Garden Railway Forum

I know I have been a bit quiet over the last few months.
A combination of various things have caused this. The major one has been an ongoing problem with BT being unable to keep a working telephone line into the house for more than a few hours at a time. I have mobile internet but I can only get a signal at the bottom of the garden.

Yesterday the fine fellows from the GPO found the problem and I am up and running.

This is great news. However, at 0800hrs tomorrow morning the removal men are coming to pack me up and ship me out to a new house in a new parish 5 miles up the road.

The garden is small, but there may be a chance of a small railway. It is a brand new house and the planners don't seem to think that room for a garden railway is important.

I had hoped to move to the original rectory in the town. This being a 6 bed Victorian villa with nearly an acre of land and loads of outbuildings. This was until I spoke to a previous vicar who said the heating costs had nearly crippled him.

Still, onwards and upwards as they say. Perhaps I can convince the wife to let me use the lounge as a railway room.

Best wishes for the new appointment Jim and hope the move goes smoothly.
I'm sure you'll be able to find room for trains somewhere, p'raps the wife won't notice them in the lounge?(As if...!)

Great news Jim, perhaps that means I will see you more frequently as a visitor to BURPS?

Good to hear from you again, Jim. I had wondered why we'd not heard any words of wisdom from you for a while. Hope goes well with the move.

Rik

Good luck with the move Jim. Our vicarage has 'downsized' 3 times, from the classic Victorian house, to a smaller old property in the heart of the village, and finally next door to me, in a newish estate (20 yrs or so). It is the way of things, I think, but you're right - gardens on new builds are now token spaces.

Some of my earliest railway memories are of watching trains go by on the South Western mainline from my uncle's vicarage in a village near Salisbury... The garden there was massive, as I recall, but I imagine that place cost a bomb to maintain too and is quite possible no longer a vicarage...

Anyway, good luck with the move, and I really hope you manage to squeeze a railway in somewhere. Small, but perfectly formed?

All the best,

Andrew.

Hi Jim
Good Luck with the move. Apart from the big vicarage I can tell you from personal experience large gardens can eat time. So as long as it isn't taken over by flowers you can make something of a small garden. If you adopt a 'twice around' or 'loop to loop' design you increase the length of run.

Don

Good news Jim if it's a new house it will be super worm .my garden is very small and if still got room for a railway .