The Candleford Green Light Railway

A place for the discussion of garden railways and any garden style/scale portable and/or indoor layouts
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Paul_G
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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Paul_G » Mon Apr 29, 2019 10:41 pm

A quick update but nothing much to report except that the weeds are now history & my back aches!

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Paul_G » Mon May 27, 2019 7:24 pm

There hadn't been any progress at all on the CGLR this month as my father passed away at the beginning of the month. It was expected but still knocked the wind out of my sails.
I decided though that sitting around the house wasn't achieving anything & as I'm in limbo between the funeral & being able to move forward on the tasks that need doing on sorting his house etc out I'd keep myself busy to take my mind off recent events.

So a bit of a blitz saw log roll fitted to tidy up the appearance of the track bed & a weed control membrane & slate chippings put down to hopefully keep the weeds at bay.

Everything is now ready for planting which will hopefully be a more pleasant task than moving the slate a bucket at a time from the drive to the back garden as my wheelbarrow collapsed on the first journey!

A slight silver lining to the current situation is that when I showed my father a video of the current layout he said that it needed a siding and an engine shed so the accounts dept is now in no position to withhold funds for phase 2 ;)
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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon May 27, 2019 7:34 pm

My condolences Paul, I do understand how you are feeling at the moment.

Any chance of a video of your line when you feel up to it?

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by steamer68 » Mon May 27, 2019 7:36 pm

Paul what a transformation, you have produced a splendid garden layout. I like how you have used the half logs to finish the edging of the layout.
I was thinking about using a course of breeze blocks but then I saw how you have built your layout. I look forward to seeing your garden layout progress. :thumbup:
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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon May 27, 2019 7:46 pm

That's looking great - it looks like it will be excellent for smooth reliable running, and is the perfect blank canvas for whatever else you want to do

I'm very sorry about your father, but glad you've found your railway a positive way to take your mind off things a little.

With very best wishes,

Andrew.

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by FWLR » Tue May 28, 2019 11:43 am

Condolences on the passing of your father Paul.

I must say you have done a brilliant job with your line, especially with limited resources. It's a shame that we all don't have bottomless pockets, but you will be surprised how much you can do with just a little bit of ingenuity. You can build so much with things you never thought of with very little outlay. But then again, if the products that the main sellers of 16mm could keep their prices a bit lower, then we may all be able to use them. Also it's a lot of satisfaction when you build something and you are proud of it and get brilliant encouragement from the members on the forum... :thumbright:

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue May 28, 2019 5:06 pm

Sorry to hear about your dad, but it sounds like his influence will live on in the railway - which is looking great by the way.

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Paul_G » Wed May 29, 2019 11:42 am

Thank's for the comments & support, everybody, it is much appreciated.
I will put a video up, Tom, next time I run something on the line.

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by idlemarvel » Thu May 30, 2019 8:07 pm

Nicely done.
There's a similar size and style layout on gscalecentral forum, albeit 45mm not 32mm, but it might give you some landscaping ideas.
https://www.gscalecentral.net/threads/m ... ay.311534/
It's located in Calne in Wiltshire.
Dave Miller
currently building the 5" gauge Circle Line

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by FWLR » Fri May 31, 2019 8:29 am

All that nice brand new line, must have cost a pretty penny. But very well done.
Loved the little pond also. Tried to get Anne to agree for us, but renting, it's out of the question. :(

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Paul_G » Sun Aug 18, 2019 10:40 pm

Firstly apologies for the lack of updates, it hasn't been a great summer & frankly interest in the garden railway wained as other matters had to be addressed.
However a visit to North Wales & it's narrow gauge railways coupled with SWMBO inviting the neighbours round for an afternoon garden party got my mojo back & in a mad dash The Candleford Green Light Railway now has a terminus station & a siding/steaming bay :-)

This was the scene in the lull before the storm today as the CGLR's entire stock was prepared for a 4 1/2 hour running session with something moving all the time.
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No more photos as keeping something running, keeping little fingers away from the hot bits & keeping other little fingers away from the many parts of the railway that aren't finished & are therefore rather fragile was a full time job. The sun was well past the yard arm before I got my first beer!
The afternoon was a great success, everybody enjoyed my little railway, nothing broke & everything ran smoothly, which astonished me as nothing had run through any of the point work up until 1/2 hour before the first visitors arrived.

