Why do we do it?

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ge_rik
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Why do we do it?

Post by ge_rik » Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:54 pm

I know why I decided to venture out into the garden:
  • It's a long held ambition
  • I needed the space to create an entire narrow gauge railway system
  • My eyes and fingers ain't what they used to be so large scale seems a good option
  • It's a good way of getting fresh air and exercise
So, what motivates you?

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by philipy » Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:30 pm

Not entirely sure why I do it, tbh.
I think it is a desire to increase the realism of a layout by having real water not resin, real plants not lichen, real trees not foam on twigs, etc. It doesn't really matter to me what the prototype or scale are, I just enjoy building things, anything at all.
My first foray into the garden was in N Gauge back in the '70's and even then my favourite bit was constructing a pond which deliberately had a narrow arm, spanned by a railway suspension bridge with cast concrete towers
Worksop garden.png
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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by ge_rik » Sun Jan 16, 2022 8:25 pm

Wow! You're brave trying N gauge in the garden. I'll bet it was a bit of a challenge. ;)

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Jimmyb » Mon Jan 17, 2022 8:55 am

Rik, I think for me it is the size, and available space. I have gone through many stages of railway modelling, as I am sure most of us have.
Starting in 00 for my new born son 40+ years ago (or was it the tin plate Hornby 60+ year ago), I digress, I moved to N gauge to get more in a limited space, back 00 due to lack of detail, back to N due to lack of space. Eventually fat fingers and failing eyesight saw a jump from N gauge to 0 gauge, where I could really do some building, as I eventually realised its the building of something that works, not the running (though still fun) that does it for me. But alas the space was a real problem.
Spurred by the Biggest Little Railway, I decided I needed steam in the garden, and (in 2018) the rest is history - as they say.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by BertieB » Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:33 pm

Hunter_600_1.jpg
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Semi-scale* Hunter upside down on ceiling

I came to it from making flying model aeroplanes, which have, in my case at least, only one, inevitable destiny. Decent flying sites were a significant drive away and frequently very busy — it all just got too hard. I’d not done trains before but I was seduced from a distance by the ‘quiet eccentric with large-scale Bassett Lowke in manicured 1930s garden’ kind of vibe. Bought, on impulse, a discounted LGB starter set (which I knew nothing about) when the kids were small — and here we are.

(*From where I inherited an approach to garden railways, I suppose)

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Sylvian Tennant » Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:58 pm

I just love trains and had the money and inclination at the time. Oddly enough I have moved back into planes as trains have left me a bit burnt out with everything that's been going on in my life.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by ge_rik » Sun Jan 23, 2022 3:38 pm

Sylvian Tennant wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:58 pm I just love trains and had the money and inclination at the time. Oddly enough I have moved back into planes as trains have left me a bit burnt out with everything that's been going on in my life.
Hence the avatar? :lol:

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Sylvian Tennant » Sun Jan 23, 2022 5:38 pm

ge_rik wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 3:38 pm
Sylvian Tennant wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:58 pm I just love trains and had the money and inclination at the time. Oddly enough I have moved back into planes as trains have left me a bit burnt out with everything that's been going on in my life.
Hence the avatar? :lol:

Rik
It's a constant in my life :lol:

Nah we lost our cat tragically and a few other issues. I'm still into railways but will return soon but I wanted to invest my enthusiasm into one of my forgotten hobby after about 11 years of constant model railways of various scales.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by -steves- » Sun Jan 23, 2022 6:20 pm

Sylvian Tennant wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:58 pm I just love trains and had the money and inclination at the time. Oddly enough I have moved back into planes as trains have left me a bit burnt out with everything that's been going on in my life.
I used to fly model planes, fair size ones, up to 111cc. I gave them up due to the lack of decent flying weather, it was always either raining or blowing a gale every time it was a weekend, during the week it was always lovely weather, but I was always stuck in work :( lol :lol:
The buck stops here .......

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Old Man Aaron » Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:18 am

I started out with American HO for my tenth birthday, though I was 13 by the time I got serious and built the ubiquitous 4'x8' layout. Not long after, I joined a 5"&7¼" club. At a club xmas party in 2012, I spied a body-less Accucraft Ruby with a Roundhouse bogey wedged under the footplate, like a Forney. Recognising the loco from Peter Jones' book, Building Small Steam Locomotives, I went and introduced myself to the owner, a former member of the club whom had recently re-joined.

Though he was 20 years my senior, we got on like peers and shared an interest in QLD sugarcane trams. By the end of that day I'd made a decision - I'm buying a Ruby for my 18th next year, and modelling cane tramways in the garden. We're still good friends, and he's usually working on a Roundhouse bash or two, though I lost interest in HO some years back and sold it off last year. I only work in 16mm now, it offers a little bit of everything - comfy indoor work at a desk, metalwork in the garage, fine detailing without being too fiddly, gardening, and real steam.

