Garden Railway Forum

I recall reading the suggestion that, inevitably, all garden railway builders will eventually succumb to doing a Garratt (I certainly intend to). This one will be terrific, I’m sure. Love it.

Giant bluebells and BR’s smallest 2-6-0 (and cobweb)

Thank you. It was all OK. I grabbed both, as the loco collided with the phone, fearful something was going in the pond. I may have had Lonsdaler’s gravity train, pond story at the back of my mind.

https://youtu.be/ccrhiVj2DOo It's a bit silly. More to come... I spent a couple of days digging the weeds and tidying up the permanent way, while the shunter trundled round (for the first time) at very slow, scale speeds —without incident, until I decided I should film it for a few minutes. Of cour...

“…the courage to start hacking the body about” The cab is moulded (and attached to the chassis) separately from the rest of the bodywork, so it could be used as a risk-free template for making a plasticard duplicate, with amendments as required… Shell-BP_1760_1.jpg A bit scruffy now — but it’ll loo...

Jon — Of course. Thank you very much. I’ll get in touch

John — Quite right too, that’s not hijacking the thread at all (and I’ve just got another one of those cheapo tank wagons, as well). You going to cut out the windows?

That’s terrific. It looks great.

Thanks, Aaron. The shunter could never have been a ‘scale model’ (obviously) but now, several weeks later, I’m inclined to think that I ought to have taken the surgery a little further. Reduce the height of that bit with the angled top, immediately in front of the cab — and the cab front windows and...

I was told recently, by someone engaged in magnificent, main line, steam loco restoration how, for a full-size replica of ‘Percy’ from the Thomas stories, rather than recreating the GWR original on which the character is allegedly based, in the US they referenced the Bachmann version. It’s true! Her...

Ooooh! That 47/57’s very interesting…

A garden railway just can’t have too many big tank engines and even bigger diesels, I reckon. Here’s my fun-scale Class 73 from not that long ago (I assumed I must have posted a snap of it complete before but it seems not).

“The ‘as delivered’ model is so out of proportion it’s not even funny…” Thanks. Bachmann, presumably deliberately, chose not to follow the proportions of the original. It seems perverse. They don’t appear to have been limited by any obvious practical or manufacturing issues. But I suppose their int...

"... those suggestions were a little tongue in cheek..." Me too. Well, a bit. The Lymington branch (for a ferry to the Isle of Wight), continued using two mid-60s, 3CIG, slam-door EMUs, as a kind of ‘official’ heritage railway, long after they had disappeared elsewhere — one in green and ...

Colourful shunter, with short train (still incomplete; posed in scruffy garden on a very cold day).

I don’t know anything at all about this kind of thing — but it looks to me like a pretty neat reproduction of the item in the pic. Cool!

“…you've got the makings of a Southern Region diesel gala” My thoughts exactly, thank you. However, I’m afraid I can’t agree that “the Bulleid ‘Spam Can’ would look rather nice in ‘large logo’ blue livery” — not to mention, in the hopelessly naff “Network South East, with the swooping stripes at ea...

Thanks very much! I’m plotting what else can be painted blue…

Gosh. Beautifully done.

09_1593_800.jpg I’ve seen a photo of a real one actually with a yellow cab 09_1615_800.jpg Not glazed yet, run out of Canopy Glue Here it is in vivid, disruptive camouflage — sorry, I mean ‘a fanciful, late development of’ the Rail Blue scheme. That bit in front of the cab in yellow is (partly) an ...

On no! I contrived to get a couple of those as a Festive Gift, to do much the same thing. Most difficult kit I’ve ever made I think — whatever you do, don’t drop any bits on the carpet. I’m very impressed with the chains, I’ve spent ages looking for appropriate brown string. And you haven’t painted ...