Garden Railway Forum

And 2019 operations on the CVLR have started! (Proper - steam-powered - ones, that is: there have been a few battery-powered ones.)

A couple of sections of track needed strategically-placed ballasting attention to keep the track stable - setting sone of the trackwork in place (especially vertically*) is beginning to seem like a good idea...

*Er, bad concreting. I confess!

The meths-fired Mamod SL3 came out with two wagons and gave an aromatic 10-minute run, complete with new two-man crew in the cab, which gives rise to two thoughts:
- unlike the Bertie, the Mamod can happily fit two figures in the cab with suitable application of that wonder modelling material Blu-Tak
- the shorter run time is actually preferable when family duties are (literally) calling; I can't bring myself to cut short a Bertie run even when I feel I should!

No pictures, I'm afraid, because irritatingly the smallest photo file size that my 'phone will take is just over the maximum size for this forum. (Previous pictures taken on a camera with subsequent transfer between devices - too time-consuming for today.)

You can resize the images on your phone if that is your 'camera':

https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 33&t=11543

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Sun Feb 24, 2019 10:35 pm You can resize the images on your phone if that is your 'camera':

https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 33&t=11543

Brilliant - thanks!

Some pictures from yesterday - including the CVLR's novel method for ensuring tail lamps are provided...

The moss is coming along... (Spot the Blu-Tak!)

And finally, a couple of images from the traincrew's team bonding and off-line training session a few weeks ago...

Some nice shots of your line there, I like all the planting (something my railway lacks as it is raised).

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:39 pm Some nice shots of your line there, I like all the planting (something my railway lacks as it is raised).

Thank you!

Clearly the photographic trickery to disguise the state of the garden is working! Then again, as per my first post of this thread, I did set out to integrate railway and landscape - and nature does get messy in real life as in miniature.

I do rather like the moss colonising the trackbed - gives that impression of decay...

The first track run of 2019 for the Bertie. New ghostly crew members fresh from the Midlands Garden Rail Show looking good in blur-o-vision!

Looking good CSL, keep them coming

A brief but tantalising conversation about an extension over last weekend. Don't watch this space, though - it won't be quick to materialise!

I think you've already made massive progress from the sound of it, getting planning permission is hard work
Look forward to seeing the ideas.
Tom

CSL wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:31 pm A brief but tantalising conversation about an extension over last weekend. Don't watch this space, though - it won't be quick to materialise!

Ooh, interesting... I really like the neat and compact character of your line, but an extension's always an exciting prospect...

Most of my planned extensions fail to materialise, and that's probably a good thing - in one imaginary version of an extended (WH)WHR the whole of the lawn is taken up with Beddgelert style S-bends...

Cheers,

Andrew.

Andrew wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:58 am Ooh, interesting... I really like the neat and compact character of your line, but an extension's always an exciting prospect...

Most of my planned extensions fail to materialise, and that's probably a good thing - in one imaginary version of an extended (WH)WHR the whole of the lawn is taken up with Beddgelert style S-bends..

Ha ha! Actually there is a bit a that kind risk to a bit of the grassed area, which may not be sensible in the final reckoning. The concept is the same as mentioned in passing before and is about the only practical one, but definitely compromises at least one of the principles I listed in post 1 in a fairly significant way.

Well, I have invested in... some Wood Valley Works curve templates.
A journey starts with a single step, and all that.
(No doubt the existing curves will be revealed to be distinctly uneven when checked!)

... And now the critical sets of points are on order.
Bank holidays are truly slippery-slope time.

Pleased with these photos from yesterday.

CSL wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2019 8:56 pm Pleased with these photos from yesterday

I would be too - very nice, just the sort of photos that got me into the whole world of garden railways...

Cheers,
Andrew

Very nicely done.
Don't forget about the June Quarterly Garden Railway Gallery....

Great photos...if you didn't know they were 16mm, you could be mistaken for the real thing...

The buttercups have grown a bit since the last photo of the Mamod!
And they weren't there at all at the start of this thread - when they first appeared early this year I decided to leave them to see what happened. I guess that's what ground-level garden railways are all about.