Garden Railway Forum

Cannot beat a bit of 'Hand of God' action

He is a useful chap...

Just when you thought you were finally rid of me, i return!

i still haven't done anything with the garden layout, nor have i made any changes to the portable layout.


the only thing ive done is put some "temporary" mamod track down on a garden patio and i didn't feel that was notable progress.

The domestic authority permitted me to place mamod track on the patio on the condition it was only temporary.
The track hasn't been moved since last year, so i think its there to stay.

Also, the snowman has finally bought the snow to lotus lakeside light railway, and only 3 months too late for Christmas.
Needless to say, he has been fired from snow bringing duties.

An unnamed worker clears the snow with a shovel


An experimental smoking figure gives thanks to the unnamed worker for clearing the way


Literally 5 minutes later, Stanley, driving Perkins gets stuck in the snow.


Guardsman Barris wishes he hadn't forgot the keys to the guards-van, where a fireplace awaits.



Heres some footage i managed to take before the track got buried under 6 inchs of snow

You can see the near the end the snow starting to wreck havoc with the tipper wagons wheels.

That little red diesel is nice, what is it?

Brilliant pictures.

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:43 pm That little red diesel is nice, what is it?

The little red diesel, Lyn, is an Houstongate Locomotive works LB2 body on a Philip sharples chassis.
he sells them on fleabay every now and then

Heres a video of her



After yesterdays running, i went to bed feeling i had forgotten something.
Today, i woke up and found out what i forgot.

I had forgotten to bring the unnamed shovel worker and 3 tipper wagons indoors!

Tipper wagons are in front of him, though completely buried

His dedication to keeping the railway clear from snow is admirable, though it appears he fell asleep upright.

Being stuck under snow, the army was sent to rescue him, but they couldn't get very far in the deep snow



Eventually, a rescue dog carrying 20 cups of coffee reached the poor tired man, and he consumed all of them within 5 minutes.
Energy renewed, he shovelled all the snow off of the tracks within the blink of an eye allowing me to make 1 more video before it all melts

Poor bloke, love that second pic.
Grant.

LNR wrote: ↑Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:30 pm Poor bloke, love that second pic.
Grant.

Looks like he's been there awhile.

Grand! You need an inertia wagon, to slow things down a bit with the mamod, and it will improve the chuff (which is good already!)

Great snowy pics

Great videos love the diesel too.

4 years later...

What happened?


My plans for a garden railway ran into slight technical issues...
i had changed my plans to raise the railway up on breeze blocks so it'd be easier to keep the grass away from the track, but the family dog developed arthritis and my raised track would be a problem, so it was put on hold and i was happy with my mamod track oval anyway.

unfortunately, 2 years later, an elderly dog with arthritis was no longer around, and construction resumed.

i crudely laid breeze blocks in roughly the place i wanted them, but i didn't know where any of the pipes or wires under the ground were, and the paperwork that was suppose to say where they are did not.
I had to hire someone who knew how to find these pipes, but then the pandemic hit and i couldn't get anyone.

and then it got worse, one of the cats had played roughly on the mamod track oval and outright broken some of the track leaving me with nothing to run trains on.

i couldn't set up my pallet town layout indoors because it took up the entire kitchen counter and the domestic authority did not approve, so i built a very tiny crude oval of track, with the intention of turning it into a portable logging layout.


Coincidentally the christmas tree fit perfectly in the middle of it but the domestic authority wouldn't let me fell it for the lumber mills.



Another 2 years later, Restrictions lifted, somebody finally came over to find the pipes and electrical wires...

And now, knowing where the wires and pipes are, there is not enough room for a proper loop of track.

Having watched trains going around my tiny logging layout for so long my sanity was bought into question, a perfectly straight line put me at risk of being committed.


While i could risk building over the pipes and wires, i learned from the experience of others, this is what usually causes them to need to be dug up.


So i came up with another plan.
Use the breeze blocks to build a raised flower bed next to the patio, then build a railway on the patio instead.
The raised flower bed will provide a spot for the plants so the railway won't be barren like it was with the mamod oval.

The domestic authority, having wanted a raised flowerbed for sometime immediately approved the new plan on the condition i leave them space for their plants.
i did not leave them space for their plants.

with my plans approved, it was time to start building.
i've seen lots of tutorials, been given lots of advice from railways i've visited, and i've forgotten almost all of it.
i have no idea what i am doing.

Fortunately most of the plants i obtained for the railway years ago had survived in wall flower pots, and i was able to move them from the pots without breaking up the soil in them, practically turning them into blocks of garden rail flower arrangements.


sometime during building of the raised flowerbed i realised i could also use the breezeblocks to raise the existing pond up and make it much bigger, changing the sheer cliff that was currently between the patio and the pond into a slightly more believable one.

The domestic authority approved this plan, on the condition the small pond is unoccupied by wildlife.
it was occupied by wildlife.

more specifically, a frog.

the domestic authority ordered the frog could not be moved unless i built it a temporary pond and waited 2 weeks before moving it in for the pond water in the temporary pond to be cycled. whatever that means.
i built the temporary pond, then got to work on laying the track.


i decided to start with 3 straight sections, the easiest bit.

For the ballast, i used 3 parts gravel to 1 part cement measured by a line drawn on a disposable cup.

i layed the track down, eyeballing it to make sure it was all still straight
used a trowel to move the ballast to the track


used an old paintbrush to level it out


then sprayed it with a mister bottle.


