Garden Railway Forum

Is that a colour photo T-T-G? If so it must be fairly unique of a Garrett in LMS days.

I'm mildly surprised to see the cylinder covers so highly polished, they weren't the most popular of machines amongst the blokes, especially the rotating bunker variety! However, it clearly illustrates the point.

You've done it once again Mr Bond. My enthusiasm for garden railways has been fired even further, just when I thought I was as overexcited about it as it's possible to be for someone who's (considerably) more than 21 for the second time round! Having read this topic thoroughly and watched your 'How ...

Sadly that's probably closer to the truth than is comfortable these days. It never used to be so though. I remember many of the old hand drivers I've known telling me tales of trains sliding by signals, only for the signal box window to slide open and a rather vexed signalman 'invite' the errant dri...

They look absolutely fantastic! They remind me of many of the tubs and minecars that we used to have around the collieries. Whilst some were painted others were certainly not. I don't believe that some of them had ever been painted, especially the ones knocked up locally in the fitting shops. I hope...

Hi Peter, It's a fair size, I can't complain. It's the 18" to 2' drop at the end of the house that's a bit of a pain. The rest of the garden has a slope of no more than about 1' at worst. I'm going to level it after Christmas to prove what's what. I'm fortunate that my partner leaves the great ...

Loads of trees down coming over the Charnwood hills into East Staffordshire before first light. Having had a dousing myself this morning the skies cleared but I was driving through some interesting flood water. The drive home was OK apart from the wind but the skies were threatening. My partner come...

Time for some serious surveying methinks!

I joined the Coal Board on leaving school as an apprentice civil engineering technician. After nearly 13 years Mrs Thatcher decided I should leave. I joined Balfour Beatty as a project engineer in their Rail Projects business. That was about two years before privatisation of BR. We had one of the fi...

I’ve enjoyed pouring over the threads on here detailing the life, times and progress of some of the railways built and operated by other forum members. These have been an inspiration to me to begin serious feasibility studies for my own railways construction. I thought it might be of interest to beg...

It's amazing the difference a bit of old engine oil can make to the effectiveness (and colour!) of traditional (death and destruction) or modern (environmentally friendly) creosote. Just watch you don't spill or spray the stuff about like a racing driver with champaign! Seriously, it WILL kill plant...

Well, this just goes to prove the old modellers adage that there is a prototype for everything. I believe it is Terry Essery in his books 'Saltley Firing Days' (Very well worth a read) who describes the descent of freight trains down the Lickey bank. It seems a goodly proportion of these ran away on...

On face value there doesn't appear to be too much physical devastation. I hope that's so. The vegetation is another matter! Do you have a model of a working flail? When I went to Nottingham as Section Manager we were still walking the Calverton Colliery Branch, nigh on ten years after the pit had sh...

Congratulation Jim! I can see this is a big step (no pun intended!) for you and your railway . You've certainly overcome some technical and geographical difficulties to get to this stage. I have to say, I'm not sure I'd have fancied working a mini digger on that slope. They can be unstable little bl...

Hi Zach, I've only just joined this forum. I've resolved to read as many of the threads as possible over time, starting with the ones about other peoples railways and experiences. The aim is to gain some tips and inspiration to spur me on to developing my own railway. Yours was one of the first I ch...