Garden Railway Forum

Yep. A lot of it is replica. The GW had both it and another broad gauge loco (Lord of the Isles IIRC) plinthed in Swindon works. Churchward was a great believer in tradition, and had them kept in excellent condition, but in 1906 during his absence a works manager (it might have been Stanier, in fact...

In that case I admit I'd be struggling. If it was going to be a regular happening it'd be worth splitting engine and tender for the journey and either slinging them in purpose-built cases (which fit the pannier attachment lugs) one each side, or cargo-netting them on the pillion in a case (which con...

nice idea but with one problem how on earth are you going to get the loco there if your on a bike I did exactly that for 13 years, till I succumbed to temptation 4yrs ago and finally got my 4-wheel ticket. A combination of hard luggage (demountable, lockable 45l panniers and top-box) and oversize o...

2.5 hours drive on a good run or 8 odd on a bad one! That's an easy one to solve. Natives will know how bad the stretch of the A38 between Plymouth and Exeter can be at the height of grockle season. Now, what if I were to tell you that I managed it in 40 minutes flat, an hour after the Total Eclips...

Gresley Was Right

Today was earmarked for finishing-off. Just the bodywork to refit, a five minute job that somehow stretched over an hour. Apparently RH must have used a different design of widget connecting expansion link to reach rod on manual and radio pooters, since when reassembled the new combined reach rod &a...

But who was right in the poll? Yes, she's red, but it doesn't look LMS to me. I'd say it was closer to Furness Railway livery (appropriate to her home turf, certainly) and that puts it well into the "Obscure pre-grouping livery" category. That was my guess, though if I'm honest I must admi...

Only one- get fitter and healthier. A bit more exercise and a bit less bacon sandwiches.... On the railway front, our area group (Axholme & Lindsey) has the tradition of The List. At the final weekday evening steamup of the season, everybody puts their name on the list along with one job, be it ...

Well, I have a day or three off work, and today I decided to have a therapeutic session in the workshop. Lurking on the shelf was my 1985 vintage Charles Pooter. The last time I ran her a small meths fire deep-fried her 27khz radio gear. She didn't need the long invisible arm, being a well behaved m...

Yes but what a waste of a wagon. I mean buy a cattle wagon and fill it with coal. That's exactly what happened on the prototype. Changes to animal welfare laws in the '30s meant that livestock in transit had to be stopped for rest, feed, water and inspection much more frequently than before. This a...

Hmm, how easy is the self assembly stuff? I haven't done it myself but know people who have. The general verdict is that it's fine provided a suitable amount of care is taken, but labour intensive if there's a lot to do. Building a jig helps. Some systems have their weaknesses e.g. the brandbright ...

Your other options would be to use one of the self-assembled track systems such as brandbright wooden sleepers with either chairs (for bullhead) or pins (for flat-bottom), buy in FB rail only and make your own spiked track (you need a table saw for this, really), or opt for the ultimate in self-suff...

'Cos i mean at the end of the day, which narrow gauge railway offers sensibly timed, reasonably priced public transport? A bit of a belated response, I know, but there are two in mainland Britain, this one... http://www.spt.co.uk/subway/about_the_subway.aspx ...which at four feet nothing is at the ...

Agreed as well, I certainly think Stuart Moon has been doing far too many Garden Rail reviews recently for new locos, he's done Countess, Atlantic, Taliesin, Criccieth Castle, Silver Lady etc.......SNIP OTOH, there is a case for a whole sequence of reviews done by the same individual, pulling the s...