Designing a garden railway layout.

[The Denying Dutchman]

As some of you already know, I swapped a Wilesco roller which I had for sale for a Mamod SL1k, so instead of making some money I'm at the brink of a spending spree! Fortunately I lack the funds at the moment so no shop is going to be rich at my expense yet.  :lol:

To get some insight in costs of a garden railway I already started designing one, which although faulty due to miss assumptions, I share with you anyway. I only have experience with H0 layouts as a kid/teen so I might have overdone the track given the space I have. I would appreciate your input, criticism helps me during this learning phase, although I might hate you for life for it!  ;)


Above is what I had in mind, below is the actual situation. On the left is a tiny tree, that's in the way of my track. On the right is a large tree which is also in the way of my track. (both marked in red) The Christmas tree is in reality placed a few centimers to the right and a few centimeters down, no problem. Well actually it will become a problem eventually... When we bought the tree when it was small we didn't read what kind of tree it was. It appears to be a Serbian spruce, not done with my partially Slovenian heritage, but besides that the darn thing can reach a lenght of up to 40 meters with a trunk diameter of up to a meter!  :shock: And up in smoke it went, my idea of a realistic garden railway.

The layout is 9,5 meters long and 2 meters wide. (The squares in the drawing are 10cm².) I can widen the track on the right, which is undesirable, but necessary. Minimum curve radius is 85 cm. (2ft 9,5")

Left from the Christmas tree is the waterfall, which I'll rebuild to fit my plans. It's broken anyway. The small pool will be connected to a river which ends in a small harbour. The litle circle on the left of the harbour isn't a tree, it's a lighthouse. I love the sea, so I want a sea theme in my garden railway. I probably have to chlorinate the water to avoid freshwater plants etc. but that's ok with me. Below the harbour will be the main station and a small station will be located on the right of the tunnel.

Some of you may notice a problem with the lenght of the tunnel and the point in the tunnel, but the points will be electrically powered and I'll make a removable space on top of the tunnel for easy access and maintenance if necessary.

I want to have lots of curves in my layout, since narrow gauge lines in real aren't very straight also. Scenery and locations of buildings are just a quicky, they're just there to give me an idea how the railway will look when it's finished. I deliberately have return loops and a continuous loop. It allows me, more or less, to operate two trains simultaniously without radio control.

So what do you think?

[Keith S]

Paul, why can't you just move the track a little to accommodate the trees? You should use flex-track anyway, then you will be able to "wiggle" it to fit around any garden obstacle.

Other than that, I like your proposed track plan very much. It looks like fun.

[The Denying Dutchman]

The small I tree I can dig out and replace, the large tree obviously not. I will be using flexi track, but I don't like the idea of a track running only a few centimeters away from the trunk. I have no idea how quick that thing grows, but if I have to expand the track in about 5 years because of the tree I better do it at the start. And I like the idea of the tree in the middle of the track better, it gives me the opportunity to add scenery.

[Keith S]

TOo bad the tree isn't big enough to carve a tunnel through it. They did that in real life one time in Canada.

[tom_tom_go]

Looks very interesting Paul.

I spent ages planning my railway and it ended up being something completely different so I would just get stuck in and develop it as you go along.

[The Denying Dutchman]

TOo bad the tree isn't big enough to carve a tunnel through it. They did that in real life one time in Canada.

If I wait long enough I can carve multiple tunnels through my Christmas tree!

[The Denying Dutchman]

Looks very interesting Paul.

I spent ages planning my railway and it ended up being something completely different so I would just get stuck in and develop it as you go along.

Thank you.

I personally prefer, a more or less, fixed plan and then start laying the track in steps. Even if I wanted to make all in a few days I can't. Behind our garden is a ditch, which apparently is a firebreak so that the fireman can reach the houses from the back when needed and after that there are lots of bushes, so I can't get even get a cement mixer in let alone a small excavator.