Garden Railway Forum

Passenger and goods services on the Skebawn and Castleknox Light Railway section will cease from September 1st 2016 due to staff relocation. Substitute road service will be provided.

In other words...

My day job is moving me to the East Coast early next year, and as we have no desire to repeat 'the move from hell' which occurred 14 years ago when I moved here, we are taking our time over it. Most of the railway will be removed late this summer, and hopefully, after the move, I should be able to get a short track up and running fairly quickly. OK, I know - famous last words! Whether the new line will be the S&CLR Mark II or something else, I do not know. I do know that we are buying another house on a hill, so there will be major engineering works once again.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

Good luck with the move Peter

Of course, one pleasure of moving is that one can begin to plan a new railway. The new house has a large and fairly dry basement, which is an obvious site for the main station and steam up area as it is well ventilated. However, my usual preference for old houses on a slope means Kalka-Simla gradients ad curves once the railway exits the basement.

The city gummint provides a 2' interval topographical map which is at least giving me an idea of where the tracks should run, but it is going to be a bit of a wild ride getting a decent run built in the new yard.

Cheers,
+Peter in AZ

The last of the track came up today, so all that is left is an empty track bed. The last train ran, unrecorded I am sorry to say on August 31st. Everything is in storage now until I can make a start in the new location.

Peter in AZ

One door closes, another opens. I hope the new door has wide horizons for you Peter. Hope the move goes to plan too.
Grant.

The worst thing about this move is that it is clear across country - 2200 miles - which is making our previous move of 350 miles, fourteen years ago, look like moving up the street.  On the other hand, I am looking forward to getting out of an environment that has been driving both of us batty. Reorganisation a few years ago has had me flying across country every 4 to 6 weeks, and that has been making things somewhat difficult, especially as we are two hours from a decent sized airport, whilst the local puddle jumper goes the wrong way - to Los Angeles rather than Dallas or Denver, which would actually be some use to me.

Anyway, the new house has a large, fairly dry, basement, so that is targeted for use for the works and main station provided the railway can make the climb out the basement windows and up into the back yard.  The other possibility is to use the present garden shed for the railway, but that would not be optimal. Of the houses we looked at, this one had the fewest problems, the trouble is that what problems it does have are all on the railway side of the leger, not the house/work side.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ (but not for much longer)

Good luck with the move Peter, living on a smallish island it is hard to put a 2200 mile move into perspective! 350 miles moves me up into Scotland. Us railway builders can always find a plan to make it work, I'd love a basement as a man cave...

I have pretty much decided that the Skebawn and Castleknox Light will be making a comeback after I move. There will be some changes. Skebawn will be in either the shed or the basement so that I can leave most of the stock on the railway when not in use. Secondly, I am giving it a definite 'Tramway' character. I still have the idea of its starting out Castlederg and Victoria Bridge-ish, and getting a little more "heavyweight" over time.

Most of the original stock is now packed away. There is one project still on the work bench which will be more or less finished before we move finally. I am also entertaining the idea of the two 'Ruby' class locomotives that I own ending up as American style Tram locomotives. No doubt the original acquisition of those wee beasties involved Clan Knox and a bottle or two of the mischief, and a very persuasive catalogue from Messrs Baldwin.

Peter in AZ, soon to be VA

Well, all of our stuff has made it to Virginia - finally - and I am more or less settled into the new parish, so today was going to be the day I started surveying the new version of the Skebawn and Castleknox - except it started raining at 5am this morning... Plan B is to drag out the Dremel and see what mischief I can get up to on the rolling stock front.

Peter in VA.

Whatever you decide to do, it is good to hear your move is now complete and that you are back on the Forum to update us with your project. I look forward to hearing, and seeing, the progress on your challenging site.

Welcome back Peter, I can't tell you what you've missed as I have been in 4mm/ho hibernation for the winter. The British summer is here with gales and heavy rain. We call it flaming June... Hope it dries up soon for you.

One unpleasant surprise was that a couple of the cupboards I placed in the "mainly dry" basement got water into them during the last "rain event." This being Virginia, several items of stock had become affected with mold, so the cupboards will be going up on bricks tomorrow, and the affected items will be getting the vinegar treatment. I have left the dehumidifier going to try and dry things out a bit, as we now seem to be in a settled pattern of heat, humidity and afternoon thunderstorms. I have found, though, that I deal better with Virginia heat than with Arizona's, though we have not yet had any really challenging days - just 88F or so!

