Garden Railway Forum

Black tends to be my favourite colour for locomotives. Grim looking brute - I like it!

Peter in VA

The last little bit of shingling on the waiting shelter was done yesterday. It needs ridge cap, barge boards, and possibly a noticeboard and a bench to complete. The outside sides of the Saxon carriage were painted dark crimson lake this morning. I initially tried dark brown, but I found that a bit ...

I am afraid that when anyone mentions 'LiLo' batteries my mind goes to the usually unseen character of Lilo Lil off 'Bread' - the late 80s early 90s (IIRC) British Sitcom. Funnily enough I was ordained priest at a church in Toxteth, not so far from where the series was set. Cheers, Peter in Va Is t...

I do like the roof on that hut, very realistic finish. The roof on the hut is several hundred little wooden shingles. The Missus found a bag of doll's house shingles in a charity shop and hauled them home. The only catch is they were 1/12th scale, so every one gets cut into four - often very approx...

I am afraid that when anyone mentions 'LiLo' batteries my mind goes to the usually unseen character of Lilo Lil off 'Bread' - the late 80s early 90s (IIRC) British Sitcom. Funnily enough I was ordained priest at a church in Toxteth, not so far from where the series was set.

Cheers,
Peter in Va

My usual railway palette is black, dark green, brown or "lake", grey - in short, colours that don't show the muck too much. The livery scheme for both my railways is relatively dark. The CLR, which is theoretically an offshoot of the NER/LNER, is basic black for locos; bauxite for fitted w...

The sentry box van has now been clobbered a couple more times with the paint brush. I tend to like red ends on goods brake vans, and this one is no exception... IMG_4347.JPG And just to prove I did both ends... IMG_4349.JPG Meanwhile the South African coach is coming on. Here is the six window side ...

The trouble with cats is that they were venerated as gods in Egypt, and it seems to have permanently coloured their attitude to everything and everybody. We have had a bit of a cat explosion around here recently, and that has rather dented by liking for cats as when the population density is too gre...

Yes, a huge help, but I had to ponder it a bit, and it had given me a few ideas in that I like the relative simplicity of what you have done. I am inclined to over complicate things. I am heading towards an out and back format, or possibly a dog bone or dumbbell type arrangement too, but the first n...

Remember to make bag for the top of the lighthouse so that sunlight shining back through those lenses does not have an unfortunate effect on your lighthouse. I am sure that you started a camp fire, or fried beetles using a magnifying glass in your yoof.

Cheers,
Peter in Va

This will be an interesting one to watch. I have a soft spot for diesel 'critters.

Peter in Va.

If I had any of the line laid, it would be under a scale 15 feet of snow this morning! :shock: We got about 9" yesterday, but the City had sprayed brine on Friday so the main streets were open. The only downer is that when they start ploughing the side roads they usually dump the overflow from ...

Nice demonstration of why I prefer 5/8th to 3/8th there, Keith! I did briefly consider a Ga.1 light railway for the garden here, but I am too much of a narrow gauge man, and my pockets are a bit shallow.

Peter in Va

Went for a trundle to Michael's (the craft store chain) and the place was a disaster, though it might be worth checking out the sale baskets after Christmas. Their stock of basswood was lamentably low, and the wife had some adventures with the picture framing department which rather reminded me of d...

The lavatory water tank mystery is solved. I did a bit more digging and it turns out that the tanks were inside on the German built coaches, but outside on the British built ones.

Peter in Va

The four wheel brake is based on one of the Hurst Nelson MER brake built in 1899, which ended up as E1 on the Isle of Man Railway after a spell as E11, and survived into the 1960s. Latterly (1930s) it lost its duckets and was used for parcels, luggage, and one suspects, fish. I think it ended up goi...

Roughly speaking, the front garden is 4'6" above the road, rises another 18" to the bottom of the front steps, and then the ground floor of the house is another 4' above that, but the back door is only up two shallow steps - total rise about 14". So from front to back - about 50 feet,...

Not getting very far outside at the moment, as it is cold and snowy, but I did get a start on a carriage for the CLR More information over at the Stock for the Far End Tramway thread.

Cheers,
Peter in Va

The sentry box van is somewhat further along. Here is the evidence... IMG_4327.JPG What the shunter sees... IMG_4328.JPG Another view... IMG_4329.JPG Handrails and faux brake mechanism are still needed, as Ole needs something to hang on to - he is a bit fond of a beer and a bump (repeat as necessary...

Peter, I don't know whast sort of loads these would ahve carried, other than as you say, packing crates. However I wonder if you could put something appropriately warlike, such as a field gun ( not a massive great howitzer!) which could also have been preserved by the local reenactment group? On th...