Garden Railway Forum

Hi all,
I am relatively new to the hobby and forum. In late 2016, after about a year and a half of initial ideas and planning, construction started on my first garden railway! Track gauge was decided to be 32mm to a scale of 16mm to the foot. The track would be peco sm32 laid on a floating trackbed of alpine grit. I will upload some photos one I figure to how to.

Hi George and welcome!

Please check the forum help section for posting pictures.

Welcome aboard, George. Looking forward to seeing the photos.

Rik

Welcome to the forum. Yes, please post some pictures. It,s quite easy to do. Just remember not to have the file size too big.

Here are photos of the 'first chapter' of my railway. there are more to come as the line was extended.
your thoughts would be appreciated. George

unfortunately they turned out in the opposite order that I intended them to be but it should make sense if you read from the end

Hello George,

Thanks for posting the pictures. Your line is clearly well engineered. The track geometry is very nice (I can't help notice - it's one of my obsessions!). Getting that right creates a far more realistic appearance than track just thrown down with the excuse that 'narrow gauge lines were like that". Most lines, even industrial ones, were properly designed, set out and built at their birth. Your sidings and wagon turntables linking them look really good.

Super job!

Andrew

Andrew, that area of the railway has changed significantly over the past year, you will be able to see the change in upcoming photos. In the meantime, check out me youtube (Wadebridge Light Railway Company) to see some videos of my line. Thank you for your kind comments

George

This is the difference

Cracking job, George! Very nice little railway.

Peter in Va

Welcome aboard George. That's a cracking railway to start your introduction I do love that little turntable, I wish I had taken the time to build one at the end of my run round loop. As Andrew said good planning and engineering pays off, as Mr Impatient I can vouch for that...

That's looking lovely, thanks for the photos!

Andrew.

Great looking line and well worth the effort. Like both Andrew’s have said, “ Planning it right is always the best way “ Although most of us just go with the flow if you get my meaning George.
I am in the same mould has bazzer42, and I now have to take more time doing things myself.

Can you put some of you videos onto the forum mate, it would be easier for some of our members to get to see them.

Keep up the excellent work George.

Here is a link for a video of my Dads cheddar Iver:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D6CKEMIYM8

Over the course of this year I have been busy extending the railway. A much larger loop (still small) has been constructed around the garden and joins up to the circle of track seen in previous posts. This allows the railway to be run as a figure of 8. Also, there are 2 passing loops on the larger loop with a similar running distance between the two. This has provided very useful because 2 trains can run in opposite directions. There will be a station at each passing loop; one is Port Isaac Road and the other is St Kew Highway. Here are some photos of construction.

There is still a lot of work to do but at least the line is up and running. I will post more about the lines fictional history in a later post.
Thank you for all the comments.

George

One thing that certainly impresses me with your railway is the nice neat edges between the trackbed and the grass. If that was in my garden the blackbirds would have thrown half of the ballast onto the grass in their search for food and the cat would have dislodged the remainder as he used it as a litter tray, you must spend an awful lot of time in maintaining the pristine look!

Put it on here George for everyone to see.

Thanks for the link. It is very easy to put it on yourself though, Just click the video box and move in-between the two video boxes that comes up and then paste the video. It then will show the video without going onto Youtube.



Nice loco and rolling stock by the way.

pandsrowe wrote: ↑Sun Sep 30, 2018 7:57 am One thing that certainly impresses me with your railway is the nice neat edges between the trackbed and the grass. If that was in my garden the blackbirds would have thrown half of the ballast onto the grass in their search for food and the cat would have dislodged the remainder as he used it as a litter tray, you must spend an awful lot of time in maintaining the pristine look!

Thank you Pandsrowe, I am pleased you appreciate how much effort goes into maintaining a line with loose ballast. Unfortunately, a neighbours cat uses the railway as a litter tray . However, as the railway progresses, more areas of ballast will be covered up which should help. I am thinking of securing the ballast down with tile adhesive as well.

A bit of progress yesterday, I have finally got round to making the platform at St Kew Highway. It is made of concrete and reflects many narrow gauge lines as it is only level with the top of the sleepers. There will be a water tower, lamp hut, station building, benches etc on it once I get round to building them. I have also posted some pictures of Trethevan halt crossing as this was started a few weeks ago. There is still a lot of work to do though including actually building the halt!

Nice job George.