My first attempt at a garden railway

[tom_tom_go]

I am glad my little line has inspired you Ben

When I started out in 16mm scale a ground level line was a no go for me and like you I was determined not to just have a railway on wooden 'stilts'.  With the right garden planting you can hide a raised line so it blends into it's environment.

As for track radius 0-4-0's, 4 wheeled stock and even small bogie wagons work fine round Peco set track ST605 curves and if you find yours don't then you need to check your back-to-back measurements.  Obviously, R/C helps with tight radius as you can give the loco some extra puff before it hits the sharp bends.

I have found my own 0-6-0 locos will not go round the ST605 curves without stalling unless R/C is fitted.  If Peco had released the larger ST607 curves when I was building my line then I would of used these as I have a few 3ft curves which I made myself and they chuff round these with no problems.  Not all of us have acres of land to build a line with large radius curves so the smaller set track offerings are great as you try accurately bending track to such tight radius consistently!

What's important when laying your line though is getting it level including across the width of the track.  I find if you do a bit of super elevation on curves it helps trains get round easier.

Looking forward to future updates of your line Ben and most importantly have fun.  Don't be afraid to do it your way

[btiratsoo]

Hello all

Well it has been nearly a year and nothing has happened. This is due to varying projects on our house - inside and garden related.

The area I planned to build the ground level line has been scrapped and a line on posts settled on due to running height and dodgy knees.
Eventually the line will start and stop in our shed but this involves the clearance of a large part of the garden then building of said shed.

In the mean time I am planning a temporary layout that can be taken down and set up just to enjoy running a loco - similar I suppose to an exhibition layout.

Does anyone have any plans/ inspiration/ advice for building such a layout? The track will be Peco set track curves in an oval with a siding for steam up duties. My aim is to set it out on boards that can be laid over trestles.

Ben

[tom_tom_go]

Hi Ben,

You will not regret abandoning the ground line idea. A raised line is easier on the back and knees no matter what age you are.

If you are going for Peco set track curves use the larger offerings, bigger radius the better.

[btiratsoo]

Hi Tom

Love the updates on your line and 7/8ths stuff. I've been so busy with work that it hasn't helped with any thing railway! As I've said before, your line is perfect inspiration for construction of mine eventually.

For the time being, my temporary layout will be using the large radius curves so we should be fine...I think they are 3ft 6" aren't they?

The ends of the oval should fit on two standard plywood boards, with whatever length in between I fancy I hope.

[Joe]

just read through this post and it looks very good-where did you get the bricks from?

[btiratsoo]

Well, after a very long time of nothing happening at all due to varying reasons - redundancy and all the mess that comes along with that, I am now stable in a new job and have a renewed interest in building this project.

My good lady, although not at all interested in the hobby, has shown an interest in the raised beds we are considering building now. I've had so many ideas and plans that just never made it to the build stage.

The latest plan, and one that could see the fastest build is two L shaped raised beds linked by a bridge. I will attempt to draw this as I use a mac, so the anyrail software won't run.

Here are a few more pics of the garden and one of the two locos I've acquired.

The biggest issue with our plot is the sheer size! I know some of you with small spaces will be laughing at the above comment, but a long and clear (ish) blank canvas has so many opportunities that it has made it quite difficult to design!

The beds will run down the fence on the right of this picture with the small part of the "L" out into the lawn. These sections will hold a return loop at either end and a steam up area at the end closes to the patio.



Here is a total overview of the garden.



And a wider shot of the proposed area. The long grass is where the first attempt at track laying started.




The idea behind the raised beds made from railway sleepers is the was of construction. This should give me a nice blank canvas in a sensibly sized area and also will allow the misses to plant out the beds with her choice of plants.

Lets hope it goes a bit better this time!


One last photo of the two locos



Ben

[artfull dodger]

When my wife and I built our garden railway, it was necessary to use the right radius LGB R1 curves on most of the line. I was able to rework one area to use R2 curves. This is restricted my choices in motive power, but on the flip side this isnt always a bad thing. When I built the railway, I was in a European modeling hyper focus. So 2 axle cars and small engines were the norm. I stuck with LGB products, thier 2 axles car have a swivel plate for the axle/wheel/coupler assembly to help get around the roughly 4.5 foot diameter curves. My Frank S live steamer has a much tighter wheel base than your usual UK style 0-6-0. He doesn't slow in the curves or look really odd either. I raised my railway up about 24 inches off the ground, so its still a garden railway with live plants, a pond with stream feeding it. But I can sit in a chair and easily put trains on the track and tend the live steamer. I do plan to one day build an elevated layout at the rear of our yard with larger curves to handle some of my wife's newest trains that need much larger curves. Mike

[btiratsoo]

Well, third time lucky as they say.....

My foray into the garden really hasn't gone well. I have been moved to a new area at work and one of the lads I work with is involved quite heavily with Pete Waterman and his modelling ventures. This has rekindled an interest in modelling, so far as to go that we have built a small end to end layout at work in N gauge to run my ancient Graham Farish stock. This in turn has lead to talking about the larger scales and more importantly given me some ideas of layout design.

I'm still no closer to actually laying track or anything like that, but I think a "small" 8x4 baseboard or something similar to run the two locos on - Roundhouse Mildred and Little John - would keep the flame alive this time.

My biggest problem I have learnt is trying to do too much too quickly. Step back, think and then do rather than just go mad and burn out.

Thanks for letting me ramble and listening to them/ providing advice. I have re-joined the 16mm Society so anyone in/ near Hampshire, if you can provide inspiration/ ideas etc, please get in touch.

Regards
Ben

[Phil.P]

Hi Ben,

Get yourself (build?) a simple diesel outline kit, battery-powered, with or without RC..
This is 45mm but no reason you can't get 'something' running outside, without too much effort:

[ge_rik]

Hi Ben
I have to agree with Phil. I think you'd get a lot more satisfaction running small battery locos than trying to run live steam on such a small layout. I confess to having very little direct experience with live steam but from what I've seen, trying to control a live steamer in such a small space seems to me to be a recipe for frustration.

Rik

[btiratsoo]

I think I’ve got the wires crossed. The railway in the garden will be a larger layout and will be a planned out and back.

I want to build a small baseboard based layout quickly to be able to run my locos while taking time to build the one in the garden.

Our garden is flat and the space available for a railway is overgrown so will require clearing, designing the groundworks and then laying the railway on said walls/ raised beds etc.

The reason I’ve not managed to get anywhere before is it’s such a big construction project, I’ve lost all drive before even starting as it’s quite daunting.

I figure if I build a layout on a baseboard I can keep that tucked away in the shed and drag it out when I want to run my steamer to keep my interest while building the main garden Railway.

Apologies for the rambling!