I have read magazines and books about garden railways for more years than I care to recall. I have thought about ideas but never done anything about it. Now seems a time to remedy that. The emphasis will be as much upon the buildings and folk as upon the trains. Fulfilling my model village, railway, miniature landscaping interests in one. The idea is to do something not too intrusive but future plans may change that. Just a single track with halts for the present along with battery powered train. Low key but engaging. The track will run along the breeze block walling not on the ground. It will be easier to see and involve less bending and kneeling amidst plants. Here are my photos and notebook jottings
My original sketch to show the lie of the land, I’m no artist but enjoyed the process.
A view from indoors. As this area of the garden has a beach theme the terminus here will be at an imaginary village on the coast.
My daughter held the tape measure for me to enable me to add measurements to this rough plan.
Horribly annotated picture that hopefully makes my simple plan a little more obvious. I will mull things over in the coming days.
A most ambitious undertaking, I wish you all success. What scale will the railway be?
ReplyDeleteIt will be built slowly over time with this year’s part less complicated and invasive. The scale will be 16mm.
DeleteI fully support your Garden Railway endeavors Alan- 10m of track- Battery Powered- just the thing for this coming Summer...do you have the Engine and Stock yet? Cheers. KEV.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing yet bar magazines, books and thoughts. I like the smaller more industrial engines and rail buses and that is where I will start probably.
DeleteWonderful idea! I'm a big fan of model railways and look forward to seeing how yours progresses.
ReplyDeleteProgress will be slow potentially but we will see.
DeleteLooks like a great project!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, one of our neighbours had a garden railway, the sort with raised tracks and cars big enough for a person to sit on and take arrive around his yard. However, a smaller venture seems appropriate here! :)
hmm could have sworn I typed "take a ride" not "take arrive" hmmm
DeleteA smaller venture indeed :) near where my mother in law lives there was a Big House who gave part of its land to a model engineering club who had a layout there. At the annual open day we all had a ride including my daughters.
DeleteGreat idea for your garden - looking forward to seeing how you get on.
ReplyDeleteI have G scale railway at ground level in the garden and a waist level layout in the garage. What scale will you be using ?
16mm with hopefully rail buses, Dingle style pick up rail trucks and industrial stuff with small passenger trains.
Deleteexcellent stuff! By coincidence there is a chap on BBC news today who may inspire you:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-sussex-52487203/eastbourne-man-builds-railway-in-his-garden
Your clip made my day, what a set up, with stalled extension plans too. When we had family holidays In Yorkshire when my daughters were small I recall passing in the car a place which had static railway coaches used as holiday rental homes.
DeleteMany best wishes for this effort. Will this be the branch line to Tradgardland or another time, another place / setting?
ReplyDeleteTradgardland probably not, as Tradgardland is similar to Denmark in many ways and scenically not quite as interesting on a railway front. I like the look of the Lake District houses and walls, the Cornish village and tin mining not to mention the rail buses and rail pick up trucks of the Irish railways. It will be in 16mm as I mentioned before with the emphasis on small freight operations and wee passenger trains. Live steam is too expensive and battery power will suffice. I also have a liking for the Art Deco streamliner look of trains but that is not practical or within my price range. I want things to blend into the garden rather than define it. Probably it will be a railway equivalent of my Bathesque campaign with cherrypicked trains from anywhere brought together with a back story bolted on. I like slate mining trains too so I really need to make up my mind a tad. Imagineering as much as engineering.
DeleteI've always fancied a garden railway , I will watch your efforts with interest .
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