If only you lived near me; there's a popular miniature airfield not one mile from my place, and if you can bear the heat, it rarely rains.
Regards,
Aaron - Scum Class Works

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Keith S » Tue Apr 12, 2022 3:45 am

As for me, it's a way to enjoy live steam. I love seeing steam machines doing work. I appreciate stationary engines, but the work they do is not interesting unless one has some peripheral interest. Steam boats are lovely, but playing with them requires a large degree of meteorological co-operation, and also the working bits are often hidden on scale models. Traction engines are also very appealing, but realistically it's difficult to have fun operating something that crawls along at 1/2 mph and needs to be directed. The steam train is the obvious answer: it steers itself, the steam motion is visible, it does real work, and I happen to have a peripheral interest in railways thanks to my Father being very much a railway fanatic as well as a talented model builder.

Steam trains also offer lots of fun in terms of building accessories. It is almost impossible to have enough wagons and coaches, which add to the interest level and value of the engine itself.

Additionally there is all the appeal that garden railways have for anyone, steam enthusiast or no: gardening, landscaping, history, culture - yes, British culture: there is no other nation to whom railways are more important. Also, "nostalgia": The typical British steam train, particularly a little narrow-gauge one, brings to mind the bucolic, idyllic and almost certainly fictional pre-war Britain where working machines such as tractors, sewage-pumps, generators, and locomotives were lacquered, gilded, decorated, and lovingly maintained and always properly lubricated, and their operators were important men (in a working-class kind of way). In our little garden world, no-one died of cholera or spanish influenza, everyone came back from the war, no-one got sent to the workhouse or died in penury. Everyone raised chickens in a lovely little cottage by the tracks or worked in a signal box or a crossing-gate; rich men did nothing more injurious than to appear pompous in a bowler hat, and sheep always got off the line when the loco blew its whistle.

This all sounds ridiculous, but it's also what the British live-steam garden train represents to me: a harmless and pretty world where tinkering with machines is high art and no-one stabs anyone in the back.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by LNR » Tue Apr 12, 2022 8:44 am

Very well said Keith.
Grant.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by ge_rik » Tue Apr 12, 2022 9:11 am

LNR wrote: Tue Apr 12, 2022 8:44 am Very well said Keith.
Grant.
Absolutely! A wonderfully charming evocation.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Andrew » Tue Apr 12, 2022 11:41 am

Keith S wrote: Tue Apr 12, 2022 3:45 am In our little garden world, no-one died of cholera or spanish influenza, everyone came back from the war, no-one got sent to the workhouse or died in penury. Everyone raised chickens in a lovely little cottage by the tracks or worked in a signal box or a crossing-gate; rich men did nothing more injurious than to appear pompous in a bowler hat, and sheep always got off the line when the loco blew its whistle.
Perfect!

I recently(ish) read an article about model villages, which caused a penny to drop for me - "model", in our context, doesn't just mean "small", but also "ideal". "Small, but perfectly formed", perhaps?

Even the rust and grime on my models is only there because I like how it looks. And if my track becomes overgrown, and the trains are late, or don't run at all, it all adds to the bucolioc charm, and is tolerated with endless patience and good grace by the locals. Apart from the pompous chap in the bowler hat, of course...

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Soar Valley Light » Tue Apr 12, 2022 8:11 pm

I very much agree with Keith and Andrew.

Live steam was a big thing for me, plus the 'reality' of an outdoor railway - it is a real railway in my eyes. Those where the attractions of the garden. The fact that it allows quite large items of rolling stock when you are working in 16mm is a huge spin off benefit. Like many others have said, it makes construction of all aspects of the railway possible, even with fat fingers and aging eyes.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Lonsdaler » Tue Apr 12, 2022 8:14 pm

Keith S wrote: Tue Apr 12, 2022 3:45 am As for me, it's a way to enjoy live steam. I love seeing steam machines doing work. I appreciate stationary engines, but the work they do is not interesting unless one has some peripheral interest. Steam boats are lovely, but playing with them requires a large degree of meteorological co-operation, and also the working bits are often hidden on scale models. Traction engines are also very appealing, but realistically it's difficult to have fun operating something that crawls along at 1/2 mph and needs to be directed. The steam train is the obvious answer: it steers itself, the steam motion is visible, it does real work, and I happen to have a peripheral interest in railways thanks to my Father being very much a railway fanatic as well as a talented model builder.

Steam trains also offer lots of fun in terms of building accessories. It is almost impossible to have enough wagons and coaches, which add to the interest level and value of the engine itself.

