Garden Railway Forum

I thought it would a nice idea to share my plans and build for my railway extension next year. There are some amazing gardens and layouts on here, I'm no gardener and this is more of a fun project for me and the kids, so don't expect miracles. It's much easier to get permission from the management to run trains when I can take the kids into the garden with me.

We currently have a small loop and station at the bottom of the garden. The next plan was to remove an old sandpit and dig out a tree stump that I really should have removed before now. We had started on the stump earlier in the year, but with this all the wet weather it felt like an ideal time to have another go.

In went the PW gang.
Out it came after a lot of work.. Then we have this space to start measuring out.

(sorry, bit blurry that one.) This is my rough plan.
The idea is a small station, finishing into a turntable. The back line would be for a engine shed that would be in line with the main running line (Scarm wouldn't let me put it where I wanted)


Then a couple of sidings at the front.

My I need to check the levels as I'm worried that I can't keep it flat from the bottom of the garden to where the station will be, but until the survey team has been out I won't know.

(This forum software can be a little frustrating, I couldn't get the pictures down to a good size and then it's rotated some!)(The posted in the wrong place, so moved)

Hi, looks very interesting, please keep us up to date with how things progress.

I'm not sure what probs you are having with the pictures but you seem to have ended up with half a dozen identical ones at the beginning, with captions, and the rest at the end of the post.
If you go into edit, you can delete the duplicates and then simply drag and drop the pictures into their correct locations ( or drag the captions, which may be easier).

Also, Tom has done a 'sticky' on the subject of posting pictures, which may be useful https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 33&t=11543

Fixed the pictures!!! - Not sure what happened there..

Just been reading hundreds of other threads on people building railways, lots of ideas! As I'm staying at ground level I'm thinking I'll create a concrete base for the station, strong enough to hold the track, but easy enough to break up should I need/want to remove it. I've seen some nice layouts on decking boards, but I think that makes more sense if you are higher in the air.

Well done, much easier to read now, thanks!

As for your track/station base, you're right, it isn't a good idea to lay deck boards on the ground. Even treated ones soon rot. Depending on how stable your soil is ( ie is it prone to clay heave or any other natural expansion/contraction?) you could consider laying down thermalite blocks ( lightweight foamed concrete) which are easy to drill for fixings and probabaly reusable if you do ever decide to lift them.

I'm very clay, so the other part is pretty much as you described. Going a little more solid this time as I need to mount the turntable into something.

I tend to bore everyone with my clay problems, so I'm with you on this topic!

You've probably already thought of it, but you might want to include some sort of crude steel reinforcement in your slab. My ground level sections are on 6" deep poured concrete without reinforcement, and have cracked and shifted sideways in several places.

Also if you are going to cast a turntable pit in theslab, don't forget to incorporate a fairly large diameter drainpipe leading into a soakaway. Otherwise you'll end up with a small pond which will freeze solid and winter and....!

The draining of the turntable I'd planned for, but steel in my slab, no. I've a path and two sheds that's haven't had any trouble, but I know what you mean with clay!

We have a made some limited progress, life getting in the way. The idea is the new station will come off the loop here.
Which means this corner needs some work, a point added and I'll replace the Mamod track at the same time.

The station will then sit next to the shed, using the turn table for the run round. A couple of siding and an engine shed
Looking at the space on the ground, I think I'll place the sidings behind the station building rather than in front. But I'm not sure yet.
We then dug down to put in this old deck board to find the level. I now need to dig this all out to start to form up the area. But I'll start with the extension out of the existing section. Then at least we will have a new siding to play with.

Stations where the sidings are on th same side as the station building are very common full size. It makes road access easier all from one side. Enjoy your project.
Don

Although I can see why you might want to do it, sidings at the back, i.e. furthest from the operating space, can make coupling/uncoupling wagons very awkward.

Which is why it's nice to step back and think about things!

As you can get to the turn table from the path, I might go back to plan A and have the sidings at the front. My other station has them at the back and I don't enjoy always reaching over. The joy of ground level.

Magnetic uncoupling would solve your problems:

And cost me a small fortune...

Not going to argue though, very tempted.... Although I run both ways round, I see you only have hooks on one end.

Given the cost of items in 16mm scale these days Accucraft chopper couplings are not expensive.

This video shows how you can run a push and pull service:



You can save money by only fitting rolling stock that require uncoupling with the modified chopper couplings at the ends of your trains.

sjrixon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:19 am We have a made some limited progress, life getting in the way. The idea is the new station will come off the loop here.

20191230_151642.jpg

Which means this corner needs some work, a point added and I'll replace the Mamod track at the same time.

The station will then sit next to the shed, using the turn table for the run round. A couple of siding and an engine shed

20191230_151733.jpg

Looking at the space on the ground, I think I'll place the sidings behind the station building rather than in front. But I'm not sure yet.

20191230_151724.jpg

We then dug down to put in this old deck board to find the level. I now need to dig this all out to start to form up the area. But I'll start with the extension out of the existing section. Then at least we will have a new siding to play with.

20191230_154012.jpg

Wonderful! I do so like seeing a bit of civil engineering....

Rik

That's looking good!

Muddy, but good...

Another option re the station building/sidings thing might be to put the station and sidings on the other side of the line, ie the opposite side to the shed, so that you see the back of the building from the usual viewing spots? Less conventional from a traditional garden railway perspective, but nothing wrong with that...

Looking forward to seeing further progress and "first train " pics in due course...

All the best,

Andrew.

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I'm still toying with my track plan, but then that's the joy of this hobby. My last tweak moved the turn table to the entry point of the station, but I'm not sure..

We did get out and really started to sort out the levels today, more tomorrow. I love it when it's cold but sunny.

It's about level!

Looking good so far

Rik

"about level" was the best I achieved !
I managed to get some sections dead level, in other places I'm sure the ground moved when I wasn't looking.
Eventually decided a spirit level makes it look worse than it is !