Garden Railway Forum

I have a digital only subscription which I know is not to everyone's taste but it suits me with my tablet orientated lifestyle. However it never seems to be available online until the publication date as specified in the previous month's edition, whereas the printed subscribers seem to get their cop...

A superb piece of turning work, you should be very pleased with yourself Dazza.
One thing puzzles me, what is the purpose (if any) of the O ring on the parent stock?

A bit late to this thread, but one of the things that I have always done when oil blacking is to return the part after dunking in oil back to the flame and allow the oil to burn on the part. Keep on doing this until the depth of black you want is achieved. For obvious reasons you shouldn't do this i...

Not intended as a criticism, but presumably the smoke box will be painted so why not brass rivets? Certainly a lot easier to obtain and to rivet into place. On reflection, having been following this thread for some time I am beginning to feel that you are perhaps a little masochistic and want to do ...

I understand what you say as I am in a similar position wondering where the time has gone, here we are almost into autumn and I haven't run a single train so far this year! However I do have to do something about that very quickly as I have a visit from some old friends this weekend who are keen to ...

Apologies for the delay in responding but thanks to you all for the explanations. I think from my perspective I will continue to describe radii as "x", there seems to be too many variables in using the "Rx" system.

With all the discussions that have been taking place recently on track gauges and the like, it has brought to my attention that a lot of people refer to radii as R1, R2 etc. Excuse my ignorance but can anyone tell me what these radii actually are?

And don't forget that a whistle used on air will not sound/perform the same when used with steam. When I used to make whistles for larger 3.5" gauge engines I could spend ages experimenting to get the sound I wanted and when making the even smaller devices for 16mm engines the problems are even...

It's a good number of years since I last read a copy of Railway Modeller, primarily because I thought that somehow the magazine had lost it's way and there were just too many adverts. Reading here about Peter's article I thought I had better put my bias aside and buy a copy, I'm very impressed by th...

Well I thought some of the things that we do with garden railways is a bit OTT but this really beats anything that I have seen. Reminds me in some respects of me as a child with "Brickplayer" used to drive my mother mad with the mess I made with the wallpaper paste type cement that it used...

Another way to cut slabs is by using the diamond disc to score a line on the cut point on both sides of the slab, then supporting the slab on blocks a smart blow on the cutting line with a rubber mallet usually results in a clean break of the slab. Obviously this doesn't completely remove the dust p...

You say that you are putting the loco away for a while, could it be that limescale is building up and throwing the whistle out of tune?
Just a thought.

This I think is one of your finer creations Rik and I still can't believe the speed with which you do it, if that was me I'd still be thinking about it.

This is the horticultural grit that I've used straight out of the bag before washing. I estimate that the average grit size is 3 - 4mm, as can be seen some of the grit is a bit larger at maybe 5 - 6mm but they are few enough to pick out if they cause a problem.

Thank you all for your kind comments, that's one of the benefits of this forum that others can see what I'm trying to achieve, most of my friends and family seem to think to I've got a screw loose to want to do anything like this. George, yes it is the Pendle inn and my model measures 200mm deep x 3...

I have also used silicone sealant (clear) as an adhesive and my findings reflect Peter's opinion. It is perfectly adequate as a temporary fixing - I use it to secure figures in place to stop them falling over due to wind and local cats. At the end of the season when putting things away for winter st...

Having been delayed for various reasons with my ballasting, I've now managed to complete the bulk of it and now that the SBR is fully cured/hardened I'm now putting back the various buildings and lineside features on my railway. 20190530_170406-01.jpeg Generally speaking I'm pleased with the way it ...

Considering that was supposed to be a "test fit" it looks to me as if they had been in place for years. Well done Rik, your projects are always a true source of inspiration and put my efforts to shame.

I do have a subscription to Garden Rail but only because I prefer a digital version, no piles of magazines lying around to upset certain people! Here in West Norfolk (UK) suprisingly my local corner newsagent has it on his shelf and certainly it's available in W.H.Smith.

Clearly your clocks must run at a different rate to mine. I never seem to have enough time in the day to do what I do least of all your prodigious output. Well done Rik, yet another project that sets your line apart.