Garden Railway Forum

Brilliant to see so many post's on this thread.

Don't most of us get into garden railways by accident...

Always been into model trains one way or t'other. But I like gardening and being outdoors so it was always going to happen at some point. I remember a piece in Model Railway Constructor magazine in the late 1960's by G Lliffe Stokes on his gauge 1 garden line with 32mm narrow guage branch. Both lines had live steam in operation before the days of Accucraft or Roundhouse. It fired my imagination, pardon the pun, and from then on I knew I wanted to lay down some rails in the garden.

Been lured to trains, both model and full size, since day one I suppose (Michael Angelis and Ringo Starr have a lot to answer for), and there was a garden centre nearby which had a railway setup inside (I know now that it was LGB and some Bachmann equipment) - I think it was the size of the models and that they were for the garden which was what amazed me. Went through the usual route of 4mm with Hornby (still tinker about in the smaller scale as well), but always hankered after the big trains but was puzzled as to how you were supposed to run track power trains when it was pouring down with rain (didn't know about battery powered models back then, and live steam appeared to be one of these expensive luxuries). Then bought an MSS Mamod on the Bay of E, some track and a few MSS wagons. The big moment though was seeing a 16mm layout at the Perth show, joined the association and went along to running days and other events. It's a wonderful hobby, you can model something exactly as it was, a might have been or go completely off the rails with something entirely different - funnily enough I was chatting with someone today about this and we both agreed that that's the beauty of the 16mm/G gauge/etc world

Since this question was raised by Rik I have read all of the responses in the hope that someone would give an answer which I could simply copy and paste. However, I have come to the conclusion that I still don't know the answer.
My first introduction to model railways was when I was given the 00 'Princes Elizabeth' set at about 8 years old. I quickly tired of watching it run in circles on the carpet or painted plywood board and wanted it to have scenery. My next attempt (early teens) was to build a 'L' shaped baseboard in my large bedroom, track was laid and hills with tunnel mouth, station etc added. I can't recall any running trains at all but I was perfectly happy with that. By this stage I realised that the interest was in the creation rather than operation of my tiny world and the rest is history.
The idea of going into the garden was completely alien to me until we moved here. I already had scratch-built, SM32 stock (track powered at that stage and for exhibition use) so they were all converted to battery. Steam was attempted for a while but gave me no satisfaction whatsoever.
In conclusion I see now that.... I know very little about railways, I have limited interest in riding full-size stock, I don't know how steam engines work, I much prefer models than 12" to 1' scale, I am not a gardener, I am not an engineer, but I do like to see my stock in a setting which gives reason for their existence.
The making of a model to add to my railway is the thing which gives the most pleasure. It also allows me to display at shows and meet other modellers, very sociable!
I still have no idea why my model making is centred on railways though.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 10:07 pm I was given the 00 'Princes Elizabeth' set at about 8 years old.

As was I, and I still have it with it's Blood and Custard carriages in the top of my wardrobe.

The space to run gauge 1/G scale and live steam operation is what took me into the garden years ago. I barely have the room for a small HO Marklin set up indoors, so we first put a loop of G scale around our living room ceiling. The the ability to purchase and enjoy live steam happened, so first a ground level line, and now a raised railway are in our back garden. But I will say, if there was a greater selection of O gauge live steam, I would have went that route as the selection of UK rolling stock is much greater in that scale vs gauge 1. AD

I think that the sort of caricature of the real world you see in many garden railways, as well as the ability to use live steam, makes it seem more genuine. My favorite example is Eric Schade's Winnegance & Quebec Ry. (https://m.youtube.com/@WinneganceandQuebec). It's less an exact model and more a real railway, just a small one.

Not to be rude Miles and I don't want to dissuade you from posting but its generally considered bad forum etiquette to post in old threads that haven't been updated in over 12 months unless the poster updates the thread. As an aside Eric is an excellent modeller and I'm particularly fond of the lighthouse he's built! Very inspiring

I think it doesn't matter how old the thread or post is really, the question was put 'Why do we do it'

If the post by dudeface is what got him into garden railways it really ok to post old threads or posts don't you think. I haven't got anything against anyone on the forum, it's personal choice in what we do with or time isn't.

That said, Anne is watching me...

Completely fair enough Rod. I also just noticed on his other thread Miles is 13. When I was 13 I've got to admit I was doing exactly the same thing on trainz forums and used to get quite the ribbing for it. That said the group on here is far better and more nurturing and I'm sure he'll get some excellent advice for future building I guess it is also part of "why we do it" and thats to share the hobby.

Glad to see you posting again too Rod hope you're recovering well. Better get off again before Anne notices :

FWLR wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:57 am I think it doesn't matter how old the thread or post is really, the question was put 'Why do we do it'.

I do try not to do that most of the time, but in this case it seemed acceptable.

Interesting. I've not come across the notion of bad etiquette regarding reviving old threads. On another forum I sometimes frequent, when I create a new thread it shows me a list of old threads with similar titles to avoid duplication. My thinking is that threads don't really have a shelf-life. Some topics recur quite often (eg ballasting, tracklaying, painting) and revisiting old discussions and reviving them can sometimes be quite useful.

Rik

I agree Rik, although I must admit that it does annoy me when somebody asks a question of the OP on a thread from years ago when the actual OP hasn't logged in for years.

Some forums I've been on are real sticklers for 'thread necromancy'... if you post in a thread that's been sitting more than a few months, you'll hear about it for sure! I'm glad this forum tends to be a bit more laid-back. Though it also bugs me when people ask questions of an OP who hasn't been on in years. (Tip: click on their name and check the 'last active' date on their profile!)

Sorry guys I didn't want to start annoying members, but sometime and it goes for me really well, I forget about something and it helps to take another look at old threads, we don't all have a memory like computers have do we..

FWLR wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:21 am Sorry guys I didn't want to start annoying members, but sometime and it goes for me really well, I forget about something and it helps to take another look at old threads, we don't all have a memory like computers have do we..

Oh, I don't know about that?

I quite often (these days) think "that does not compute!"


Phil.P

As someone who works with computers, I'm glad we don't have memory like them... I was up half the night trying to recover files from a failing hard drive! (And no, that's not meant to be a metaphor for my aging brain...shut up!)

I grew up on a farm and always dreamed of building an estate railway for hauling firewood, hay, manure, etc. to and from the back forty. Maybe even a bus-replacement tram to bring my friends to school, and of course, drive steam trains around the yard. As I've grown up my ambitions (and my garden) have become much smaller, and my time has only been more constrained... but getting a 3D printer finally enabled me to start building something to run outside. Now a big part of the enjoyment is sharing it with my young children, who serve as both inspiration and torture test for all of my large-scale models.