Bredebahn
Cinema, Garden Railway, Private Flying (licenced p
Well, I did ask the question. My old railway, the Bredebahn, is awaiting reincarnation as the BredeOstBahn since we moved house two years ago. The Bredebahn had been in existence from 2001 to 2008 and had developed in that time from a basic starter set running around a circle in my conservatory, to quite a nice sized railway running down the side of my garden.
So to those that kindly responded, I will do my best over the next few weeks to post up a pictorial potted history of the former Bredebahn.....
We start in the Year 2001.......
Our back garden in the new house in the village of Broad Oak Brede was some 80 feet in length, and roughly the first 50 feet were used for the railway, circling a fishpond which pre-existed in the undergrowth and taking a strip about 10 feet wide from the side of the garden. I had little previous experience of outdoor model railways and thus the whole process was a combination of skills and guesswork learned from the prototype and from indoor modelling in OO, N and 009. A lot (and I mean a lot!) of lessons were learned along the way; of course, sites such as this and G Scale Mad simply did not exist to lend a hand.
I wanted the Bredebahn to look natural, to fit with its' surroundings, to be a railway in a landscape. I think I partly achieved that objective. A number of visitors who had seen the railway pictured on the web said that they felt that they knew it already when they saw it for real, and I took that as a great compliment. I will leave those that haven't seen it before to make up their own minds.
This is cutting the first sod of the Bredebahn. Difficult to believe that this youngest son of mine is now qualified to sit in the front of your holiday jet and take you away to the sun. And regretfully that our old Jack-Russell Chloe is no longer with us.
The trackbed was marked out on the virgin lawn with a spraycan and then a trench was cut......
The trough was gauged on the width of a housebrick doubled (I told you I had little experience). You try to keep the base of the trench level - hence the minor cutting seen here (which later turned into a tunnel as you will see if you're patient enough to stay with this thread).
This was then filled with bricks, strips of timber glued on top, and filled with sand. The theory being that the track would then be tacked to the timber strips. What a waste of time, sand and bricks! NOTE TO NEW BUILDERS - DO NOT EVEN THINK OF THIS METHOD!
The trail of bricks extends over what became the approach to Honigfallen Station.
You try to keep the track as level as possible. As the lawn started to drop away then I really started to ruin the garden
The concrete is now becoming well established. This was the original turning point for the Bredebahn which was going to form a kind of elongated dogbone - a Radius 1 180 degree curve over a water feature. The water feature is fine - the Radius 1 curve isn't - wasn't. See how this was rapidly eliminated in a future installment. And try to avoid making the same mistake yourself!
A final test train for this initial posting. You have to get trains running at an early stage to maintain enthusiasm (I am told!).
So to those that kindly responded, I will do my best over the next few weeks to post up a pictorial potted history of the former Bredebahn.....
We start in the Year 2001.......
Our back garden in the new house in the village of Broad Oak Brede was some 80 feet in length, and roughly the first 50 feet were used for the railway, circling a fishpond which pre-existed in the undergrowth and taking a strip about 10 feet wide from the side of the garden. I had little previous experience of outdoor model railways and thus the whole process was a combination of skills and guesswork learned from the prototype and from indoor modelling in OO, N and 009. A lot (and I mean a lot!) of lessons were learned along the way; of course, sites such as this and G Scale Mad simply did not exist to lend a hand.
I wanted the Bredebahn to look natural, to fit with its' surroundings, to be a railway in a landscape. I think I partly achieved that objective. A number of visitors who had seen the railway pictured on the web said that they felt that they knew it already when they saw it for real, and I took that as a great compliment. I will leave those that haven't seen it before to make up their own minds.
This is cutting the first sod of the Bredebahn. Difficult to believe that this youngest son of mine is now qualified to sit in the front of your holiday jet and take you away to the sun. And regretfully that our old Jack-Russell Chloe is no longer with us.
The trackbed was marked out on the virgin lawn with a spraycan and then a trench was cut......
The trough was gauged on the width of a housebrick doubled (I told you I had little experience). You try to keep the base of the trench level - hence the minor cutting seen here (which later turned into a tunnel as you will see if you're patient enough to stay with this thread).
This was then filled with bricks, strips of timber glued on top, and filled with sand. The theory being that the track would then be tacked to the timber strips. What a waste of time, sand and bricks! NOTE TO NEW BUILDERS - DO NOT EVEN THINK OF THIS METHOD!
The trail of bricks extends over what became the approach to Honigfallen Station.
You try to keep the track as level as possible. As the lawn started to drop away then I really started to ruin the garden
The concrete is now becoming well established. This was the original turning point for the Bredebahn which was going to form a kind of elongated dogbone - a Radius 1 180 degree curve over a water feature. The water feature is fine - the Radius 1 curve isn't - wasn't. See how this was rapidly eliminated in a future installment. And try to avoid making the same mistake yourself!
A final test train for this initial posting. You have to get trains running at an early stage to maintain enthusiasm (I am told!).
