Garden Railway Forum

This is driving me nuts!! I want to see that engine!

Some guys have all the luck. The only thing that gets abandoned in gardens around here are old shoes and stolen bicycles.

Well Shane, the railway may be set in the 1920s to 1950s, but you yourself are anchored firmly in the 21st century, so I do hope that while you are working on your garden railway, you are wearing the approved level II high-visibility orange vest with minimum 2-inch reflective stripes. To protect you...

Ah, but the ritual of filling, oiling, building up steam, running, etc, is pretty hard to beat with the live steam engines. Much more like a real railway experience. You might like it. It's cathartic.

THe coach kit was very precise, actually. I've heard about some problems with the length of the sole bars on some IP coaches, but this particular one at least was perfect, and just fell together. I was a little confused about all the spacers and things on the bogies, because the kit came with parts ...

Well, I have been mightily enjoying building the IP rolling stock, and of course I would like to build more than five pieces, but I am keeping my railway stuff on a little shelf in my music room, which is only about 10'x12', and already contains a piano, several amps and seven guitars as well as my ...

I wish I could visit this Butterley place, with my little train. It looks like good fun.

Thanks for the comments guys, I wish I could photograph the coach on a railway, but there's two feet of snow on the ground, and I took up the tracks due to some vandalism. To be fair, my railway was on public property. Here are some pictures of my entire train to date. The coach fits in well, I thin...

I've more or less finished the Gladstone coach from IP. I haven't made it to look too much like the real one on the Welsh Highland Railway, instead I just painted and decorated it according to my taste and using the paints and bits of cloth I had at hand. ./myff/1194768/DSCF1409.JPG I decorated the ...

What is this 16mm handbook you speak of? (another stupid question) Is there some way to get a copy in Canada?

They also used to say that having a bath would interfere with the proper functioning of the sweat glands and give you a fever.

Pity, I can't think of a photograph to go along with that bit of folk wisdom. Just don't start barking, Pauly.

I hope they come up with one for "Billy" soon!

Also like the semaphore signals.

My advice would be to make it as heavy as possible, and have the front edge as close to the rail as possible. It looks great.

Well, there's no reason to get yourself tied up in knots over it. Here's what you've learned so far: 1) Accucraft engines are pretty good (use thick oil right from the start, then you won't notice if it suffers when the oil is too thin.) 2) You can afford one 3) You don't like how the more expensive...

Just so you don't think I was being serious, Doug, I think the Lawley looks fine... like a big hunslet... But I still like "Lady Anne" a little bit better. It depends on your point of view more than anything. I like being able to see the Walschaert's gear churning around, but the inside va...

dougrail:61302 wrote:Plus that Lawley just looks better than the Lady Anne...

Really? You mentioned somewhere, I can't remember exactly mind, that you LIKE steam engines?

Pardon my lack of knowledge, but where did that little Kerr-Stewart come from? It looks like it makes extensive use of Roundhouse parts; did Roundhouse make it or did someone make it themselves out of roundhouse bits? It looks very nice indeed. Those L&M locomotives are beautiful too. Roundhouse...

Nice engine, Keith! But how is it different from an out-of-the-box accucraft Lawley? I've never seen one in real life but it looks pretty similar to others I've seen on the interweb.

Interesting that the design comes from an era where the steam engine was the sensible choice of power source for a small locomotive even though it's not a model of a steam locomotive. It's the complete opposite of a steam-outline electric powered model you might see on a modern model railway.

Here is my "Billy" I built from a kit. I saw a coal-fired one with a tender and decided I liked how it looked with one. I've also added dummy springs to the chassis and the usual little 16mm detail bits. Also it now has name and number plates.