Where do you start?

[SpudUk]

I should mention I am making an large number of concessions in other areas to gain approval from my good lady, think I'm winning that battle slowly!

[Andrew]

The plan is to put a shed behind our garage (the garage is being converted into an office or I would have used that) to function as one of the termini and stock storage area

Perfect!

[Big Jim]

With regard to atmosphere, that's a really useful thought. I've spent my spare time writing a 5 page history of the fictional Welsh county in which the railway exists, which has organically then developed a geology for the railway which I'll factor in. It's going to have a north Wales vibe, but be set in a fictional county in south Wales.

Great, another South Wales inspired NG line


IMHO you are bang on the money with this, I have been a great fan of 'armchair modelling' for years. I have planned many, many fictional lines in various gauges and while several have been started, none have ever got finished. This is normally due to house moves or colossal domestic changes (The last 7mm NG layout had to be abandoned when the room that it was going in was required for use by (then) unborn Son and Heir).

While the PMR is completely fictional and very silly, I did have various ideas in mind for the shape and organisation of the railway. Why was it built where it was, what would the traffic have been and would it actually have worked in real life, etc? Due to the fact that it has yet to be built the sillyness level has increased to something approaching biblical proportions.

Before we moved from the original location of the railway a few years ago, I had planned the line to fit into the garden in the best way possible that used the least amount of effort. As the garden was on a slope, I planned it with lots of raised sections and lots of cuttings. By nature, I am incredibly lazy, so the least amount of effort needed was the way to go. I could have flattened large bits of the garden, but I felt that fitting the railway to the landscape, rather than the landscape to the railway was a better option.

A friend of mine, who models in N gauge and has a fair amount of room, always decides on the landscape and topography he wants before he designs the railway infrastructure.

[IrishPeter]

Being a favourer of ground level construction I have in the past followed the contours of the yard where I have been building my railway. The plot out last house was built on was parallel to the slope of the hill, so that worked very well for an end to end set up. This house is on a plot that runs down slope at right angles to the hill, so in engineering terms it is a challenge. This time there will be a certain amount of railway on stilts due to the slope, but 'The Yarn' is being written to incorporate it somehow under the scenic license, and engineering necessity clause of the Garden Railways Regulations. i.e. It comes under Rule 3 - it's my railway, and I can do what I like. I do know I am in for 3% grades, and some 3' radius curves on this one, so I am planning according leaning heavily towards short rolling stock and battery-electric 'diesel' locos, rather than steam.

On the engineering side I can never make my mind up whether it is better to have wider radius curves and not compensate the gradient for the curve, or have tighter radii and compensate. However, one thing is sure, tight radii, and steep gradients do have an effect on loco and rolling stock maintenance regimes. I have a 'Millie' that needs some attention after years of slogging up the 2% and 3.5% gradients of the old Skebawn and Castleknox. She has some very oval holes in her drive rods.

Cheers,
Peter in Va