Garden Railway Forum

The way ahead is cleared: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941705723_011aacdb77.jpg DSC_0203 by simon mace , on Flickr Welding up a track panel inside the garage: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50054006447_55243989bd.jpg DSC_0173 by simon mace , on Flickr I found that the most practical wa...

The last major piece of engineering to join up the loop was the level crossing over the drive. This was a bit technical as it (obviously) has to withstand the weight of cars / vans, both driving straight over and manouvering, is on a falling gradient, and includes two curves. Overall length of the c...

Just occurred to me that replicating a run from caernarfon to blaenau would mean 160 laps of the garden!

Thanks for all the positive comments, I hope that this thread might encourage a few more people into the larger scales (you never know how many non-members of the forum might stumble across it). The railway really isn't that big. I walked around this morning and counted rail lengths - the main loop ...

DSC_0080 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0079 by simon mace, on Flickr

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 ro...

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, ra...

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: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49926612871_540ffb71a8.jpg DSC_0207 by simon mace ...

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: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/499192910...

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 gre...

My mistake - i was thinking of 2 1/8" gauge....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_ ... oy_trains)

Isn't this scale known (confusingly) as "standard gauge" in the US?

I vaguely remember that American Flyer, and possibly Lionel, may have produced models in this scale....

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, bu...

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: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49918991141_1031af1538.jpg DSC_0199 by simon mace , o...

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): https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50054006967_3651462872.jpg DSC_0204...

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 year...

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

Running in Jynn:

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

DSC_0198_1589867637829 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0187 by simon mace, on Flickr

DSC_0198_1587402034571 by simon mace, on Flickr

When my wife bought a new kiln, there was only one way to move it into the garden: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49570848441_c0f77ea616.jpg DSC_0169 by simon mace , on Flickr A chance nearby sale of a commercial passenger coach was too good to pass up - even though it would need a complete reb...