiler, and some part finished castings. Ultimatley when the "finished" engine bacame due for some re...

There is a very good history of the prototype from the IRS archives on line (although I am sure most of you have seen a full-sized wren at some point) https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/5+6/KS_Wren.htm A picture of jennie from the amerton railway (which I believe is also a modern "new build&q...

Having recently put together a thread on my new garden line elsewhere on the forum, https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12858 It seems people are interested in my steam loco... Jynn is a scale model of a kerr stuart wren class, running on 7 1/4" gauge: https://live.staticflickr.com/65...

Not tried from a desktop, probably just a mobile thing.

Not a big issue, just checking there wasn't something I should have clicked...

A better video: https://youtu.be/eVLaqqBX2ls This one is at a more scale speed, and scale point of view. Apologies for the noise, this was shot with my phone placed on a flat wagon immediatley in front of the loco... P.S. My youtube videos don't seem to resize in the thread - am I missing something?

Which means I can finally ride all the way around non-stop! https://youtu.be/ZZddvfmmTN8 The above video is a little high-speed. The blue o&k diesel is geared a lot slower and can be driven entirely "hands off". Unfortunately the weather in the south west has turned very wet in the las...

First panel in place, and initial concreting has begun: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50053180748_19609fc3c2.jpg DSC_0183 by simon mace , on Flickr I had to wait for suitable weather, and a week where we could keep the car "outside" the track to do the next part as the concrete takes...