Garden Railway Forum

OK...This will be very infrequent fits and starts as family life/work/fiances/motivation waxes and wanes

The theme for my Garden Railway has always been the never built but proposed narrow-gauge line across Gower.
Previously envisaged in a garden just over 20ft Square.

Now having moved to a garden not far off 200ft x 40ft, my mind was completely blown I couldn't work in such a vast open space. So I chose to look at our gravel.'patio' area.
This is a roughly 'L' shaped patch, the longer side being 35''x16' and the small adjacent section being 10'x 23' (attached scribbles will give the idea).
The basic plan is to retain the patio square, to have a loop around it,leading to a smaller loop to the side with a central 'terminus' a sort of kidney bean shaped uncompleted fig. 8.

Sounds intriguing.

Anyone care to take bets on how long it will be before the head of steel / nickel silver starts snaking off into that wide green yonder ....

Rik

Stumpysdad wrote: ↑Sat Jul 02, 2022 7:21 am OK...This will be very infrequent fits and starts as family life/work/fiances/motivation waxes and wanes

How many fiances do you have??!

Looks like a good space, and a good design too - in many ways I think the continuous run that also allows "out-and-back" is the best track pkan for the garden - I think it's what I'd opt for if I had the space. I look forward to updates!

All the best,

Andrew.

Andrew wrote: ↑Mon Jul 04, 2022 9:50 am

Stumpysdad wrote: ↑Sat Jul 02, 2022 7:21 am OK...This will be very infrequent fits and starts as family life/work/fiances/motivation waxes and wanes

How many fiances do you have??!

I missed that .....

Rik

I missed that too! I reckon I'll.leave it though

Well the ongoing thought process is...
Railway on a stick!
Broadly level.. Fencepost spikes/postcrete supported fence post, close to ground level (to maintain a level run heights will range from a 3-4" to around 24-30", supporting a timber frame work with ply/moisture restart osb deck. Mostly single track, some passing loops, maybe a sector plate/traverser release for the terminus (to save space and points are now really expensive), long locos will have to be released by pilot loco, or 0-5-0 shunter if I'm not feeling precious!
Possibly dig out an operating trench close to the central terminus, any suggestios on how to stop this becoming a quagmire?

Stumpysdad wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 12:54 pm ............. long locos will have to be released by pilot loco, or 0-5-0 shunter
Possibly dig out an operating trench close to the central terminus, any suggestios on how to stop this becoming a quagmire?

I do like quirky models and have a 0-2-0 locomotive myself... .
So your 0-5-0 shunter sounds interesting! Do you have a picture please?

Also, in one of your threads I mentioned the Carmarthenshire rain which falls on Carmarthenshire clay turning it into the texture of cawl (quagmire). Unless you have a way of draining it I fear it will be inevitable. If you can excavate below the clay perhaps a soak-away will suffice?

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 2:09 pm
Also, in one of your threads I mentioned the Carmarthenshire rain which falls on Carmarthenshire clay turning it into the texture of cawl (quagmire). Unless you have a way of draining it I fear it will be inevitable. If you can excavate below the clay perhaps a soak-away will suffice?

Whilst I can't speak for Carmarthernshire clay, I can confirm that Northamptonshire clay behaves exactly as Peter suggests.
Unless you can provide some sort of permanent drainage, you really should forget this particular idea, I'm afraid.

Just to illustrate my point, here is a picture of a pond we dug at home.... just a hole, no liner, only clay....
. .
Have you considered moving?

Ahh I thought everyone knew what a 0-5-0 shunter was...

That's handy!........................... I'll get my coat!

That´s clearly the NTSHFTS (not-to-scale-hand-from-the-skies) which is often seen on layouts when visitors are present.
Hardly appears when no-one is watching.

An early version of digital control?

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 5:12 pm An early version of digital control?