Garden Railway Forum

Never mind the railway, how's the cat coping with the move .....

Rik

Bertie, that’s crying out for a raised line. You already have a base to start with on the left side. Taking away that decking will leave more of the raised bed I would presume. Can’t see beyond the bench seat on the right side so not much help there. But if there is room you could try a dog bone.

Saying that, you already have the dog bone on the right side of your drawing, could you do the same at the back of your house just within the front of the bush whatever that is.

ge_rik wrote: ↑Thu Sep 11, 2025 11:51 am "...how's the cat coping..."

Sulky and petulant. We haven't let her outside yet.

FWLR wrote: ↑Thu Sep 11, 2025 11:53 am "...that’s crying out for a raised line..."

Yeah, I reckon so. I doubt there's enough width for a return loop there — but track could snake off round the corner into the grassy bit and come back again. What I'd like about that is that you couldn't see the whole set up at once.

Cheers.

BertieB wrote: ↑Thu Sep 11, 2025 12:15 pm What I'd like about that is that you couldn't see the whole set up at once.

Cheers.

That's the beauty of lines like Rik's and Trevor Thompsons. I sort of got that effect with the first iteration of the GWLR, but my flat, 'open' garden and ground level running spoiled the effect. I'm still pondering GWLR2.0; I'm thinking raised above ground level, but still not sure how best to achieve that and incorporate some groundwork to achieve a natural looking elevation, rather than a track on stilts (no offence intended to those who operate on such tracks).

I guess we all have different aims when building a garden railway. Mine is realism.
You are all probably aware of my hate for paling fences and shade cloth in the background of photos.
That's why I think Trevor has the best site for a garden railway, that is along the side of an embankment, as he can
control the background to photos. I do wish I had that situation. The other advantage is enough space to not have
other tracks in the background.
We can all wish (sigh!)
Grant.

One of the things I like about having visitors is they quite often find viewpoints to take photos or video clips I've not considered. With the house, garage, sheds and fences in the background the number of viable viewpoints is somewhat restricted.

Rik

To be honest, I’m not really bothered about any distractions so long as I can run my locos and have a good day, even rain doesn’t bother me unless it’s absolutely throwing it down. But if people want nothing but nice scenery that’s great. There is one definitely one thing it does need to be and that’s off the ground level, back, knees and other health issues just doesn’t cut it for me.

Heavy General Overhaul. At last.

Hello again. This one began as my first proper attempt at a tender loco, several years ago. It was built on a second-hand Bachmann chassis and was supposed to look a bit like a BR 4MT. There was a tapered boiler fashioned from a section of tall, plastic picnic cup and some, erm, unfortunate plasticard construction. The result wasn’t especially convincing. It wasn’t happy on the R1 curves of our original garden track either. Eventually it got put away and didn’t see the light of day for ages.

It’s now getting the long overdue refurb, to include battery power, Micron R/C and a fairly serious facelift (to look more presentable, not more ‘scale’). The plastic picnic cup has been abandoned, I’ve fiddled with (or replaced) a lot of the rest of it and fitted the bogie with larger Slater’s wheels. I’ll attempt to add some sort of simplified representation of firebox spaghetti too. It’ll be finished in lined black, of course. It’s still not remotely accurate, obviously, so it’ll fit in just fine with the rest of my stuff…

It’s about a year since I lifted the track but I’m afraid it hasn’t yet started to appear again in the new garden — until recently the weather’s been way too cold, wet or windy (often all three). But I have been accumulating track and materials... Cheers!

First coats of primer. More tidying up required

WOW!!!!!

I'm speechless! That looks so good!

Rik

It’s the lighting! Surprised me too. Thanks

I always love seeing your locos in that yellow primer, it makes all of the details pop, like works grey but for color photos. It reminds me of "TV Yellow" paint on electric guitars which was supposed to look good on black-and-white TVs.

Great looking loco. That BR2a tender looks spot on .

That's good. That's damn good.

BertieB wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2026 11:45 am It’s the lighting! Surprised me too. Thanks

In many ways, it's a pity it has to be painted black as it will mask so much of the detail.

Rik

Great to hear from you again Bertie. I have wondered how things were going, and its good to see that you are modelling again, even if it's a re-furb. But what a stunning looking loco it has become. As others have said, primer yellow really shows the work you've done to great effect.

Thanks for the kind remarks. I’m about to start clearing stuff out the way for track laying, subject to the weather, of course…

BertieB wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2026 12:02 am clearing stuff out the way for track laying

Be interesting to see what you come up with, given your past experiences.
We wait with bated breath.
Grant.

BertieB wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2026 12:02 am subject to the weather, of course…

Don't worry, there is hope... Loch Lomond yesterday morning....

Depends. Was there a crock of gold at the end or a crock of something else?

Rik