Help me design a railway

[Keith S]

OK guys, here is my predicament.

I have purchased a house; it is a very nice house but only has a small amount of surrounding property.

In fact I hesitate to call it "property". There is a paved driveway in front, and in back, there is a somewhat level square of gravel (that we call "mine crush") that is about 24'X30'. That's it. The house is built on a slope with the result being the driveway is a good ten feet higher than the back- can't run a railway around the sides.

There is no dirt, or plants, nor fences, nothing. There are woods behind this but the woods are not my property. Just this little postage-stamp of mine-crush with which to do as I please.

My wife wants me to build a wooden deck on part of this for outdoor entertaining. Any gardening will have to take place about the periphery. I have negotiated the possibility of embedding rail into the wooden decking, tramway-style, so the deck shouldn't pose too much of a problem, however since I would like the railway to mostly run through garden-y space I would like most of it to run through raised beds in which I can plant small plants. I was thinking of a sort of bent dog-bone or single-track main line with a loop at either end, with the connecting bit going across the back so the tracks don't run right across the door on the house.

My rolling-stock is mostly four-wheeled with a couple of bogie coaches. The locomotive is an 0-4-0.

Basically I would like some suggestions about how to run a 16mm scale live-steam train on this tiny bit of space. My locomotive is manual, so I would like it if it could run around and around. A loop, or a squashed loop, or a dog-bone, or a line with a balloon loop at either end, any of this would be fine. I hope it is not impossible. I used 45mm gauge track.

If any of you are skilled at drawing track plans, please consider making some suggestions for a 24X30 foot rectangle of wretched wasteland. I need the railway to be very "garden-y" and less "railway-y" for the benefit of the female cohabiter but I would like the train to come back without me having to catch it and reverse it manually.

You may wonder why I haven't gotten a piece of graph-paper and tried some ideas of my own. I'm worried that it might be impossible. I would rather one of you told me it is impossible, so I can offer you a very good price on a Roundhouse "Billy" and assorted track and rolling stock. I am quite worried that a railway will be impossible in this horrible little spot. Thanks in advance!

[tom_tom_go]

Hi Keith,

My garden is a similar size so you can get a dog bone shaped line in easily.

Anyrail software is your friend for track plans and free if you use under 50 pieces:

www.anyrail.com

[-steves-]

Your garden is way bigger than mine and I am going to put a railway in it, not sure how as yet, it may well end up as just a small shunting yard, but if thats all I can have, then so be it. My father in his last place had the smallest garden railway I had ever seen, radius one with 2 or 3 short straights between them in the shape or a round square, if you see what I mean and his new place may well end up smaller, but even if he ends up with a radius one circle he will manage with that, but at least he will be able to run something. Something must be better than selling up?

I do hope you find an answer to your issue as its never nice to have to sell up

[robyholmes]

Have a look at my Southgate Light Railway build tread, my garden is pretty small as well and I've managed to fit a lot in, including two different heights and a dog bone loop.

For me the key was getting as many different features in as possible. So by creating gaps in the walls for bridges, splitting the height and creating the dog bone loop (Thanks to an extension completed this month) I've got a few photo opportunities. And by this I don't just mean for taking pictures for others, you can sit back and enjoy the view 'in the moment' as they say.

Also if you can, try to allow expansion room or ideas. I've done this a little by allowing an extension but seen as I opened the railway this year as well its really all come at once. I'm now a little stuck for space but I guess you never say never ha.

[GTB]

I have purchased a house; it is a very nice house but only has a small amount of surrounding property.

I assume there's no fences anywhere on your property because you are on permafrost up there?

24' x 30' in the garden scales works out to about the same as a 6' x 8' layout in HO. Not big, but certainly enough to run ng trains.

The first thing you need to decide is what you want to do with a model railway, as that will determine the final design. The extremes are, do you want to operate a railway, or build models and just have somewhere to run them (like me).

A simple continuous oval run around the edges of the space would give you a run of 90'+ (about 1/3 of a scale mile) and enough space on one side for a steaming area and a simple station on the other. That would be my personal choice as access is easy for running trains, especially if the track is on raised beds.

I have no possible way to comprehend what your climate is like, as the climate here is more like Tatooine than Hoth. I think it's a fair bet though that the track construction methods described in UK and US publications won't work on permafrost.

Regards,
Graeme

[invicta280]

Hi Keith

Dont give up! Sounds like plenty of room. Your loco is an 0-4-0 so tight curves are ok. For inspiration and ideas check out Mark Found's Narrow guage in the garden series. All on Youtube. This one might help....

https://youtu.be/mamw-_GLVAA

There is one featuring a layout called Cwmcoediog (its Welsh!) in a very steep garden.

[rebelego]

Your garden is way bigger than my balcony.  :)

[laurence703]

This is a photo of my line from last year not long after the shed had been removed and the line extended by a little bit... you can just about make out where it went from the dead grass...
Either way my garden is not very big and I've got a good run out of it... The railway is on the decking and kept to the edges so its not an obstruction... in fact in the summer my two seater bench thing sits over it and trains run under it.



Just for a bit of inspiration for you.

[Keith S]

Thanks guys! The reason there aren't any fences is simply because the houses are very new. It's not permafrost in this particular spot, it's on sloping bedrock and a level area has been graded around the development using gravel. My house is an end unit of a block of four townhouses, this is why the "garden" area is so small, but it's a little larger than the ones in the middle. The property comes with a stipulation that no fences higher than four feet be built, in order to preserve the view, I suppose.

