Tytherington Light Railway

[HarryW]

Thought I'd start a thread here on my 16mm scale garden railway. The main loop was recently changed from 45mm Piko track to 32mm Peco track. The inner loop will remain 45mm for the collection of 45mm stock we have.

Very much inspired by Rik Bennett's Peckforton Light Railway I decided to give the 32mm railway an 'identity'. This lead to the creation of the Tytherington Light Railway, which supposes that the Thornbury branchline which connects to Yate station was laid as a two foot gauge light railway instead of standard gauge. The reasons for why this was done in my fictional history are yet to be decided.

The light railway ran from Yate station to the stone quarry at Tytherington (This being the reason for the Railway's existence). The stations along the line are Yate, Iron Acton (where a branchline connects the farming village of Rangeworthy), and Tytherington. This being a narrow gauge line I felt it was unrealistic the railway made it all the way to Thornbury like it did in reality as the cost of the long tunnels past tytherington may not have been justified.

Here are some photos of the railway in it's current state (I Have added the sidings since these photos).

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This is currently the line's only loco "Frome" (All the locomotives will be named after local rivers). This is a 3D printed model made using the files Rik shared for his Metropolitan Water Board loco (Thanks Rik!). It is Battery radio controlled with a mylocosound card and a GRS chassis. After some fine tuning it now runs very nicely. I Have a small collection of rolling stock which I will post soon.

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I will also add a layout plan once I have drawn it.

The next few things I'd like to do include:

Adding point levers and ballasting the track.
Anglicising some of the buildings, replacing others with 16mm English buildings

Cheers,
Harry

[ge_rik]

Welcome aboard, Harry. That's a mighty fine railway you have there. I'm glad my musings (and 3D files) have been helpful to you.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Rik

[Phil.P]

Looks to be some interesting industrial archaeology on that line?
The sort of place I would have gone poking about, in my youth.


Phil.P

[Andrew]

I'm glad my musings (and 3D files) have been helpful to you.

There'll be a blue plaque on the wall of your house one day Rik...

[Andrew]

Looks to be some interesting industrial archaeology on that line?

That's what I thought! Love the mine track...

It looks like a line with tons of potential, looking forward to learning more!

All the best,

Andrew.

[Peter Butler]

Magnificent setting for a garden line, looking forward to seeing progress.

[drewzero1]

Looks amazing, love the trees! You really converted that all from 45mm to 32mm in the last few weeks? Wow! Something that caught my eye is the minimum-gauge mine railway up above...just watch for bears in that tunnel.

[Bad Droid]

Something that caught my eye is the minimum-gauge mine railway up above...just watch for bears in that tunnel.

I didn't catch that at first!
And what a cool railway, has a great feel to it.

[ge_rik]

There'll be a blue plaque on the wall of your house one day Rik...

Only if my notorious past catches up with me .....

Rik

[HarryW]

Thanks Everyone!

For those interested in the minimum gauge mine this is something me and my brother built in 2018 back when the line was Austrian themed. Believe it or not the little gn15 loco used to shuttle through the mountain via track power…this didn’t work for long.

I’m not sure whether to model this mine as an abandoned mine at tytherington or still in use. Not much room for exchanging a rake of empty skips for full ones in the siding space I have available

Harry

[HarryW]

Looks amazing, love the trees! You really converted that all from 45mm to 32mm in the last few weeks? Wow! Something that caught my eye is the minimum-gauge mine railway up above...just watch for bears in that tunnel.

The 45mm came up surprisingly easily so I was able to pull it all up and relay with 32mm in a couple days.

Harry

[HarryW]

Just realised this is a more appropriate place for my garden railway thread so it will continue here.

Cheers,
Harry

[ge_rik]

Just realised this is a more appropriate place for my garden railway thread so it will continue here.

Cheers,
Harry

I'll move it here - now done!

Rik

[HarryW]

Just realised this is a more appropriate place for my garden railway thread so it will continue here.

Cheers,
Harry

I'll move it here - now done!

Rik

Thanks Rik!

[StuartJ]

Hi Harry
Looks great! What sort of size is the layout please?

[HarryW]

Hi Harry
Looks great! What sort of size is the layout please?

Hi Stuart,

I don't recall the exact size but it occupies a 6-ish x 7-ish metre raised planter. A small strip then connects this section to the storage shed. the line passes through the shed to another raised area that is about 1.5 x 2.5 metres and wraps around the shed.

Harry

[HarryW]

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Here is the current plan for the Tytherington Light Railway. The Red is what has already been laid. The whole Yate area needs to be built but the rest of the line is ready for track to be laid. I would like to have a passing loop and sidings at Iron Acton station but there is not room here with the 45mm loop. So for now it will just have a small waiting shelter (I seem to recall a station on the Southwold railway that didn't even have a siding, due to some kind of argument over payment?). So a similar fictional dispute happened with Iron Acton and they have been suffering from the lack of freight shipments ever since.

The plan is very much to operate the railway as realistically as possible (Again thanks to The Peckforton Light Railway for how to do this). Trains will run from Yate, through Iron Acton halt, before reaching Tytherington. Here quarry trains will continue to the stone quarry (this will be off-scene in the shed).

Trains will also run from Tytherington, through Iron Acton Halt, before taking the branch line to rangeworthy. A rich coal seam at Rangeworthy allows for coal only trains to run regularly between Rangeworthy and the exchange sidings at Yate. Coal and Stone Quarry loads are unloaded via the exchange sidings at Yate station, which in reality is a hidden link back to the shed (again thank you to the PLR for this idea).

Regular passenger trains will run between Yate and Tytherington, along with a daily freight only service, as-well as the stone quarry trains.

A mixed service will run twice daily between Tytherington and Rangeworthy, as well as regular Coal traffic between Yate and Rangeworthy (using the loop at Tytherington to run-round before taking the rangeworthy branch).

I have also included the "real' route this fictional railway would've taken.

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Any comments or suggestions are very welcome, this is only one of many options for how I could model this fictional line.

Cheers,
Harry

[StuartJ]

Here is the current plan for the Tytherington Light Railway.

Thanks Harry, that helps a lot!

[Old Man Aaron]

Really liking the even-narrower-gauge mine tramway. Miniature trees are always nice to see, too.

[HarryW]

Really liking the even-narrower-gauge mine tramway. Miniature trees are always nice to see, too.

Thanks! The trees were about 1/3 the size when we planted them in 2018. I hope they will stop growing bigger at some point, otherwise deforestation may become necessary...

Harry