raising the railway

[artfull dodger]

I have decided to raise and relocate my railway. My back and knees cant take the squatting to deal with live steam and work on the railway, thus spoiling the enjoyment of it all. I am also moving the line from our front garden to the rear garden. I am using the fence around our hot tub, one railing of the lower deck and the side of the house to attach the benchwork to. One of my biggest challenges was to how to keep the garden look, but after seeing some pics on various sites of raised lines in the UK and elsewhere, I have a plan. But recessing the table top in places to allow a layer of rock to allow moss and ground covers to flourish, and recessing a few pots into the table top for plants. I would like some help as to naming the new reborn line. Something that kind of ties to to the area near Roundhouse's home town. We have friends that live not far from the factory that visit us here in the states every few years. Motive power will be a single live steamer, RH Lady Anne that will be kit built, waiting on it to arrive as I type this. I am also looking for suggestions for spray can paint that closely matches the blue used on Keith's Joanna RH engine. I have always thought that blue with the brass and black smoke box was stunning looking. I got a few brackets put up so far, so not much to show in pics yet. I will get some pics once I start getting some of the track up. Cheers Mike

[artfull dodger]

It has begun. I got most of it up today other than one corner. On the back side with the narrow shelf, there is a nice gab behind the track board, I am going to put a fine metal mesh there to fill with rock and some dirt so moss can grow. I also plan to use a solution when I ballest to encourage moss to grow along the track. The track on the gate to the area opens with the gate, it lines up when close. Since no track powered engines run here, no worry about running jumper wires to feed the track. I do plan to put some RH semaphores on each side of the gap to signal trains to stop if the"swing bridge" is open!! Here are a couple of pics.