The climate is not really easy for this kind of endeavour, although not impossible- I think one could probably get a butane-fired engine to boil up outside probably from late April till around the beginning of October- I actually did have some track down, on an island in the lake. It's a long story but basically there is a heavily wooded island that in the early 20th century had fuel-storage tanks on it. I found the old level pad from one of the tanks had trees on it and was quite a pleasant little spot so I put an oval of track on it. People left it alone although it did walk about a bit- the aluminium rails expanding and contracting made all the pieces of track creep around and I would have to reassemble the joints every time I wanted to run a train. Eventually I got sick and tired of loading trains into a boat, sailing to the island and clambering over rocks and through the forest to get to the railway so I dismantled the whole thing. Now I have a house but the "garden" area is very small.

I will take some sections of track into the back when it warms up and try to see how much of it will fit back there. In the meantime I will watch Mark Found's videos and have a play with that "any rail" thing.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[MDLR]

The climate is not really easy for this kind of endeavour, although not impossible- I think one could probably get a butane-fired engine to boil up outside probably from late April till around the beginning of October

Can you not get butane / propane mix? In the UK we can run when the temperature is around freezing.............

[Alan P]

Thanks guys! The reason there aren't any fences is simply because the houses are very new. It's not permafrost in this particular spot, it's on sloping bedrock and a level area has been graded around the development using gravel. My house is an end unit of a block of four townhouses, this is why the "garden" area is so small, but it's a little larger than the ones in the middle. The property comes with a stipulation that no fences higher than four feet be built, in order to preserve the view, I suppose.

The climate is not really easy for this kind of endeavour, although not impossible- I think one could probably get a butane-fired engine to boil up outside probably from late April till around the beginning of October- I actually did have some track down, on an island in the lake. It's a long story but basically there is a heavily wooded island that in the early 20th century had fuel-storage tanks on it. I found the old level pad from one of the tanks had trees on it and was quite a pleasant little spot so I put an oval of track on it. People left it alone although it did walk about a bit- the aluminium rails expanding and contracting made all the pieces of track creep around and I would have to reassemble the joints every time I wanted to run a train. Eventually I got sick and tired of loading trains into a boat, sailing to the island and clambering over rocks and through the forest to get to the railway so I dismantled the whole thing. Now I have a house but the "garden" area is very small.

I will take some sections of track into the back when it warms up and try to see how much of it will fit back there. In the meantime I will watch Mark Found's videos and have a play with that "any rail" thing.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Hi Keith,

This is my little railway (well most of it!) the yard is approximately 12' x 9'.
You should be able to get a very respectable line in your available space.
For more inspiration check out Mr Bond's DVLR

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Can't remember the dimensions of the garden but its more restricted as I have to stick (more or less) to a flowerbed 1m deep (you all know this anyway).
As we are doing arial views here's one from a year ago or two


I think getting curves and turns in adds greatly to the feeling of distance in a way that straights don't quite.

[Peter Butler]

Alan P and Mr Bond, I am so impressed with what you have achieved in such restricted spaces.   It is possible to have too much space and it can be difficult to decide where to lay track without limitations.
   

[Keith S]

I had no idea your railways were in such small spaces! They always look bigger from ground level in your pictures!

I am feeling better about things now!

[Keith S]

The climate is not really easy for this kind of endeavour, although not impossible- I think one could probably get a butane-fired engine to boil up outside probably from late April till around the beginning of October

Can you not get butane / propane mix? In the UK we can run when the temperature is around freezing.............

I have not seen it; of course this doesn't mean it's not there. A seasonally appropriate temperature for where I live right now would be around thirty degrees below freezing. Even if the engine could run outside in this weather, I wouldn't.

This year the same weird weather that is causing floods in the U.K. is causing strangely warm weather here. Today it is only three degrees below freezing.

[rebelego]

If you want more ideas, you should post a photo or sketch.
Things to consider:
Where are the entries, doors, stairs, gates, etc?
Where does the sun come?
Where do you want to sit?
Do you have a natural backdrop or should you create one?
Do you want to integrate fireplace, BBQ, hot tub?

[rebelego]

Just an idea...
If you get a lot of snow, you can model the whole area in snow during the winter. Easy to reshape things.

[GTB]

Can you not get butane / propane mix? In the UK we can run when the temperature is around freezing.............

I have not seen it; of course this doesn't mean it's not there. A seasonally appropriate temperature for where I live right now would be around thirty degrees below freezing.

The 70/30 butane/propane mix is running out of pressure by about -20C, so not a lot of use as a fuel at -30C. Anybody trekking around the great outdoors in that sort of temp. would use propane, I'd imagine, but loco gas tanks aren't engineered to take that.


Regards,
Graeme

[invicta280]

Today it is only three degrees below freezing.

Positively tropical!
I imagine that even with global climate change you cannot count on such unusualy warm winters. When it gets so cold you would not want to leave an unfired loco sitting around with water in the boiler for too long. It might be a plan to have a small shed with a heater in built into your plan so you can steam up in (relative) comfort and actualy get the loco fired up. Track could pass through the shed.

Sounds like the balloon loop at each end might be ideal for your space and if it was 'double' track between the loops you could avoid pointwork at the loops. I imagine outside pointwork could freeze solid at those sort of temperatures.

[Keith S]

I wasn't planning on running in the winter! I was thinking of a squashed loop with the straight bit across the back to avoid the door. You are right about the snow- I can go out there with a piece of track and stomp about with it and "draw" some ideas in the snow.