Garden Railway Forum

For my 70th birthday my sons gave me a 16mm/foot narrow gauge steam loco, wagons and track, thus reigniting my interest in garden railways. During the winter I built a small diesel from a kit, a flat wagon from a kit and the rest of the wagons in the photo from tobacco tins and plywood. One of the tobacco tin wagons has travelled well over a million miles, having been the container for my buttons and needles during my 40 years at sea. On the right at the back is a somewhat oddly shaped grounded brake van - my first attempt - it will end it's days mouldering quietly in the long grass as a loco depot mess room. All I have to do now is go out and build a railway!

I like the little tin wagons. A nice retirement for an old button-tin, and a well-deserved, pleasant hobby for a retired seaman. I hope you post more pictures as things progress.

What kind of steam locomotive did your sons give you?

very nice, ive seen people use butter containers for wagons as well

A great start. Those tub wagons look spot on! I admire anyone who re-purposes stuff like this to make models.

Rik

The loco my sons gave me is an MSS side tank. None of the wagons would suffer close inspection but I'm a great believer in the ' If it looks ok from six feet away it's ok' school of modelling!

That all looks rather splendid! If you've still got the lids to the tobacco tins, use one to store your 3-link couplings in...................

What a cracking present. It has to be better than socks and smellies!

I think you have hit the nail on the head with the '6ft rule'. And those 'baccy tin wagons look great. I was at the local industrial museum today (Kidwelly Tinplate Museum, well worth a visit) And there were a few old mining trams (tubs) there, they don't look too far off your wagons, being built from pressed steel and having curved corners.

Love those tabacco tin wagons. Right up my street must keep a look out for some of those. Very well done and keep us updated.
Barry

I have to admit that the baccy tin wagon idea came from an article in Sixteen Mill Today from years ago - on the Budley Bumblebahn I think.

I actually entered mine for MOTY...................

There had been an article in SMT about somebody's railway, and the author happened to mention how many old tobacco tins he had in his workshop to store bits and pieces in. For some bizarre reason, this sparked off the most vitriolic correspondence, with some saying "We don't need to know how many tobacco tins he's got - get on with the modelling" and some saying "It's interesting hearing how he runs his workshop".

So, I built mine, painted it as a mine car (because there are some at Butterley, in use on the narrow gauge) and entered it as "Another Use for a Tobacco Tin"!

very good I do like the use of the tins very good

Thank you all for the kind comments. Once I start building the railway I'll endeavour to keep you updated.