Garden Railway Forum

You could try and find a Triang Davy Crockett loco, I think it was a 2-6-0, they used to be fairly common and cheap around the swapmeets but I haven't been to one in a while so who knows, they may have got collectable.

The Model Power HO range was cheap as chips and had a vintage US loco in the range but since Shrewsbury Model Centre closed I don't know of a uk stockist.

I have a plan B should finding one reasonably priced be a tall task...

Anyway, Things are progressing at a considerable rate...



One side will effectively be a park with Miniature railway and the other will either be a loco shed and servicing area or something a bit different... undecided at present...

And then there was more 00 track... This will have a shuttle function on it so I don't have to touch it when it's running.



The point has been locked off so little fingers can't mess with it with a track pin through the switch bar thing.

And then there was more grass! The idea behind this is that the miniature is owned by a country house much in the same way that Blakesley Hall was set up and the house guests would disembark at the local Railway station and get on a 15" gauge railway to go up to the house, however the board is only so big so the only part of the House we'll see will be the big gates onto the main property. It helps to use one's imagination.

This being a more Preserved section than a time capsule however the miniature is now an attraction at the house and can still be used to reach the "mainline" but the motive power is now a scale model of a BR Class 03 diesel. The new owners of the house didn't deem steam to be necessary to its operation despite their being a steam loco on site and all the facilites for it but all that remains is the water tower which has been re purposed as a diesel tank for the 03. Rolling stock on the miniature always meant more than one trip to and from the mainline station... the previous owners were tightfisted and only bought the one wagon for guests to ride in / on and a few others for delivering food and other supplies...

Anyway I've rambled enough... have a photo...

Coal Merchants.... With REAL COAL!!!

Coal merchant's has been named... Longchit Coal Supplies.

And now has a nice new fence...

Will these modules be appearing at Peterborough?

That is the plan.. Gareth has them in the plan...

Fence painted, Point lever fitted, bits of pickup truck painted, now just wants a bit more ballast in places.





Point lever has since been painted...

Not long ago this morning I thought it would be a good idea to run the hoover hose on the lowest setting along the miniature track to remove any loose material... there was a lot of it so I'm going to have to go back and redo parts of it... Just goes to show when gluing ballast you need to be thorough.

In any case there's a few more things to do on the three modules but plenty to keep me busy... Need to fit a tap to the sump cause at present its a pain in the bottom to empty and when full its not an easy lift on your own. There's more ballasting to do on both the miniature and 32mm tracks and then some tidying up in a few places like the grass material I've used shows the edges of its base so want to try and hide those if possible...

When I did scenic work with OO stuff I use to 'borrow' a pair of tights from my other half and then cover the hoover nozzle with these to go over newly ballasted areas. This reduced the suction power of the hoover and allowed me to collect surplus material to reuse.

You need to beg, borrow or steal a Dyson, if you haven't got one........ Perfect for recovering unstuck scenic material!

MDLR:120526 wrote:You need to beg, borrow or steal a Dyson, if you haven't got one........

I've been telling him that for ages

I am aware of the tights trick but at the time it had escaped me... Anyways I can easily get more of that material... There's a whole waste pile of it at work... Sand just don't work when its got damp in a sand box...

Or I may go a bit unorthodox and use coal dust to fill in the gaps... Plenty of railways have been laid on ash and clinker...

Terrible for letting these things slip...

But then I won't be posting updates and you'll have to wait and see it in the coal, sand, wood, metal, plastic and rock at Peterborough!

So the three modules went to Peterborough and came away with a MOTY Class winning trophy...

Unfortunately I didn't get chance to take photos but I did manage to run a train over them... Very satisfying feeling...

Their next outing will be the Giant Miniature Gala at Statfold Barn before the G scale show at Stafford.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41aimybQFfQ&t=420s
They appear briefly in this video from 6mins 30 secs