What was abundantly clear though was that the railway stands out like a sore thumb in the garden & I need to get back to what I planned to do a couple of months ago & get some planting & landscaping done to blend the CGLR into its environment.

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by DonW » Mon Aug 19, 2019 12:19 am

Sounds like a real sucess to me.
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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by FWLR » Mon Aug 19, 2019 8:38 am

Agree there with you Don.

That is one of the joys of running and trying to take photos or videos mate, keeping little fingers of the stock... :lol: :lol:

The photo against the Conifers looks brilliant, it's worth putting in the Quarterly Photo theme.

The planting will get it looking even better when you can get around to it Paul. You will then be even prouder of your line and so you should be. It's a brilliantly laid out line. :thumbright: :thumbright:

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Paul_G » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:56 pm

2nd time I'm apologising for the lack of posts & involvement in the forum :(
Most of the back end of last year was lost to sorting out the cr*p that life throws at us & I then tried to start this year in a much more positive vein with big plans for the Candleford Green Light Railway & also stock for running at the Echills Wood Railway's garden railway. A spring build of stock has seen the start of a NWNGR rake to run behind my rather impulsive purchase of Beddgelert :shock:
It was never really the intention to run this stock on the CGLR as Bedgellert is a bit of a beast & long bogie coaches don't particularly like tight radius curves (to put it mildly!)
However in our new normal world back garden running is the only option & so with the sun shining over the weekend I took the opportunity to finally video the whole line which I'd promised to do some time last year. Bulldog was pressed into service as Bedgellert is still running a bit lumpily as it needs running in & it doesn't like some of my rather hasty track laying :oops:
Overall the line has coped reasonably well with a total lack of maintenance although a bit of work is required to sort out a couple of bumps. All those who said the decking needing more supporting were 100% correct but it won't be big job when I can get back to Wickes.
Normal CGLR services will resume when my Lady Anne returns from her makeover at Locoworks & the novely of the NWNGR coaches wears off & I blow the dust off the short wheelbase 4 wheel coaching stock


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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:25 pm

Thanks for posting the video Paul, you have a good sized run there.

Did you purchase the Roundhouse Bedgellert new, what's wrong with it?

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Paul_G » Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:46 pm

Hi Tom,

Thanks for commenting. Beddgelert is brand new & is a little tight a the moment. I think it just needs a decent bit of running in to sort out a tight spot. If that doesn't fix it I'll have to wait for Roundhouse to reopen. As I said though it is a bit of a beast with a long overhang & although it happily runs round 38" radius curves the lurch as it comes into a bend isn't pretty! When the world reopens I'm sure it will be much happier running on the much longer & more generous radius curves of the Echills Wood Railway.

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:52 pm

Very nice! I really like the "continuous run plus triangular junction to terminus" track plan, and the carriages look excellent - the new-ish IP Pickering brake composite would finish it off beautifully... Hope you get Beddgelert running well to pull them, although they look surprisingly good behind your Bulldog!

All the best

Andrew.

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Paul_G » Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:59 pm

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for commenting & funny you mention the Pickering Brake, it is in the assembly shop at the moment :-)
Technically it shouldn't run with Beddgelert as it was delivered to the NWNGR the year after Beddgelert was broken up, but I think a little modellers license is allowable :D
The current challenge is working out what colour to paint it. I've heard the replica currently under construction will be maroon so may paint it the same as coaches 12 & 13 even though they look scarlet in the sun on the video!

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by FWLR » Tue Apr 14, 2020 8:25 am

Great seeing you line in the video Paul. It's looking great by the way. The continuous junction is brilliant. The Giant Tortoise is looking bemused though.... :lol: :lol: Are you going to have a Jurassic park Theme in that area.... :roll: You could have train outings for visitors...

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Re: The Candleford Green Light Railway

Post by Paul_G » Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:31 am

Thanks Rob,

The giant tortoise is probably looking bemused because he can't work out why he's stuck in a pen with only slate to eat whereas there is a big lawn full of juicy grass the other side of the railway :D There aren't any plans for dinosaurs to roam Candleford Green though. At the moment......

Glaslyn had a run out with a short rake of slate wagons the other day. It's possible that the CGLR has hit hard times & has withdrawn passenger services as the station has been demolished :shock:


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