Small Balcony Garden Railway

A place for the discussion of garden railways and any garden style/scale portable and/or indoor layouts
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ge_rik
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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by ge_rik » Fri Jul 07, 2017 10:28 pm

Great looking scene - I like pictures that tell a story.

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E.V.
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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by E.V. » Sun Oct 29, 2017 3:48 pm

I always wanted to have signals on my layout. But the chosen theme - early American logging, did not leave a large choice of signals. The only suitable signal is a red highball. I thought about it creation for a long time. The October 2017 issue Garden Railways magazine gave impetus to construction from available materials. Let this signal not quite scale, but I like it. Now there is a signal regulating the locomotive's departure from the turntable.
Signal closed:
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Last edited by E.V. on Mon Oct 30, 2017 11:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Sun Oct 29, 2017 3:53 pm

I never knew a signal like existed!

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by E.V. » Sun Oct 29, 2017 4:39 pm

tom_tom_go wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 3:53 pm I never knew a signal like existed!
This is a prototype of the signal (but double):
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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by E.V. » Thu Jun 07, 2018 2:24 pm

To make my little railway more "garden" I added a couple of potted plants to the base. For this, I was drill a couple of holes for the pots in the wooden base.
In the pots grow the Ficus benjamina with the Soleirolia and the Fuchsia with the Soleirolia too.

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Thu Jun 07, 2018 3:57 pm

They look brilliant, great idea.

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by Dwayne » Thu Jun 07, 2018 4:08 pm

:thumbright:

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by Andrew » Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:52 pm

What a fantastic and inspiring railway! Full of character, and the detail's looking great.

The planting works really well, and will look even better as it spreads - I hope it grows well on your balcony!

All the best,

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by bazzer42 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:41 pm

That does look effective, the simplest ideas are the best.

Ready for the world cup?

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by E.V. » Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:13 pm

Thank you guys!
Andrew wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:52 pm The planting works really well, and will look even better as it spreads - I hope it grows well on your balcony!
Yes, the Soleirolia grows perfectly on the balcony in the summer. But I'm a little afraid that the pots are too tight to fully cover the wooden base.
bazzer42 wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:41 pm Ready for the world cup?
Yes! In all suburban trains, now announce stops in English. We are waiting for the fans :D

I also want to show the results of the work that I did in early spring. Two Piko's log cabins turned into one logging camp house. I added an interior - the stove and the card players :D Interior at night can be illuminated.

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by Andrew » Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:29 pm

It gets better!

Those interior shots are wonderful!

Looking forward to the next instalment...

Andrew.

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by daan » Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:57 pm

Very good idea of the plants in the pots. This way you can have your garden with real life plants and still be on a balcony. May be you can get Bonsai trees to go with them? I once had an uncle, growing a small size forrest on half an square meter on a balcony in Switserland, but he didn't have room for a live steam train..
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by ge_rik » Thu Jun 07, 2018 9:16 pm

Great developments, E.V.

Those interior shots are really good. Where did you get the chairs, btw? I need some for the interior of my cafe building but not yet found any in the right scale.

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by invicta280 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:50 pm

Excellent! Looks great. :thumbup:

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by Peter Butler » Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:07 pm

The figures are excellent and the night-time lighting effect gives the scene a kind of 'Dutch Masters' painting appearance. Clever stuff!
The best things in life are free.... so why am I doing this?

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by ge_rik » Fri Jun 08, 2018 6:18 am

Peter Butler wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:07 pm The figures are excellent and the night-time lighting effect gives the scene a kind of 'Dutch Masters' painting appearance. Clever stuff!
By coincidence, I was thinking Van Goch - Potato Eaters

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=van+g ... vJAeUwAAAA

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by E.V. » Fri Jun 08, 2018 7:56 am

Thank you all for your nice comments!
daan wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:57 pm May be you can get Bonsai trees to go with them?
I was thinking about using bonsai. But they seemed too low compared to the G scale rolling stock.
ge_rik wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 9:16 pm Where did you get the chairs, btw?
The chairs and the table (as well as the playing cards, the beer bottles and some money) were in the set with figures from the Preiser.
Preiser offers these tables and chairs separately (art. 45219 - the chairs, art. 45220 - the tables).
Egor

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by daan » Mon Jun 11, 2018 3:15 pm

Bonsais grow in any size. You are the one deciding the scale and height of the bonsai. My neighbour is a bonsai gardner and has a lot of very nice bonsai trees in his garden. Some are tiny, some are over a metre in height.

I have a few bonsai trees in my garden railway, they need trimming a few times a year, but definitely grow to any size you want. The best part is, that when kept small, their leaves are also smaller then normal and they get a very nice, big stem and root system, giving them the look and feel of a real big tree.

Your version with pots in the layout is ideal for bonsai, since the whole trick of keeping bonsai's small is to regulate their root system. A tree stopt growing when the root system stays small. My neighbour keeps all his bonsai in pots and trims the root system and the brenches alternately. When he trims the roots, he chooses a few healthy roots and cuts the smalles ones around them away. Then he carefully places the plant back in the pot with new soil and plantfood. Then keep moist and cut the branches.

In Switserland, a lot of trees are growing in rocky areas. They keep small because their roots have no place to grow. Bonsai are the same thing. Limit the root system and the tree stays small.
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by E.V. » Tue Jun 12, 2018 5:40 pm

Thank you for such a detailed information! I'll try to follow your advice.
Egor

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Re: Small balcony garden railway

Post by markoteal » Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:22 pm

Great planting - really adds to things and I love the shed/hut/hideaway - a hand full of aces I bet!
Where did I put that uncoupler?

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