Garden Railway Forum

DSC_0187 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0198_1587402034571 by simon mace, on Flickr

Running in Jynn:

2020-02-23_09-14-11 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0198_1589867637829 by simon mace, on Flickr

There are more pics to come, but I might have a break for now....

Nomis wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 12:02 pm There are more pics to come, but I might have a break for now....

Phew!!! you and me both, I have been hooked on this all morning waiting for the next episode. I don't do ride-on railways but the construction and development of this has had me completely engrossed.
There is something much more satisfying about your hands-on approach which I certainly applaud, mechanical diggers may be quicker but create other damage which contractors are unlikely to restore afterwards. Also, 'outsiders' don't have your vision of what you are trying to achieve and compromises become inevitable.
Excellent stuff..... ready for more now!

I meant did he hire mechanical equipment not employ contractors Peter.

Understood Tom, but either way the mess created by mechanical diggers is more trouble than it is worth. Like us here in West Wales, Nomis has clay soil and from experience with our own digger I can justify what I say. The rest of his garden would be churned up beyond recognition and create twice the work to restore it to good condition.
I doubt the 'management' would be agreeable to the work from the outset if that was known?

Hello, i'm back again with more pictures to get things up to date.

The main reason for doing all the groundwork manually is that, while I have had occasional few days help from friends, I have largely been building gradually on my own.

I had kind of expected the basic loop to take 18 months - 2 years (in reality an increase in free time due to lockdown has sped this up a little).

I did consider hiring a minidigger for a weekend and getting all the hard dirt shifting done in one go; but this would have left an ugly scar all the way around the garden while I caught up with construction.

By digging and building gradually, I have been able to "finish" each section before breaking ground on the next. This has kept the majority of the garden presentable as the railhead has slowly crept forward.

The raised station area is a good example. In the last picture it was filled in, track laid, and some ballast laid.

This has now been made much more presentable using a good number of potted plants (delivered by rail naturally):

DSC_0204 by simon mace, on Flickr

The front of the station area has been clad with landscaping sleepers, and the existing gravel area extended to do away with the small strip of grass.

Here it all is seen from an upstairs window:

DSC_0172_1593025688546 by simon mace, on Flickr

To allow the track to proceed through to the front garden, the garden shed (now painted black) was slid forwards 3' on an extended base.

Footings for more trestle pillars were then dug and more concrete poured:

DSC_0199 by simon mace, on Flickr

Onto which more sleepers were placed, on edge this time and screwed together (with spacer blocks):

DSC_0200_1588964290910 by simon mace, on Flickr

And track laid on top:

DSC_0202 by simon mace, on Flickr

The idea here is to keep the track itself as non-intrusive as possible, while re-planting the more luxurious plants from around the garden.

I think it has been quite effective

DSC_0201_1589044108855 by simon mace, on Flickr

You must be very healthy to be able do all that manual work, well done.

My job is mainly desk based and leaves me with endless aches and pains so to then attempt that amount of digging and manual labour at the weekend would leave me very broken for Monday morning!

Next time you steam the Wren up at home it would be good to see some video of it running with passing shots along the railway.

Thanks tom_tom_go, but while I have definatley burnt a few calories in the garden it hasn't turned me into a muscle bound hulk yet!

I will try and get some better video of Jynn at some point, but I am usually too engrossed in running it to film much (i have run a few steam powered ballast trains, but it is hopelessley inefficient trying to be both labourer and engine driver!).

Train services were recently disrupted by a heavily pregnant wild rabbit:

DSC_0201 by simon mace, on Flickr

Although the offspring seem pretty happy in the garden, and do their bit to help with the mowing:

DSC_0205 by simon mace, on Flickr

Was your Wren built for you as a new loco?

The story of the wren is slightly convoluted (I might start a dedicated thread for it).

Basically it was begun as one of a pair (alongside the green one pictured previously), but never progressed beyond a bolier / frames / rough machined castings.

It then sat unfinished for some years, until the green one needed some fairly heavy rebuilding. By then the original builder was getting older, and used the part-built engine as payment to have the green loco professionally repaired.

I then bought the collection of bits, and had south west steam finish it for me.

This meant I could make certain choices on the details (it has two injectors and a welded tank for example). It also has quite a bit of cnc machined stainless steel in it - very modern!

I did all of the painting work, but cannot take any credit for the build itself.

Getting up to date now, the recent Covid restrictions, and working from home full time has freed up a lot of hours in the evenings and weekends to get on with railway building.

The following pictures show the trackbed developing through the front garden:

DSC_0190 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0189 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0199_1589748829934 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0201_1589748829455 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0210 by simon mace, on Flickr

_20200523_164504 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0211 by simon mace, on Flickr

The last section before crossing the drive is in a curved cutting, so I decided to emphasise that using landscape sleepers concreted in on end.

This also helps to screen any view of the track from the nearby road:

DSC_0207 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0204 by simon mace, on Flickr

Another lockdown project was building a couple of small wagons, designed to use up bits and pieces that I already had as well as being light enough to lift and carry quite easily. They should be ideal to take with me when I take Jynn visiting other railways (i much prefer to have a train to pull, rather than parading around light engine);

DSC_0192 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0188_1585995685241 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0198 by simon mace, on Flickr

I would be interested in a new thread regarding your Wren build even if you did not build it yourself.

Particularly interested in how you went about painting her as that is the stage I am at with my Sweet Pea and I hate nothing more than spending hours preparing and painting parts to then have them chip with the slightest knock!

I will try and get on it once I have finished updating this one...

As for paint, I am a big fan of rustoleum products. Jynn is brush painted with multiple coats of RAL3004 gloss. The trick seems to be allowing plenty of time to dry between coats - i was giving each one a full week in a warm spare room.

Also, thinning the paint really helps it go on well. I used white spirit (in approx 75% paint to 25% thinners ratio).

DSC_0080 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0079 by simon mace, on Flickr

Wow! I feel exhausted just reading about it. The railway seems to be progressing at a phenomenal pace - and there's so much of it, too! Really enjoying following its development.

Rik