Garden Railway Forum

Preheating the water does not gain you much. With a Bertie, I would say no more than 2 or 3 minutes. However, when it is freezing the bell off a bike it might be worth it to help keep the gas consumption somewhere close to normal. The only loco I ever top off the gas on is my Millie, which seems to ...

I need to get out and survey the route up the garden. Our backyard is definitely 'Hill Railway' territory, but it would help me enormously to know if what I am looking at is more Kalka Simla - which is what I would prefer - or Darjeeling and Himalayan. That would settle me down as to scale, and what...

Lovely job all round. One tiny point, though. I think you need to mount the door handles with the head of the T horizontal not vertical. I do not remember ever seeing a closed and secured door with the handle vertical in all my years of tootling around in slam door stock with construction dates anyw...

Quoth Graeme: "As always your mileage may vary...."

Literally in this case!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Peter in Va

Soft wood is a non-starter in a wet environment, especially now the Nanny State has banned us ordinary Joes from using creosote. Hard woods are fantastically expensive. Almost all modern timber is from fast growing species, and kiln dried, so it is relative weak structurally (not a problem), warps l...

Since the last time I had the camera out, I have managed to get an open wagon body made. 201901C.JPG This one is based on the early SAR narrow gauge opens. Needs strapping, but I tend to wait until I have three or four wagons that need doing then make myself miserable for an afternoon. It runs sprun...

25-30 minutes is pretty typical of an internally fired locomotive, so I would say you are doing perfectly all right, Guv'nor. You can get a little more by keeping the burning turned well down once she is on the boil, and by going easy on the regulator which is good loco management, but there is no n...

I rarely use superglue for exactly that reason. If I do use it I buy those cheapo blister pack cards of 10 tubes for a couple of quid from Poundstretcher, etc, and treat them as single use items and throw away as soon as they clog. That's roughly what I do when I use the tube. I find they usually l...

I have made a start on my first 'Ga.3n2.5' passenger vehicle using Bristol Board, though I did build a couple in 5.5mm scale 30 years ago using the directions in a book on model railways that "came out of the ark with Noah." The smaller scale stock was three laminations, but it looks like ...

It would look strange on a cane tram because their track was light section rail spiked directly on to the sleepers, whereas the PECO SM32 track looks chaired to me, which was the Festiniog's way of laying track, and that of some of the earlier British NG lines.

Peter in Va

I live in Virginia, which is pretty humid, and have several MDF built vehicles. No problems so far, but I am pretty careful to blast everything with undercoat to seal it before final erection. I would not leave it outside, but it is fine for rolling stock. By the way, that BV looks as though it need...

In the ordinary UK back garden willows are a mixed blessing at best, not least because they grow quickly and tend to takeover. They also have a propensity for failing catastrophically with very little or no warning. Given that it is swaying alarmingly and undermining the fence it has probably outsta...

Actually, if wagons get a bit manky I tend to leave them. If they are a lot manky, then I give them a swipe. In any case, I have never seen a clean wagon on a railway except when it has just come out of the shops.

Peter in Va

The Peco sm32 rail is actually flat bottom, although the shape of the head is perhaps more reminiscent of bullhead, with quite a deep head size. At garden distances it looks fine anyway. That description reminds me a bit of the rail section Calthrop used on the Barsi Light. It was f/b with extra me...

Code 250 is common in 16mm scale. Both my 32mm and 45mm lines use it. I get code 250 f/b rail from Sunset Valley in Oregon, but you may have a more local supplier. Code 180 can be a bit light, as our wheel standards are either Gauge 0, or Gauge 1 coarse scale depending on gauge. With code 180 you mi...

I am contemplating standardizing on this particular variant of the chain and buffer coupling for the Far End Tramway due to the anticipated sharp curves to get up the "mountain" behind the house. I was wondering whether any of you already use them and whether you would have any comments or...

Wagons generally get the white vinegar and a toothbrush treatment, then dried off with a rag. I am a bit gentler with carriages, they get warm soapy water with vinegar added, and gentle use of the old toothbrush. Mould, of one description or another, is a major problem in Virginia where the summer c...

We still have a local hardware shop - 'Rocking R' - here which also does some agricultural supplies. It is literally a place where you can pick up to tins of spray undercoat, some BR maroon (Burgundy) spray paint, some cabbage seeds, a light switch, some vinyl letter for a yard sign, and a galvy ste...

Until the late 1980s the status of the vacuum brake on the Isle of Man Railway was 'fitted but not used.' This occurred because the Isle of Man is not part of the UK, and had only incorporated the pre-1873 legislation into the domestic regulations concerning rail transport. The Vacuum brake was fitt...

Yes, the first lap was a bit hair raising, but she ran like a dream once she was warm. Not an unusual way for a slip eccentric loco to behave. Lovely model of the Caley Single.

Cheers,
Peter in VA