To my complete surprise, this actually worked!

the next day the track was rock solid and could not be moved.


only then did i realise i forgot to account for thermal expansion.

having done this part during a hot summer, i hoped thermal shrinkage would solve my mistake and carried on laying track.

as i did not have a rail bender i instead wedged curve templates inbetween the track and hoped the cement would hold it in shape, then removed the template after the ballast on the outside had dried then put more on the inside.


and to my surprise again, it worked.

unfortunately, i miscalculated how many curve templates i would need and was stuck only being able to do 2 corner track pieces a day.

at this point more than 2 weeks had passed since the temporary pond had been built, so i went back to the small pond to find the frog but i never saw it again.
removal of the old pond and construction of the bigger one in it's place resumed anyway.
i later learned it had gone into hibernation by burying itself in a compost pile somewhere. it'll be in for a nice surprise when it returns to find a much bigger pond.

i continued to lay tracks and build the pond while the cement was drying.


old pond removed and breeze blocks to hold the pondliner


then i put soft stuff inside it to protect the pondliner


then i filled the pondliner with the old pondwater and threw some mud in it to make it look like it's frequented by canal boats.


unfortunately the mud didn't last long because some strange creature called a water flea came with the old pondwater and it literally ate all the floating dirt, making the water crystal clear and ruining my muddy water effect.
on the brightside waterfleas also eats algae so thats something i don't need to worry about.

a few days later and i've gotten the last 2 pieces linked together, my track is complete


And the day after that i ran the first train around the completed track.


the domestic authority had gone on holiday shortly after i started, boy were they shocked when they got back.

with how much easier this method is i very much wish i had started with it, i could have had a functional railway years ago.



im still adding bits and pieces to the railway and i've got some ideas for buildings but im not entirely sure what i want

but i have decided on the railways theme.
it will be an industrial line serving a coal mine to deliver coal to canal boats.

Welcome back and congrats on a job well done. Please keep us up to date as things progress, no need to wait 4 years for the next update!
Don't worry about the frog, it will reappear when it's ready.

An interesting and well detailed account. Good to see you are now up and running.

Rik

I really like this, great garden railway-ing! The track seems to work really well laid straight onto the patio, and the pond wharf is going to look great - I think I need a pond... Love the little red loco too.

Looking forward to the next update!

All the best,

Andrew.

RadioActiveGnome wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 8:55 pm The domestic authority, having wanted a raised flowerbed for sometime immediately approved the new plan on the condition i leave them space for their plants.
i did not leave them space for their plants.

with my plans approved, it was time to start building.
i've seen lots of tutorials, been given lots of advice from railways i've visited, and i've forgotten almost all of it.
i have no idea what i am doing.

I am sorry for your technical issues, but I really really enjoyed reading every single line your post and I am glad to see from the video there is a happy ending - great little train running superbly round your new laid track.

New line looks great, fine work. Can't go wrong having such a cute cat around either.

Old Man Aaron wrote: ↑Wed Jan 26, 2022 5:32 am New line looks great, fine work. Can't go wrong having such a cute cat around either.

He's been very helpful with the gardening, he even digs up flowers before they start to wither.



At some point during the destruction of the old pond i found some slate rocks that had been cut perfectly flat at the bottom, an idea came to me to use these as walls for an additional albeit much smaller raised flowerbed on the patio.

i glued them in place using leftover ballast mixture


then i permanently borrowed the domestic authoritys compost and took some cuttings from a groundcover plant i have forgotten the name of.

Andrew wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:29 am I really like this, great garden railway-ing! The track seems to work really well laid straight onto the patio, and the pond wharf is going to look great - I think I need a pond... Love the little red loco too.

Ponds turned out alright, not quite happy with where the water level maxes out at.
Wharf still in progress.




Unfortunately the groundcover plant didn't live very long because it was devoured by slugs.

But during a walk, i noticed some moss that was growing on top of a fence sort of resembled scaled down ferns, so i grabbed a handfull of it when i thought no one was looking and quickly took it home.

it looked the part, so i went for a walk in a mossy forrest and ended up with all sorts of moss.
i got some really weird looks walking around with clumps of moss sticking out of my pockets but i think the result was worth it.


Great success!
the moss had no problem establishing itself and the slugs left it alone!

i even steamed up bolt just for an excuse to admire my handiwork some more


i was very happy with the moss, for 3 days.
and then i discovered to my complete shock, my railway had been vandalized!


a blackbird had ripped up the moss in search of bugs to eat!

i hastily put the moss back and then went for a walk to find replacements
But when i came back, it had struck again! Twice in one day!


i put my new moss down and expanded the groundcover.


i've also put a pendle valley bricked up tunnel in the coal mine siding so it looks like it was closed long ago.

i primed it with a sandy coloured primer and then borrowed a small makeup sponge to lightly paint the raised bricks, hopefully giving it a 3d effect.
i was a bit too heavy handed in some spots and the paint ran in-between the bricks, ruining the effect.

im planning to put another small raised flowerbed both sides of the tunnel to hide the 1/1 scale brick wall.



my moss has been ripped up a total of 14 times so far.
i lost the battle with slugs, my solution declared war on the blackbirds and i am losing that battle too, and then i heard news of a storm and almost gave up.

i put the moss back one last time and prepared for the worst.
but after the first storm? my moss was undisturbed! the strong winds prevented the birds from landing on the patio and my moss was safe!

the next 2 storms had the same result and the moss has been left alone since but i do not expect peacetime to last long.
as the blackbirds appear to be the stronger force of nature i now strongly suspect it was the blackbirds that destroyed 3 fence panels in my front garden.

It looks good, that moss. You'll never stop blackbirds from digging, especially at this time of year and once they have young ones who are learning to forage for themselves. Once the moss gets properly established rather than being just a lump plonked on top of the soil, it will regenerate itself though.

I wondered why the passenger train was rattling along so quickly, and then saw what was following behind. Damn those Daleks and their neverending enginuity (see what I did there?)
Good luck with the moss - as Philip says, the damage won't be so bad once your cuttings establish themselves.

This is a great railway, Even visited by the WPSR occasionally