Additionally there is all the appeal that garden railways have for anyone, steam enthusiast or no: gardening, landscaping, history, culture - yes, British culture: there is no other nation to whom railways are more important. Also, "nostalgia": The typical British steam train, particularly a little narrow-gauge one, brings to mind the bucolic, idyllic and almost certainly fictional pre-war Britain where working machines such as tractors, sewage-pumps, generators, and locomotives were lacquered, gilded, decorated, and lovingly maintained and always properly lubricated, and their operators were important men (in a working-class kind of way). In our little garden world, no-one died of cholera or spanish influenza, everyone came back from the war, no-one got sent to the workhouse or died in penury. Everyone raised chickens in a lovely little cottage by the tracks or worked in a signal box or a crossing-gate; rich men did nothing more injurious than to appear pompous in a bowler hat, and sheep always got off the line when the loco blew its whistle.

This all sounds ridiculous, but it's also what the British live-steam garden train represents to me: a harmless and pretty world where tinkering with machines is high art and no-one stabs anyone in the back.
Wonderfully expressed sentiment Keith. And thank you for saying 'British' and not English. It is those (non existent) halcyon days we're trying to represent. Maybe all my future photos should be in black and white?
Phil

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My Line - https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 41&t=11077

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by invicta280 » Tue Apr 12, 2022 8:44 pm

The railway in the natural landscape represents for many of us how the world should really be.
My wife and myself are keen gardening types so it combines two interests.
Keith has nailed it with his description of modeling an ideal world.
I also dabble in 00 but there will be no double yellow parking lines, motorways or traffic jams in my model villages, even if some of the trains are modern.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by FWLR » Sun Apr 17, 2022 7:45 am

Well for me it's the general feeling of ease whenever I do anything with 16mm, whether it's running my one and only steamer or the little electric locos, or building models whether also they be kits or scratch built, though I am doing more scratch building now. I find that it worlds away from the hustle and bustle of this world with most people rushing around if they think it's the last thing they do. Slow down and relax and you will of a long and peaceful life.
Since my health issues I have come to realise that getting wound up over silly little things are not good for anyone. I started with N gauge and found it such a brilliant way to spend some time making something I know very little about, sometimes I was holed up in my modelling for hours at an end, but after I would then run a train or two on the track indoors. It was in the summer 2018, or was it 17 :scratch: that I was in the shed modelling with both shed doors open, two fans running like crazy and still sweating like the preferable pig. I looked out to the garden and thought, why am I not outside, so lots of trawling online about garden railways and voilà, FWLR was borne.

Have I any regrets, NO. Well, I have one, not enough money now that I have retired to get myself another steamer, that's where my true real feelings are for, though electric is good also. Must keep up with todays concerns for the saving of planet Earth hey guys.......

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by RadioActiveGnome » Tue May 17, 2022 11:27 pm

For me, it started a long long time ago, when i was still a child.
My parents sat me down in front of the television and put thomas the tank engine on.
it's been all downhill since then.


Half-jokes aside, theres just these little details to be found in the garden i can't seem to find in any other scale.

Working with and against nature (usually the latter for me)
Plants changing with the seasons so my railway never has that static feel thats get dull overtime

The wider range of options this hobby seems to have, so many different kits, accessories and ways to paint them no two railways are ever truly the same

The freelance part, nobody bats an eyelid if you have a mix of rolling stock from around the world or entirely fictional ones instead of getting scoffed at because you ran the flying scotsman and great western on the same layout

And lastly, the biggest draw for me, the option of actual live steam.
The smell of steam oil in the air, The proper Chuffing of a real, working steam engine!
i can't go back to electric pretender trains, live steam has ruined them for me.

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Re: Why do we do it?

Post by Tingewickmax » Wed May 18, 2022 9:26 am

By accident ! I was looking for an accessory, around 1:32 scale, to augment my scenic slot car layout. Well, GRS are not far away :lol: And a "Warbonnet" USAT GP38-2 winked at me (ok 1:29 not 1:32). It was kept as a shelf queen for a year. Then I thought, I really need to get into sorting the garden (this city kid had moved to the wilds of north Bucks' 3 years previously). The "English Country Garden" look was not working for me - essentially a curated selection of weeds. So, 35 metres of track, Crest power unit and Train Engineer (TE) RC control, sundry dwarf conifers and not so dwarf (I really should have read the labels - average 10 year growth 18 ft !) took over the garden, gradually.

Upshot - 19 years later I have focused on 1:20.3 American narrow gauge (still get ribbed by members of my local 16 mm NGM group :) ) and 16 mm British and Colonial narrow gauge. I ran track power initially, then the live steam bug bit. Now I run battery powered and live steam, RC & manual. But still have the capability to run DC track power, that TE is still going strong. As I said it was all accidental.

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