Garden Railway Forum

Drew, the fish species you mention would stand no chance of survival outdoors in the UK. I kept such 'tropical' fish in my youth in aquaria but only with heaters and filters installed. At our previous house I had a garden pond with goldfish and carp but the water had to be constantly circulated thr...

Like many American kids of the late 20th century I grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and (of course) enjoying the trolley that served to transition between different parts of the show. I'd mostly forgotten but between that and Thomas I'm realizing I watched a lot of model trains on TV whi...

You're right, I just checked and the midnight soil temperature is 60°F/15.5°C which is what I was waiting for. Stocking will be White Cloud Mountain minnows and Variatus platies. I've kept the minnows for several years now and a few of the ones I'm putting out were hatched in my own tanks back in 20...

Wow, if it weren't for the wheels (and the topic title) I never would've guessed that was a Mamod! Covering up the real cylinders with fake ones was pretty clever and really completes the look.

I like your water feature .A pond is one of my next projects for my railway . I am hoping to find a suitable solar powered battery backed up system pump that can raise a head of water 3ft to feed a stepped waterfall . Thanks! At first the whole plan was just to have a pond, and then the raised bed,...

I keep looking at it... I can't believe it's not wood!

Ours was a '79 with the 390. I miss working on it and driving it, but I can't say I miss buying gas for it, trying to park it, or wondering if it'll get me where I was trying to go. It suffered from a persistent fuel issue that I could probably figure out now, but at the time I was clueless about ca...

You certainly do get the more interesting bugs and plants! That's not a small truck either. Beautiful dentside Bronco, really makes me miss our old F250 plow truck (kind of).

If I had to hazard a guess I'd say those are probably the jugs they would use to refill the smaller cans in front, but an engine that is regularly steamed up in a shed might just store the extra supply in the shed.

Oil cans, one for steam oil and the other for bearing oil? I can mostly only find stock images of this type of can so I'm uncertain of my sources.

What accolades could be awarded to other Forum members, I wonder? I'd nominate Rik for backstory and/or documentation. Half of the time when I'm searching for a way to do something on my railway the answer turns up on the Peckforton blog. I'd also like to nominate Gregh for compression ratio. How h...

Having stared at this exact diorama many times, I was too busy trying to confirm It was 1:1 recognise where it was! (The taller building has a slight sag in the roof, but that proves nothing - it could have been modelled by Peter Butler :lol: ) Are you suggesting that Peter Butler is a maker of sag...

By a stroke of coincidence I happen to be working on a six-coupled loco at the moment, and will soon be ready to mount the axles and cranks... Perfect timing! I might have to give this method a try.

If anybody else is a fan of the Railway Series and/or Thomas the Tank Engine, Rev. Teddy Boston may be familiar as the "fat clergyman" who discovered a long-lost engine by falling through the roof of a buried shed! Screenshot_20240528-204105.jpg My grandparents had a friend who was a railr...

Welcome to the forum! It's interesting to hear about an Irish prototype; they've turned up on here occasionally but not very often. I think I found the backstory thread: https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/15232-sheehaun-light-railway/ We tend not to bicker over scale and gauge, and as one of our...

I think Cranefly is the proper name for our 'daddy longlegs'. Apologies if you knew that already. I had suspected, but had to look it up to be sure. Some people here also call it that, but we also have two very different spiders that go by that nickname-- the harvestman, and the cellar spider. :scr...

It looks like it was a fine day, both in the weather and the visitors! I am told there's no better way to find out exactly where your railway could improve, than to have others run on it.

I've got the front mostly filled in, just need a bit more dirt and some leveling and it'll be ready for track and plants! Screenshot_20240527-154454.jpg We're supposed to have storms again this evening into tomorrow. Hopefully that'll help the dirt and fill settle in and give a good base for levelin...

I know it's harmless, but Ugh I think the worst insect we have to suffer in the UK (apart from Midges) are Cockchafers (aka May Bug or Doodlebug). Some years ago we had some guests from Mexico staying with us one September.They were terrified when they saw some DaddyLonglegs...thought they were gia...

The scale of the weeds and the fine wrinkles on the tarp are all that gave it away as 1:1 scale. What an inspiring scene!