Next job is some serious clearance at the south end of the house to see if there is a viable route out of that end of the basement, which would give me access to a decent sized piece of basement real estate for the terminus. I get the feeling that when it comes to encroaching on the garden, my wiggle room is severely reduced, as the garden is well established and actually grows stuff - unlike in AZ. What happens on this site will be more or less determined by the viability of exiting the basement and climbing into the back garden. If that doesn't work it seems likely that I will either have to build a small, estate railway themed, outdoor layout on the flattest portion of the yard, or a small indoor layout, or both. The geography is certainly a challenge.

Peter in VA

Well, it looks like the rise from the basement window to the backyard is about three feet, which will require 100 to 150 feet of running line. Now I am trying to work out how to "pack the spaghetti" down the side of the house. I want to avoid looping back over the mainline if I can.

Peter in VA

Sounds like you need a Darj. loco and some switchbacks, Peter.
Grant.

If the storage in the basement is not part of your regular railway line, you can use a lift for your trains to get them out of the basement and on the tracks in the backyard. But since you have to manually operate it and it logically isn't connected on both sides at once, it is not an option if you need this part to get round.

Lifts are fairly easy to build, in the garden railway series of Mark Fond there is even one of them shown. It basically is a wooden board with tracks on it, long enough to occupy a complete train and it hangs on ropes, making it possible to move up and down (obviously ) The second advantage you have with it, is that storage tracks can be build above eachother, so you can store a lot more rolling stock alongside the wall of the basement, keeping them also away from moisture.

I am more and more leaning towards having the Skebawn and Castleknox in the basement, and a small industrial themed line outside. The reasoning is largely climatic. Virginia is warm bordering hot and humid in a summer (it is 85F and 85% again today!) which makes the basement a good place to be (cooler than outside), whilst the winters are similar to the UK, but with a few more warm days. That leaves spring and autumn/fall as being the pleasant times to play trains. I am also not very happy about the access to/from the basement at either end, which in the case of the north end of the building is only about 7' from the boundary wall, and at the other 5' from the property line. If the lot were flat it would not be a problem, but it slopes upwards at a gradient of about 1 in 12, which would be great for modelling the Manx Electric or Snaefell Mountain Railway, but is not so good for a "kettle" man like me. I may live to regret that remark about the MER.

I need to have a brew (tea) and brew on this point a little more.

Peter in VA

Heres hoping the old Skebawn and Castleknox line makes a triumphant return in its new location, as for the outdoor gradient, I can sympathise-- our garden is just as un-level as one can be also! Then again, the T&D was heavily graded, justifying double heading, but unfortunately no easy solution on the full size either!

I am sort of tired of rebuilding kettles thanks to the wear and tear created by the gradients on my old line. I had a long stretch of 1 in 24 which eventually wore out the drive rods on my Millie, and played heck with the timing on the Accucraft locos. The grade was putting the slip into slip eccentric. So an indoor S&CLR with a whimsical outdoor extension might be on the cards. I have a space about 19' by 11' under the dining room and hallway, and then there is another 13' by 13' under the front parlour. Terminal station, continuous run, and fiddle yard seem a distinct possibility in that space.

For outdoor interest I am wondering about a connecting electric tramway. I knew that MER comment would fester and come back to haunt me! What's even worse is that it has only taken about eight hours!

Peter in AZ

There are wonderful examples of indoor (basement) railway models and the potential to create realistic scenic adornments; buildings, landscape etc... makes it even more attractive. I wouldn't fight your restrictive height and access problems, rather see it as an opportunity to concentrate on something which you might find more user friendly during a greater part of the year. Just make the most of what you have!

Peter,

I do like the outdoors side of things, but there are some significant limitations here. January through March are on the cold side for outdoor operation, and mid-June to mid-September are on the hot side - of course. Even with electric traction I am going to have to put a lengthy gooseneck into the section between the basement exit, and the back garden, to keep the gradient somewhere around 1 in 20, but at least having steam on a relatively level course in the basement will make life easier there.

The wife has also made it quite clear that she doe not want "Toytown" in the back yard, so minimal structures - MER-style rustic shelters, etc., are more in keeping with that standing order on construction, Not sure how MER tin sheds will go over though!

Time to start doing some sketching...

Peter in VA