Garden Railway Forum

Of course, you do realise you are quite mad? - in a gloriously eccentric British way!

I love it!
Two questions:
1. I assume you have to keep it damp? - Guessing it will dry out very quickly..
2. So what happens to a previous layout?
Loco's may re-gauge, but not stock..

Phil Partridge.

A brilliant concept for bringing the garden layout with all its botanical assets to the exhibition hall.
Modular rail modelling at its best. Well done and good luck with it.

Thanks Guys
This project is still very much work in progress. I have yet to finalise how I will operate it, but I guess it will not be quite as interesting as shinting on Hambleden. I am going to run a mix of live steam and battery powered locos. They will be able to pass in the station and potentially drop off wagons in one of the sidings, but it essence it is a round and round albeit the Slomos will permit scale speed slow running. The fiddle yard will consist of cassettes preloaded with set formations so that trains can very quickly be swapped over, but more on this in a later post.

Watering is a challenge. The soil is only 2in deep at best. The soil is a mixture of John Innes No3 mixed with additional grit and horticultural sand to make it very free draining. The layout is kept on a very slight incline to allow water to drain towards the lower end where there is a drain hole in each section. The soil is completely covered in vegetation so I use a water moisture meter to check its state. I usually water every few days with a fine mist in dry weather and the moss is usually a good guide as to when to water. The layout was started in 2019 so has been through a couple of years of summers and winters and has survived well. A couple of alpines did die off but these were easily replaced with others of a different type. I will go through the types used in a later post.

I can easily re-gauge all my Roundhouse live steam locos and I am building some new battery powered stock, the first being the Slaters Quarry Hunslet see picture. All the goods and passenger stock will be newly built for this layout (benefits of lockdown) as I can't re-gauge all the Hambleden stock (which I want to keep anyway as I still have that layout - currently booked for Elsecar later this year, all being well)

https://gardenrails.org/forum/download/ ... w&id=13945

A very interesting 'dual purpose' layout - I look forward to seeing it in the flesh at a garden rail show somewhere soon.
You can get gel crystals that retain moisture and help alleviate any tendency to dry out during dry spells or when your layout is set up indoors. Maybe worth considering if you haven't already used them.

Yes, regular spray mist watering would be the way to go I think, but not excessive.

I have very much enjoyed seeing Hambleden. I hope you will continue with the slow running and shunting that were a feature of Hambleden. I remember seeing Paul Towers layout at shows but the plants there were in pots just added for the show whereas yours will grow into the situation. I look forward to seeing this in future, Hopefully at the ALSRM show in Reading.

Don

Just..absolutely stunning.

Here are a couple more photos of the vegetation

Impressive....

some more rusty wagons. Hard to believe these are plastic or shiny brass kits. I just love rust powder.

That is really going to stand out from the crowd when it starts appearing on the exhibition circuit. Brilliant.

They are fantastically weathered. You just wouldn't believe they are plastic like you say, in fact I thought they were metal....

Just superb, incredibly realistic detail and a masterpiece in model making.

I have no words to express my admiration for both the concept and the execution of this layout. Thanks for sharing.

steveh99 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:23 am Hard to believe these are plastic or shiny brass kits. I just love rust powder.

They really do look fantastic... I've got a trio of wagons rusting at the moment, but I've always stuggled to get that beautiful orange, ending up with a rather darker shade of rust.

Love the plants too, especially those fern-like ones...

Andrew.

Thanks for the nice comments guys, I wanted to go for something different and didn't want to make another Hambleden or lose its scenic qualities.

I will run the live steam locos with their slomos so no high speed running involved, but also have a couple of RC battery locos to fit the Welsh slate scene, with slate wagons and Quarrymans coaches etc.

The orange rust effect comes from washing the rust powder with copper sulphate solution. This activates the rusting effect within hours rather than days. If it's too orange, I tone it down with dilute washes of matt black or dark brown. I often leave the stock outside in the rain which I think improves the overall rusty effect.

The pictures were taken during lockdown last year. The layout has fared well over the winter and I will try to take some updated photos very soon. The whole layout and plants are ageing well, spreading into one another, covering the baseboard joins and generally look much better than when first planted.

My three favourites are the Thyme which is very tough and spreads well: Arenaria Balearica which has tiny leaves, spreads well amongst the other plants and has masses of tiny white flowers, although these are a little overscale: Finally, various varieties of Leptinella which is what produces all the fern like leaves. There are many others which perhaps I will detail some other time.

steveh99 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 6:13 pm There are many others which perhaps I will detail some other time.

Please do.
We do actually have a thread called Plants for Garden Railways.
https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... ts#p149564

steveh99 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 6:13 pm The orange rust effect comes from washing the rust powder with copper sulphate solution. This activates the rusting effect within hours rather than days. If it's too orange, I tone it down with dilute washes of matt black or dark brown. I often leave the stock outside in the rain which I think improves the overall rusty effect.

Brilliant, thank you! I'll head down to my nearest Copper Sulphate vendor soon... I'm using vinegar to activate the powder, but it only seems to have a limited effect.

Andrew.

I get mine from Amazon, you can get a large bag of crystals for about £6 I don't find vinegar acidic enough, although I am told drain unblocker works better.

Andrew wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 7:56 am

steveh99 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 6:13 pm The orange rust effect comes from washing the rust powder with copper sulphate solution. This activates the rusting effect within hours rather than days. If it's too orange, I tone it down with dilute washes of matt black or dark brown. I often leave the stock outside in the rain which I think improves the overall rusty effect.

Brilliant, thank you! I'll head down to my nearest Copper Sulphate vendor soon... I'm using vinegar to activate the powder, but it only seems to have a limited effect.
Andrew.

I've successfully used Scenic Rust, but it's quite expensive. This is presumably a lot cheaper (and is probably what they use).

Rik