Garden Railway Forum

Hi everyone,

As I'm sure you've guessed I'm rebuilding my railway once again but hopefully this time it will be permanent and just the way I want it (see as now I have more track and other cool stuff)
But my real reason for rebuilding the line is I have a new live steam accucraft loco and larger stock which requires the use of larger radius curves which is all fair enough I suppose

I'm sure quite a few of you have been keeping up to date with my dismantling my old railway on facebook so pretty much my garden now looks like this

And as you can see I've also creosoted the fence! looks nice I think well what ever.

The new plan is well to rebuild the railway wider to accommodate the large radius curves and build it lower to the ground so it's just a mater of stepping over the line rather than before which tended to either hurt the umm between the legs getting over the line or fall in the mud attempting to get under the railway... moving on this has the added advantage I can easily blend the railway in with the rest of the rather bare garden and a possible tunnel in the lawn which I think would be cool!

A few ideas on which are I think I got abit of 12'' diameter pipe off cut left over which should be fine for the task. seeing as my arms are longer than most I think I could get away with a 4' or 5' tunnel and this has the advantage that I could just run around the railway easily with the lawn mower to cut the grass. should just be a simple task of digging a few holes and inserting the pipe then burrying it.

Construction is as like the rest all still in the planning stage but seeing as laying blocks, concrete and all this business is out of the question (I don't think it would go down to well and I know very little about it) I've got this idea about using metposts and 3'' x 3'' uprights to support the gravelboard and track. besides I've got most of the wood I need left over from the old railway and I'm more of a carpenter.


I'm still having a long think and still making drawings like the engineer I am, coming up with solutions to problems
I will post more updates soon.

Cheers, Reece

Drainage will be "interesting" as will adjusting sloping section levels to take account of settlement. Are you going single or double track? Having been this route with a twin track plus sidings commercial layout, easily adjustable levels are definitely the best way to go. Tube uprights, angle formed T piece and single horseshoe clamp makes this a doddle - even when full reach width is used. Basically scaffolding pole sliced to length with angle grinder, one and a half inch angle for brackets and exhaust style clamps make a fully engineered but very simple base. Easily adjustable in minutes with a spanner and level.

Hello all,

I've done some more drawings, ideas and plans.
I can always make lots of plans since I have an almost unlimited supply of paper and ideas

The railway is going to be single track for most of the way around apart from a passing loop in the station.
I've also come up with some more ideas on going about building the tunnel too.

I quite like the idea of a short tunnel just out from the station leading into the TMD area.


And a basic free hand drawn track plan to give and idea

This will probably be suitable for my needs and I can easily add to it in the future. It has plenty of sidings for storing my long rakes of IP wagons and an area for storing my locos. I've sort of got an idea for the future of putting a covered steaming up area in the corner behind the shed but this won't materialize until much later when I've built the railway - indicated by the dotted lines.

I will go out into the garden to mark where a suitable level for the railway will go and see if I can accommodate the tunnel I wish to add, this will also give me the opportunity to measure up the garden and make a to scale plan.

Cheers, Reece