Garden Railway Forum

It is with a very heavy sad heart that we are having to move house. The landlords have decided to sell up, so what was a very enjoyable build, most of the time, our line is getting taken down.

Even if we get another place with a decent size garden it won’t be the same, Anne has put a loy of hard work into her Fairy Garden and I am not sure she would want to start all over again, one can hope though that she is and we find a place that will inspire her again.

It is the same with the forum really, I have lost a lot of enthusiasm to do anything now, just started our station building, and ordered some more wagons, but it seems like all the hard work I/we have done has been wasted on the landlords greed…(There is no mortgage on the property) their mother has passed away, so the two close family, son and daughter along with the wife/husband are selling. The son and daughter are ok, it is their partners who are after selling most.

Hopefully FWLR 2, I really don’t what to call it that, will start again soon. In the meantime I will keep contributing to the forum, has I have found some very good friends on here. Peter, Rik, Derek, Phil, Jim, and loads more, far to many to bore you with.

I do have some photo’s that I will upload on some builds I have done, just waiting for a diesel engine to come for one of them, then I will post them on to my thread for our line.

Rod,

Sorry you're having to close your railway. I do hope that you and Anne can find somewhere you can settle and resume doing that which you both enjoy. I hope you can continue to run your trains, even if it's only as a guest on other lines. That, sadly is my only option at the moment. It does have the advantage of sharing our interests with friendly, like minded people.

Ian

That is sad news. I can imagine the stress and hassle of having to find somewhere new pretty quickly, it happened to me once as well.
I suspect that having found somewhere and got settled in, when thoughts turn to what to do with the garden, the railway ( & ) fairies will fall into place again, however bleak that may seem right now.
Do post your pictures though Rod.

So sorry to hear this news Rod, you have made such a determined effort to get your railway up and running, sometimes against adversity when you haven't been feeling well, it has been an inspiration for you to recover and continue.
I do hope you will be able to recover from this thoughtless act on their behalf and begin again. Think positive..... even better next time!

Very sad to hear that, Rod - and just when you were up an running as well (both in health and in railway terms). I do hope something turns up for you and you and Ann will be able to rebuild what you had somewhere else.

Rik

So sorry to hear that news Rod. Hopefully when you settle in a new place the garden railway bug will return. Railways are obviously in the blood with your 2mm modelling. It all seems a bit bleak now but time is a healer.

Don't like property greed, my wife's aunt is getting grief from her lovely sons for putting her house on the market when "it's worth more with planning permission".

Thanks guys for your kind replies, but it will need a lot of persuasion to get Anne to even think about doing another Fairy Garden, never mind another layout, but one can only hope

Has I have said, I will continue to give my little contribution to the forum, has I feel it is one of those things that can inspire and motivate people to do great things with their layouts or builds and the forum with all it’s friendly members can give so much to people that are just thinking of doing something that can help them as it has with me.

Railways come and go Rod, it's a hobby you can pick up whenever you want so just store it properly until such time is right again.

You can apply what you have learned on the next railway.

Hi Rod - that's a shame - its always the ultimate challenge in Garden Railways - house moves.

Whilst things currently look bleak, as Tom says, railways come and go and once you are settled in your new home, the excitement of building something new will come back I'm sure - for often the designing bit of looking at a new space and building in your head how the trains will run through that space can be one of the joys of railway building - I often visit friends gardens who don't do Garden Railways and whilst munching on a sausage at their BBQ, I'm mentally planning a trackbed through their rockery!

Just give it time - focus your efforts and energies in getting moved

I am deeply sorry to hear your your sad news. What a shock for yourself and Anne having to move so suddenly.
Please don't give up heart on another garden railway, tell Anne that when the time is right the Fairy Garden will reappear.

To keep it positive, sometimes a fresh start brings about an even better railway. Might not seem possible now, but once you both get settled in at a new place(hopefully with a railway in mind as you hunt for one), the urge to begin a fresh version of your railway will replace the doom and gloom of today. I have rebuilt several times, once after moving back to where I grew up, to again when the new family Beagle decided the nearly ground level line was his personal place to dig and do his business. A new raised line, better suited to my wife and I as we age closer to our 50's, rose in its place. Mike the Aspie

Rod, sucks to hear this news. Once you're settled into a new place you'll get another railway up and running.

Very sad news I do hope you can find the enfueasem to carry on.gpod luck with your house move and I hope we see some pictures of a new railway .please keep us updated with anything you do all the best jim

Hello Rod,

Take some comfort, if you can, that this is probably the darkest moment of the whole sorry business. It must seem like all is lost with no glimmer of hope to be seen. As Tom says, make sure all is packed away as safely as possible. Good luck finding a new home, hopefully a more permanent one this time. Once you have that sorted and have got yourselves settled in who knows what possibilities may present themselves.

At this stage you have no option but to simply 'get on with it'. A very distressing experience to say the least. Brighter days are just round the corner though. As someone famous once said, 'What can't be changed has to be endured', and just remember, someone else said ' Every cloud has a silver lining'!

Good luck and whatever else happens please stay with us, it wouldn't be the same without you.

Andrew

Hi Rod,
I'm just catching up having been away for 10 days, without t'internet for the last few. That's really sad news. I hope you manage to find somewhere soon in the area that you want, and as others have said - don't worry - FWLR reincarnate will be better, think of all the things you have learnt since starting - the new line can only be an improvement!

Sorry to hear this Rod, I can imagine that this is most unsettling and upsetting after all your hard work. As Tom said, railways come and go, do not be too dispirited but perhaps think of it as a new challenge.
It can be quite liberating being a Garden Railwayman without a line, this is how I have been for a number of years and probably will continue to be for a few years yet. It does mean that when I do get a chance to go off and play trains I enjoy it all the more. I can spend more time building and tinkering and there is no pressure from the domestic authorities to "do something with that railway what you built and never touch".
It also means that I can build what I like, never mind what is suitable for my railway.
I wish both of you all the best in your current situation.
Jim

It's a sad thing you've to dismantle your railway, may be there is a chance of building a station on a baseboard which is movable? With a few settracks you can then build a simple layout on a sunday afternoon somewhere, so you can still run trains now and then.
Or try a switch puzzle like an Inglenook or Timesaver, they fit on a board and give plenty of running challenges, albeit being something totally different to a garden layout..

Sorry to hear about this Rod. All the best relocating your line and rebuilding it in the future.
Mitch

I didn’t know weather to put this on this thread or my Fairy Wood thread so I am putting it on both.

Here is a video of a friend Ted Avery’s RH Alco.





It was a happy and also a sad day for us, the sun was shinning and the conversations where flowing, we had completely lost all sense of time. Will miss this for sometime……

Well the line has now being taken up, only the posts left to get up now. I have taken 7 up and boy what a job that was…..Not looking forward to getting the rest of them up, especially the smaller ones….That clay is really holding on to them and doesn’t want to let go….