Garden Railway Forum

Welcome to the parallel universe where British Railways seems to have been, in some strange way, metre gauge, or thereabouts... and where the Bulleid Leader was fabulously successful.

Here's the smaller, shorter derivative, the 'branchline' version, I guess. It's plasticard on LGB motorblocks and inaccurate in every detail and dimension - but you get the idea. The a-little-oversized chain cover thingies usefully hide the non-Bulleid wheels (and that there aren't actually enough of them). I’ve tested it and it goes round corners OK but I'm waiting for some better weather to tidy up the garden, clean the track and give it a proper go.

And then there's a cartoon scale, small pannier tank, on a Piko motorblock, constructed in much the same way, with additional white metal fittings. Not built to tow the Leader back to the shed as that won't be necessary.

Both have been built to run with modified LGB and GRS rolling stock. Scale is flexible.

Anybody else doing this sort of stuff?

What a wonderful idea and well built too.... where are the rivet counters now?

Delightful models. That's the beauty of scatchbuilding - you can build whatever takes your fancy in whatever scale feels right to you. I must also admit to having a somewhat rubberised scale ruler.

Rik

Cor these are great, where have you been hiding!

They look huge, are they larger than Gauge 3 locos as that always looks bigger than G scale on YouTube?

Stunning work. More of the same please.

Ho Ho. Thank you. Same size as G-scale (fortunately, as they use a lot of it) but to a different, inevitably elastic, scale - smaller than G3 (not that I've ever seen any). I have to cheat with the proportions because of available motorblocks, wheel sizes, track radius and so on. Gauge, I suppose, would work out to be a bit less than 4ft. Sometimes.

Any videos of your locos running?

Well BertieB, thank you for introducing me to a locomotive type that I knew nothing about. I've just read up on wikipedia, and it sounds like they were tough on the crew!
Fantastic modelling, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your line and rolling stock.

Ooo-er. Well, there's a bright and chirpy video of the pannier tank but, rather dozily, the subject's often not sharp...

https://youtu.be/az58bWCXHP0

Another one with more, um, variety:

https://youtu.be/sJODAcNDmmI

[link fixed]

Both have G-scale stuff masquerading as BR, not always convincingly. But I suppose you can see how the notion evolved.

In fact it was a YouTube comment from tom_tom_go that alerted me to this forum. Ta.

I thought I recognised the Pannier tank!

The second video does not work?

Great locos - obviously well made

I also use a rubber ruler for scale - its whether it 'looks right' that matters and as someone very wise in Garden Railway'ing once said, its your railway, run what you bl**dy well like!

Brilliant!

I have just subscribed to your youtube channel, please do keep us updated.

Your garden line reminds me very much of "classic" british garden railways where scale didn't matter nearly so much as atmosphere (like beckonscot).

There is also something of the isle of wight about it; how about a G scale terrier?.........

I think you have a talent for this. Love what you are doing, the models and the videos. However, mixing post-war BR livery with pre-war syncopated musical stylings ? Preposterous ! Sorry I can't help the crotchet counter in me. Max

Tingewickmax wrote: ↑Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:36 am ...mixing post-war BR livery with pre-war syncopated musical stylings ? Preposterous ! Sorry I can't help the crotchet counter in me. Max

Tingewickmax - Quality feedback, thank you.

I'm still after reasonably brisk tempo, agreeable British instrumental sound track, without copyright issues...

Plenty of grungy guitar available for modern image stuff but 50s pre-rock'n'roll - tricky.

Brilliant love them, great work.

The railway and trains look like great fun to me. Really nice and with a lot of humor, like the plamobil train. It does look great in BR colours! I guess that in a parallel universe where not Brunel and Stephenson had their go, a narrow gauge version of BR excists. On the other hand, the swiss railways also own narrow gauge lines and they try to match the looks of their rolling stock. Imagine BR doing this too, and it's not that odd anymore.

The big experimental steam locomotive in the beginning of this threat is also brilliant! Never heard of it until now..

daan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:51 am The railway and trains look like great fun to me. Really nice and with a lot of humor, like the plamobil train. It does look great in BR colours! I guess that in a parallel universe where not Brunel and Stephenson had their go, a narrow gauge version of BR excists. On the other hand, the swiss railways also own narrow gauge lines and they try to match the looks of their rolling stock. Imagine BR doing this too, and it's not that odd anymore.

The big experimental steam locomotive in the beginning of this threat is also brilliant! Never heard of it until now..

The (now) Vale of Rheidol line was owned by BR, and in the 70's the locos sported the blue with white logo

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Wed Apr 04, 2018 9:02 am

daan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:51 am The railway and trains look like great fun to me. Really nice and with a lot of humor, like the plamobil train. It does look great in BR colours! I guess that in a parallel universe where not Brunel and Stephenson had their go, a narrow gauge version of BR excists. On the other hand, the swiss railways also own narrow gauge lines and they try to match the looks of their rolling stock. Imagine BR doing this too, and it's not that odd anymore.

The (now) Vale of Rheidol line was owned by BR, and in the 70's the locos sported the blue with white logo
VoR1970s.jpg

As was the Welshpool & Lanfair, though that closed in 1956. Both were owned by the GWR when nationalised and absorbed into BR. Although it is recognised that BR ceased steam operations in 1968 in fact they didn't till they sold the Vale of Rheidol in 1989, the first part of BR to be privatised. I much preferred the lined BR green express livery though.

Tingewickmax wrote: ↑Wed Apr 04, 2018 1:16 pm
As was the Welshpool & Lanfair, though that closed in 1956. Both were owned by the GWR when nationalised and absorbed into BR. Although it is recognised that BR ceased steam operations in 1968 in fact they didn't till they sold the Vale of Rheidol in 1989, the first part of BR to be privatised. I much preferred the lined BR green express livery though.

Couldn't agree more. The 'modern' BR livery looked so out of place on steam locomotives!

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Wed Apr 04, 2018 9:02 am
The (now) Vale of Rheidol line was owned by BR, and in the 70's the locos sported the blue with white logo

That loco really looks odd with the BR logo on her tanks.. It shows that there really isn't that much space between fantasy and reality as one might think..