Garden Railway Forum

Well I told you I was unsure about the track plan, despite spending weeks of drawing alternatives and discussing it with a friend who has much more experience than me on these matters.
Today I looked at it again with critical eye and decided it was not suitable for the type of running typical of a narrow gauge line.
I have taken up some of the track and relaid with points in different locations, also reducing the number of points at the same time. Better now!
Also, first test of a battery loco from the station inside the shed to the furthest point currently available....about 20 yards? It works and looks great!
Now for more ground work!

It's all looking great Peter and really nice to hear that you've now had that "inaugural run"
Looking forward to seeing more progress photo's!

Thanks for that, Narrow Minded. I must say that I have been inspired by your posts and sat through all 65 pages last night! Having seen the changes you have made to your own railway and realising that nothing is too much trouble for you to rip out the old and install the new, I had to make it better despite having only just laid the track.
More changes will take place before I'm happy, but it's only when the track is down you can see the shortfalls.
My mind is full of projects to add to the overall look of the finished item and several of the subject postings will get a hammering for further information.
I have to say all of the details appear to be on the forum, it's just a case of finding them and translating them to my own needs.
More pics to follow soon....

Bad weather, Bad,bad weather, again!
Bank Holiday Monday was a complete washout. Carmarthen Modellers Club, myself included, put on a display inside a marquee at a local Vintage Show. I love these events where all the local farmers bring out their old vehicles to show them off in an open field. It poured down mercilessly all day and the poor farmers had to drive their open cab tractors home in that. I couldn't have done any work on my railway anyway, so just took a day off!
However, since then I have been able to carry on with more support construction and track laying.
I mentioned earlier in this thread that I had difficulty with the track plan. Having built more support framework, I decided to rip it all up and start again. It is not that different, just better!
The lead into the station area is now longer, as are the sidings. The station run-round is longer and the curve smoother. I have repositioned a point to connect the continuous loop which comes from the shed and added a crossover between the two exit lines coming out of the shed. I have also included a mid-point crossover to put trains in the opposite direction of travel. This should add interest so that alternative terminus stations can be selected.
To show the differences I attach a copy of the first plan, then a picture of the current plan.....spot the difference!


The final picture shows the way forward... Two tracks heading for the great unknown! All I plan to do with these is form a single loop until I run out of track. Most of this will be either at or below ground level. I think I have about 60ft of track left for this and that will be it.

Perhaps what is not made clear in the previous photo is that the two tracks heading top left of the picture are the ones which will form the loop. The one in the distance facing bottom right of the picture returns to another loop which gives access to the shed or swings round at the rear of the station area and comes in again on the track on the right hand side of this group. A big dog-bone shape with crossover to reverse direction in the centre!
I hope that makes sense?

Hi Peter. That is a fantastic railroad you are building
When I look at your big station area, I´m just wondering about all your tracks running on the same side of the tree? As I can see on the photos facing your shed (Witton station) The trackline closest to the tree could instead run on the other side of it and it will give you less sharp curves (excuse bad english ) and more place for scenery of some kind?
Ps. The weather in my corner of the world is not too bad. The late evenings are just fine for driving trains and building churches..
Michael

St Michael,
Many thanks for your suggestions, I'm glad you are following and enjoying progress. I have spent many hours trying to allign the track as best I can and think this will solve my running requirements without curves too sharp to be reasonable.
As for your English.... I think it is just brilliant and you should be proud to be bi-lingual. If it wasn't for your ability we would not be talking this way, you haven't heard my Norwegian!!!

Funny thing with languages.. I´m swedish, but have lived here for 25 years. The norwegians laugh of my atempts to speak norwegian, and when I go to sweden and talk swedish,they think I´m a norwegian... So maybe your norwegian isn´t so much worse than mine

That is going to be quite some layout! Can't wait to see the finished line!

This is going to be a seriously brill layout! Imagine Peter, just sitting out next to the track on a summers evening watching a live steamer go past.

Heaven!!

You will only see a live steamer go past if you bring one along. And that is the idea.... to have a railway which is open to anyone who wants to enjoy it. I'm hoping to encourage more local people to become involved in garden railways (not too promising so far!) and anyone on the Forum or in the 16mm Association is automatically invited.
Still work in progress at the moment but soon should have a completed circuit minus scenery.

Would love to run on your railway Peter cheers for the offer. What sort of gradients will there be?

Although the railway is built into a sloping field, there are no gradients on the line. I particularly wanted to keep it flat and level as I have no idea how my battery locos will perform.
The start point, inside the shed, is at about 1m from floor level and everything outside conforms to that.

Excellent it's mamod freindly then!

Phew! It's hot here... Not complaining, just saying how things change and allow more work to be done.
Ideal weather for mixing cement and laying stones. The latest news is the completion of track support on the far side of the railway which finishes the first of two parts of the figure of eight. This part is set into the cut-out bank and shows a gallery cut into quarry workings.


All of the stone is from my land so is certainly local.
I have put weed control fabric in place to keep grass etc. down and reduce maintenance. This will be covered by slate/stone to give the appearance of quarry workings. Other areas will be planted when I get that far!
The other part of the loop is raised on piers. These are old land drainage pipes which we unearthed and I thought they were too good not to make use of them. At the moment they just support boards which the track will be screwed to. In the long term they will have sides to look like steel girders and make a curved viaduct about 12 feet long.

I like what you are building I´m reading, watching and learning. As been said earlier: Very inspiring
Michael

It's really starting to look good Peter can't wait to see the finished railway not that a layout ever gets finished their always seems to be something to add.

Looks really good, nice to see it moving along!

Excellent rate of progress, can see that ledge section will be very nice for photos

Wow! Faster progress than our line at present.