Garden Railway Forum

ge_rik wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2026 7:44 am You can't beat having a steam gurgling away while trains are running. Here's how I constructed mine ...



Rik

Thank you very much, I have taken onboard everything in that video. Very helpful!

I have replaced the R3 curve near the tunnel with an R5 curve, looks way better now.



I also did an onboard video to show progress since the last one.



I have opened up a steam from the pond to a bin which will serve as a bog filter... but I have cut the slot for the water too high and it is causing the water level to be higher than the tracks so I will address that later on in the week.

So after getting fed up with my phone camera hitting everything all the way around when it was placed on a wagon I have designed a 3D printed holder for my pocket camera with a gimbal. The added risk now of my phone falling into the pond it was time to create something that was more secure. The pocket camera can be operated wireless from a mobile phone, this will add the ability to drive the train in first person mode.

Wow! That looks really sophisticated. Does that mean you can swivel and tilt the camera whilst it's in motion?
Can't wait to see the resulting video(s)

Rik

ge_rik wrote: Thu Aug 06, 2026 7:20 am Wow! That looks really sophisticated. Does that mean you can swivel and tilt the camera whilst it's in motion?
Can't wait to see the resulting video(s)

Rik

Thanks! It does indeed, I have to practice with it a bit first and I'll post some videos of it!

For now here's some live steam fun

Very nice! An interesting collection of coaches, too.

Rik

I repainted the smoke box and reassembled my bargain Accucraft Edrig, it ran like a dog at first. The gas jet was partially blocked, and it ran like it was only running on one cylinder.

I left it warm up on a reduced flame, success!!! The gas jet unblocked itself (I was prepared to disassemble), and for the first few metres it wouldn't run at all. Then two laps of really poor running. Third lap was ok. It's back to juddering now again though as if it is only running on one cylinder. More investigation is required.

Sometimes just a bit of heat does wonders.

I'll watch it as it goes, just to make sure but fingers crossed.

I'll be taking special care of this one as it was sold from a model shop in London where they told me it was part of a collection (where I also got the Roundhouse Russell) where the owner had passed away, that it was the guys favourite loco and he would run it at every chance he could get.

Bellow is a before and after comparison.

Also I received the last pieces of track to correct the track geometry near the house and raised flower bed. It now makes the corner perfectly.

Getting near to cementing the track bed in.

So I have sat back a little and just ran trains for the last two weeks since this post to get more of an idea what I want to do next.

Below is the track plan I am going with. There will be two more passing loops added. One in the shed and the other at the top of the garden.

This leads me to the next update, I will be using computer control. I already have iTrain so I will be going with that and a loconet system as I am already well versed in using loconet with automation. This will enable four trains at any one time to be moving without four people controlling, which will add far more interest. I can add working signals etc as time goes on.

This will all have to wait as money does not become available until January when I can buy the shed, which is the key item to move forward with this as the hardware and PC will need to be kept inside.

For now I will add the top loop and replace all rail joiners with the screw down clamp variety ones, I got some used with my track and they are far superior and any time trains run on that section there is never a continuity problem or derailments.

I will also purchase a proper track cleaning train as I will be staying with track control for the automation.

From January I will start to install DCC in to my stock, looks like some of the elder LGB is quite difficult, I will see what I can do nearer the time with those.

Over the next three months I will be acquiring hardware when I find it at a good price, stockpiling it to start work.

Looks interesting. I'll be intrigued to see how it all comes together.

Rik