Garden Railway Forum

I gave some serious thought to the post-1947 station. The 1947 track layout is a little larger than its predecessor - two bay platforms, through platform, loop and through siding; turntable road, and two road loco shed. The older station lacked the through roads, and was simply a loop and a couple o...

The coat of paint was duly slapped on last Saturday followed by a second on Sunday when the weather was reasonably warm. The net result was an area 11' by 4' that looked as though it had been assaulted by the Royal Navy's finest wielding paint brushes - though judging from the shade of grey it looks...

The wife banned 'the brown stuff' as she did not want to be down wind of something that smelt like a garage, so I ended up using what they refer to as "deck stain" which seems to be some sort of paint. She is fairly sensitive to the smell of paint, varnish, etc., so I have learnt to be cau...

Now the clocks have changed there is a danger that that might happen, especially as there is now track outside. My favourite time for rolling stock building is late afternoon, so I usually grab the camera at the end of a session and record the recent results, which is not very conducive to outside p...

I wouldn't be too hopeful of having lots of extra time available, when I first retired I found that I appeared to have even less hobby time than when I was working! After 8 years of retirement things have now settled down to a comfortable balance but when I look back I still find it hard to underst...

A very similar sort of block system (but in proper units ;) not this metric nonsense) was used extensively at our old house to provide retaining walls in certain parts of the garden. Very effective and solid it was too despite the absence of mortar. When we costed it out it came in at about the same...

I have a favourite gardening fork which 'kem owt t'ark wi Noah' that I use for heavy jobs, mainly because the sleeve that holds the fork to the handle is actually long enough to stand some significant leverage being applied. Most modern tools quit at the third or fourth heave. My wife is also famili...

Peter, They are kind of halfway between the two here. 'Decking boards' are some sort of pressure treated planed soft wood over here, though you can get things like cedar for a premium price. It has a slight greenish hue which the camera did not pick up, and it smells a bit weird too. With regular tr...

Hi, Boris, I can vouch for it being substantial as I sat down rather heavy on the first section yesterday when digging a hole for the first post for the second section. The height was determined by the fact that I am going to ground as the slope rises so 20" was about the maximum, but that will...

The saddle tank in front of the dome is the first to empty, but it still helps even out the weight distribution on the full sized the loco given that the tank itself weighs something. It also has to be kept in mind the coal bunker is being emptied at the same time, so weigh is disappearing both side...

One thing I was not aware of until a discussion over on Facebook last year is that the Bertie has a high centre of gravity with more weight on the rear axle thus can be prone to centrifugal force rollovers on tight curves - mine has done it twice now. I've had a couple of derailments but thankfully...

The construction work on the 'table' for the main station has proceeded quite rapidly. I had the first 6' panel more or less complete on Saturday morning, and this was joined today by a second. I would describe the construction as 'orthodox' - PVC legs embedded in, and partly filled with, concrete; ...

As far as I can discover, the Filcris used in the UK is just recycled HDPE. The composite decking materials such as 'Trex' used in the US and 'modwood' here in Oz are a mixture of plastic and wood fibre (sawdust?) and are more stable. The data I have on the Aust 'Modwood' is that it expands with te...

I am leaning towards giving it a good lathering with fence stain, rather than felting. The worry with our relatively damp climate is that the rot will set in quite quickly and I will end up with a bench life of less than 10 years. I do know that the decking boards are intended for use laid flat, and...

I have not done the raised track bed thing before, but I am currently construction a raised platform for the main station of my line. This is constructed of 5.5" by 1" (actual) deck boards carried on a 3" by 2" wooden frame on PVC drainpipe posts. Thus far we are OK. The question...

I try and make things substantial, Andrew, but I really don't want to have to lay masonry unless I have to. My main thing is to avoid using inappropriate materials. For example, softwood posts are a non-starter here because of the wet and the termites - hence going for either PVC or concrete. I got ...

It is usually called composite over here, and is readily available, but quite expensive - around three times the cost of pressure treated timber. Treated decking boards are supposed to have a life of 10 to 15 years here, so I am keeping in mind the fact that replacement will come due somewhere aroun...

I did indeed get a little further. March 22 C U O me a peony.JPG This was close of play today. The ivy covered area has been cleared and the first four posts are in. They are a lot more lined up than the look in the photo, it seems to be a trick of the camera angle because every thing measures about...

I have been clearing the site for a couple of weeks now, and have developed a fairly keen eye for how much ivy I can wedge in the wheelie bin and still get the week's rubbish in there! The final stage this morning was removing a well rotted tree stump, which must have belonged to a far sized tree as...

Rattle cans, masking tape, and painting before laminating help me enormously. I am not good with a paint brush being generally best at applying a single colour to a large area, and anything lucky enough to get in the way. Removing the expletives, my painting style has been described as being reminis...