It’s (just over) a year since I started work on Phase 1 so I thought I’d revisit my site survey photos in a ‘then and now’ fashion Continue reading One Year On
Category: Planning
Hello, Millie
She’s here! Continue reading Hello, Millie
The Candidates in Steam
Some readers have been a bit reticent to give their opinions on my shortlist of live steam locos! I realised my rather dry summary of the specs might not be enough – I needed to see the locos in action and so do you. Fortunately, there are some rather good videos out there. Please, watch them, and give me your thoughts! Continue reading The Candidates in Steam
The Steam Dream
After a summer of trains pottering round my little circuit of track, and tinkering with rolling stock kits, the prognosis is fairly clear: I have the garden railway bug, and it does not appear to be curable.
I need a live steam loco. Continue reading The Steam Dream
The Eastern Ledge
The track will run in front of a dry wall made of old red sandstone – but at this point it is about 200mm above lawn level. I needed to build up a base for it – and, because I like the look of this rough and crumbling wall, I decided to build a low wall between track and lawn in the same manner – creating a ledge along which the railway would run.
Trackbed and Badgers
I’m worried about badgers. Sure, lay track on soil or turf, and you’ll soon have problems even without any wildlife becoming involved. A couple of rainy or frosty nights later your trains will be rolling up and down newly emergent humps and hillocks. But badgers could really exacerbate the problem. I read plenty of advice that agreed the trackbed needs to be solid and stable, but also that there are several completely different ways of doing this, each with their pros and cons. I’ve not come across any confirmation of which is the most badger-proof.
New Territory
The story so far… At the end of my gripping previous post on where to build my railway – I ended on a cliffhanger. Two possible locations, both suffering the limitations of my narrow, steep, garden. Which would I choose?
Purpose
At one level, planning the course of a garden railway is simply a question of: “how would I like to lay out my train set?”
But for an involving, operationally interesting and authentic railway, it’s worth thinking a bit about what the purpose of the line will be. Continue reading Purpose
Location, Location, Location
Having decided to build a garden railway, I just needed to make the simple decision: where to put it. (Apologies in advance for the cliffhanger ending tot his post…But it was almost 2 years before I cut the first sod.)
My garden is long and thin; excellent for a railway if it weren’t for the slope. In theory a slope is quite useful because it allows a compromise between two alternative ways of building the thing… Continue reading Location, Location, Location
The Beginning
Welcome to my Garden Railway blog.
This is where I’m going to record my efforts to build my first ever garden railway…
I’m going to start with a few posts going back to the beginning, before bringing things up to date with the first tentative earthworks now underway. Continue reading The Beginning