More station, less circuit.

[Howardws]

I'm in the process of building a garden railway, 16mm/ft narrow gauge on 32mm. When driving on the Kent & East Sussex Railway I much prefer a day shunting to a day charging up and down the line. It's the same in the garden so I'm building a fair sized station with a relatively small running line.

On the left behind the curved wall will be a chalk quarry with a slope up to the station area with a transfer point via an embankment and tipping facilities. The station area will be most of the length of the bricked in rectangle with a loco shed, goods yard, loop and sidings. It's taken a while to get to this point and I expect it will take a lot longer before trains run!

[tom_tom_go]

Do you have a track plan to show us please?

[Howardws]

I'm off to drive a traction engine to the Weald of Kent Steam Rally http://www.wealdofkentsteamrally.co.uk/ first thing in the morning but will post a plan, or a plan of what I may or may not do because nothing is firm yet, after the weekend.

[tom_tom_go]

AnyRail is free up to 50 pieces of track to produce your plan:

www.anyrail.com

Brilliant program, been using it for years.

Enjoy the rally

[Andrew]

Looking forward to the track plan, the whole project looks really interesting, love the curving brick wall.

I must get back to the K&ESR sometime. I volunteered a little as a teenager back in the late 80s/early90s and have only been back once since then. I still consider it my favourite standard gauge line though...

Cheers,

Andrew

[Soar Valley Light]

Nice one Howard. I'm still at the 'terraforming' stage myself, although somewhere behind you and working slower I think. I share your interest in the railway operation as opposed to the running of trains and I'm hoping to develop some interesting features operationally into my line too. It's tricky with narrow gauge, none of them had vast facilities and levels of operational activity were short but sweet at best. To keep ourselves entertained we need to strike a balance if we want to maintain the narrow gauge appearance along with entertaining ourselves.

All part of the hobbies appeal I guess!

[ge_rik]

I much prefer a day shunting to a day charging up and down the line. It's the same in the garden

A man after my own heart. I enjoy the logistics of shunting. Much prefer to see a mixed pickup goods meandering around the garden than a passenger train.

Will be interested to see how your line develops.

Couple of snaps from today's running session on my railway:





Rik

[Howardws]

The Plan. Subject to alteration the next time I sit outside my workshop with a cup of tea. Sorry for the crude drawing. The area designated for railway use is about 22'0" by 9'6". The station area is about 18'0" by 4'0".

The quarry will be laid with Chad Valley brass track - fearsome radius curves! I hope to build some stub points from this track for a loco spur and a run round on the quarry floor. The quarry incline will end up above the level of the main line so that quarry wagons can tip into main line ones.

I intend having a long run round loop at the back, mainly to house stock. The station platform will be somewhere between the main line and the line that runs to the 'back' of the station area. There will be a loco shed and servicing area, using a badly made first try at building a brake van from scratch as a mess room.

Track in the station area will be laid on blocks with gaps here and there for planting. The 'L' shaped bit that isn't station are or quarry will be covered in 20mm gravel - you can use a garden vacuum on it without lifting the stones!

There won't be much of a passenger service and carriages with more than four wheels will be unheard of.

This is all going to take ages of course.

[Howardws]

img]./myff/1911959/DSCF4001+resized.jpg[/img][/url]
Track laying has started but I became carried away and laid it where the blocks aren't pointed. However, only a few screws to remove. The min line is on the left and the track layout will now (probably) be - point at the far end of the main line to chalk exchange sidings and loco shed, point at the near end of the loop to a three road goods yard.

Edit - I've got the resizing wrong - must check BaBBLRs instructions!

[Howardws]

Ha - done it! Thanks BaBBLR

[Lonsdaler]

Looking good, and the perfect size for viewing!

[ge_rik]

Your bricklaying and blocklaying is a heck of a lot neater than mine would ever be. Looking really good!

Rik

[Howardws]

It's coming on, although the layout has changed somewhat from that proposed. The small goods yard is now at this end on the right, the loco shed will be at the far end on the left.

[Howardws]

All the ‘main line’ track is down, not all fixed yet though. From right to left – three road goods yard, loop, main line with the train in it (there will be a platform on the left of the train) station back road, loading dock road. In the background is a two road loco yard. The quarry tramway inclines are both in, one leading up from the quarry and one to the loading dock.

[tom_tom_go]

It's all looking very methodical and thought out, great work.

The track now reminds me of something out of a Peco track layout design book that I always planned to build in OO scale but never had the room!

[Gralyn]

A man after my own heart - Bricks for buffer stops!.

[Howardws]

The bricks are only temporary! However I intend making at least one of them out of concrete. In 1944 my Grandfather drove a USATC 2-8-0 off the end of the turning triangle at Eastleigh shed - he'd not driven one before and nobody told him the steam brake was relatively useless and needed a lot of warming through. The buffer stop that he demolished was replaced with a number of large blocks of concrete which are still there in the undergrowth.

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Howard,

've met several people who would say that's the best thing he could have done with one of those!

Your layout is looking very good. The hard work of preparing the track bed is paying dividends now. It's looks very neat and tidy.

Andrew