Garden Railway Forum

Well I am in the middle of pegging and sketching ideas for my first venture into garden railways. The railway will probably be called the SVLR with ideas based on the original SVR, the only difference is that mine will be narrow gauge using SM32 track. I already have 12 yards of flexi and about 12 set curves which should be enough to get going. I was wondering what the steepest incline I could expect to cope with, at the moment I have a couple of meth fired mamods but am hoping to take on board a Ragleth or a Millie some time next year, stock will be a mixture of goods and passenger.

I have 1:40 but for running manual locos I wouldnt want to go steeper than 1:60.

I's much better (and more relaxing operationally) to build a level railway: even if you aim for this, you may well find that gradients my creep im anyway!

My steepest gradient is 1:80 which poses no problems to my Accucraft & Roundhouse locos. I've not run a Mamod round but from experience they like it pretty much level.

I love gradients, as I just like to work my loco's hard (maybe that's why they're always breaking! ) but if you just want to sit back and watch them go round then a flat line is best. A mamod will want the flattest line possible to run on

Mamods basically do not like gradients. You might get away with something shallow - like 1:100 - but any steeper than that and you will have problems given their fiendishly narrow power range.

My Accucraft locos cope with sustained grades of 1:30, but I would have been happier if I could have kept the steepest gradient to 1:50 or 1:60 but the topography of the yard is against me on that point.

Peter in AZ

I think the key is keep it as flat as possible, I quite fancy a crossover with the track going over itself at some point via a bridge, when I have sketched some ideas worth showing I might post them for feedback.

Mamods will cope with some gradients but do prefer it flat, as all locos do. The lines i visit have varying gradients which all my locos will cope with, I think the steepest is around 1 in 35.

I have been having a play with some layouts using Anyrail, this is my preferred phase 1 at the moment.

There is plenty of scope in the garden for further development but initially I think this will be a good starting point.

I have already bought two packs of set curves and a 12 yard pack of flexi track from the Peco SM32 range. IT was dry today so I thought I would lay some of it temporarily to have a play.


Approaching Tawe Uchaf.


Coming into Tawe Uchaf Halt to take on water.


Leaving Tawe Uchaf.


Coming in for some water.


Ready to leave.

Todays time spent playing gave me a lot of food for thought.

Very nice (and I liked the B&W pictures).

One word of caution - allow PLENTY of room between the two tracks....................

The railway st: http://www.eastmidlands.16mm.org.uk/ranby01.html didn't and had a nasty accident.. The usual plea of "well, my stock fits" was NOT accepted on this occasion!

MDLR:63903 wrote:Very nice (and I liked the B&W pictures).

One word of caution - allow PLENTY of room between the two tracks....................

The railway st: http://www.eastmidlands.16mm.org.uk/ranby01.html didn't and had a nasty accident.. The usual plea of "well, my stock fits" was NOT accepted on this occasion!

Thanks for the advice, what sort of distance should I aim for or should I just look at my widest stock and then add a bit?

tegfan railway:63905 wrote:Thanks for the advice, what sort of distance should I aim for or should I just look at my widest stock and then add a bit?

I should look at your widest stock and then add add a clear vehicle's width between them! Better safe than sorry!

The Railway took delivery of its first 'proper' loco this week, an Accucraft Ragleth in black. The engine will be called 'William' after my late father who was the inspiration behind the railway. I have some time off coming up and weather permitting the first phase of track will be going down - can't wait!!

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Congrats on your Ragleth - but your video is coming up as "Secure Video. Log into facebook to see if you have permission etc.
Some of us on here avoid Farcebook and Twatter like the plague!
Why don't you upload to You Tube?

tegfan railway:68076 wrote:The Railway took delivery of its first 'proper' loco this week, an Accucraft Ragleth in black. The engine will be called 'William' after my late father who was the inspiration behind the railway. I have some time off coming up and weather permitting the first phase of track will be going down - can't wait!!

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sadly i can no see you video, any chance of uploading it unto a media that does not require log on?

Well after much reading sketching thinking and pondering - I think I now have a plan! I have just started to mark out phase one in the garden, the shovels come out tomorrow. Here is a picture from my sketchbook of the plan (phase one is about 16 yards to give you an idea of lengths.

Phase one and two make up a continuous loop with hopefully a crossover as my wife wants a bridge/tunnel???

Phase three will be a single track spur off to what I hope to be a quarry type feature.

Phase four (not drawn) will come off at the top end with a bridge over the pond and down to the patio.

My plan after seeing the so many ways of laying track is to set dense concrete blocks in place on sharp sand sunk to the required level. The track will be screwed direct to these and then ballast cosmetically on top. I was initially going to lay the blocks on concrete but have been told sharp sand will be good enough. Any views or ideas would be very useful!

I do like your plans, What sort of bridge are you making? Gradients have a big part in your railway have you considered how you are going to control your loco (manual/RC)

My advice would be to make the gradients as gentle as possible and try to avoid a curve directly from a downward gradient. As that is the most lightly cause of derailments.

Sir Clothem Cap:68973 wrote:I do like your plans, What sort of bridge are you making? Gradients have a big part in your railway have you considered how you are going to control your loco (manual/RC)

      My advice would be to make the gradients as gentle as possible and try to avoid a curve directly from a downward gradient. As that is the most lightly cause of derailments.

Agreed being doing some sums to work out the gradients involved and I think I am going to make it level especially as I have some non RC mamods!! I think I will still try and get a tunnel in with a rockery type feature on top.

As a fellow Mamod operator that is a good plan, I'd love a bridge but can't due to gradients but don't be put off you could do a high rise loop as well as a lower then have bridges crossing them.

Your wife wants a bridge or a tunnel? It sounds like all of your problems are good ones! I'm afraid there's only one thing MY wife wants: NO RAILWAY!!!

(Just a joke really, she's been indulgently supportive of my rolling-stock building activities, but we don't even have a garden)