Greetings From Darkest Norfolk

[Huw Jones]

Hi all, and a warm hello from what is a very damp Norfolk today.

My name is Huw and I'm rather new to garden railway modeling, although I'm not that new to model railways in general.
I had a rather extensive 00 layout as a kid, and then after University I moved into 009 as I've always had a thing for Narrow Gauge after growing up in Mid-Wales. When I had a health scare the 009 got sold and I spent my money on a fair number of push bikes which I now race every year, and do ridiculous endurance events to raise money for charity (I rode London to Paris in one day last year - 285 miles in a day hurts a little bit!).

However the arrival two and half years ago of our little boy has re-ignited the interest in trains in me, mainly due to him being exceedingly interested in anything mechanical especially trains! This has resulted in a return to 009, and the refinding of my soldering iron for building brass locomotive kits once more, but that doesn't necessarily mean running trains quite yet.

Last year we took our son to the Bure Valley Railway and they have a Thomas The Tank Engine G-Scale layout running at Aylsham Station that our little boy fell in love with, and that got me thinking........
One contact with a 009 Society member later and I had an LGB train set with a little 0-4-0 Porter, truck and caboose, a circle of track, and a pile of 5ft straights. I've added to that with the purchase of another complete circle of track, and 6 LGB points to make some interest for small and big boys alike.

This last weekend I have managed to get more work done on my boards, and I now have track down........

The other end of this track will have another loop to return the trains and that is yet to be built, but when it is I should finally be able to run trains.

Now a few questions.........

1. Electrical connections. I've polished my track ends, and connected everything with Copper grease in the fishplates. However I've read that Peco solder drop lines between each track piece at their outdoor railway in Pecorama and then I've read people here saying that Massoth rail clamps are the way to go? I just thought that rail clamps would stop the track being able to move in warm weather. What's the best way?

2. Ballast. What do people use? I want to ballast the track to make it look as realistic as possible.

3. Buildings. What's the best material for building permanently sited buildings?

4. Tunnels. How do people clean track inside tunnels? I would just like to build a tunnel at the other end of my track to give added interest to our son (and all of our friends kids who are exceedingly eager for me to get this done!) but was trying to work out how the track is kept clean within them.

Hope that's not too overwhelming, and many thanks for anyone who could help.

 

[PhilP]

Welcome!
A very good start.. Many would be envious of that..

Power:
You obviously know about wiring a railway if you had 009 layouts in the past.. I would just bang a couple of wires on, somewhere in the middle, and have a 'play' for a start.
With a starter set, you are analogue, so will need to isolate some of those sidings, and possibly what looks like a passing loop to the right in the picture.

Ballast:
Many use 'pea shingle' from the garden centre, but it is rounded, so does not hold the track. It is also quite large.
Commercial 'ballast' is available, but it would cost a fortune, probably blow away, and be eaten by the local bird population!
Look in the discount sheds (B&M stores, the Range etc.) for bags of fine crushed granite.. Tends to come in 10kg bags, at around £1.50 each. Still a bit coarse, but cheap enough.
Others use Postcrete, which is a ready-mix for setting posts in.. - Loose ballast will disappear over time, and need topping up. Glueing it down with 'waterproof' PVA (or varnish??) can help. PVA will go white when wet.

Buildings:
Pola make plastic/resin kits, which are pre-coloured, these last well, and are quite robust.
Concrete is the ultimate. Childproof but expensive.
I suggest only a few structures until little one is older.

Tunnels:
Either only as long as you can reach from each end. A removable top, or access hatch. Try to use a continuous length of track for the main run (so probably limited to five feet). Keep it straight if at all possible.
If you can remove the tunnel mouth, it makes access easier. Block the ends over the winter.

Just my thoughts.. others will totally disagree.. Just wait and see!

 

[stockers]

Welcome to the forum. A great start by the look of things.As with all things there is more than one way to do things but here are some suggestions to your questions.
1. Hook up a wire and get things running. Whilst all is new and shiny, one connection will probably be enough. Rail clamps are good but expensive. Very few people wire up every piece of track. A second and third connection is probably a good idea though.
2. I use grit from the garden center - it is over scale but looks reasonable and does not wash away to quickly. Its about 3 - 5mm
3. Resin kits are good. For scratch building, foam board is easy to cut scribe and handle - glues well too with super glue. It is the stuff 'For Sale' signs are made from. make sure you get plastic coated because there is paper covered available.Its only 3 or 4 mm thick - the thicker stuff may work but is not so easy to handle.
4. A track cleaning block on a stick. Or just stick your arm in the tunnel mouth. Tunnels should not really be longer than you can reach from each tunnel mouth - unless you add some form of access point part way along. Sooner or later you will need to get inside.

Have fun and more pictures please.

 

[Huw Jones]

Thanks ever so much Philp and Stockers.

Damn.......hadn't thought about the points, just assumed they would be insulated when the points were thrown. Hadn't considered them to be live frogs. Going to need a touch more thinking then as I was just hoping to keep everything as analogue as possible to make running trains very easy for small children!

 

[3Valve]

Now a few questions.........

1. Electrical connections. I've polished my track ends, and connected everything with Copper grease in the fishplates. However I've read that Peco solder drop lines between each track piece at their outdoor railway in Pecorama and then I've read people here saying that Massoth rail clamps are the way to go? I just thought that rail clamps would stop the track being able to move in warm weather. What's the best way?

There are many different viewpoints on this one. I used track outdoors with the standard rail joiners(fish-plates) for 9 years at my last place with no issues. Others here have had similar experiences. Quite a few of us (myself included on my current railway) use Massoth rail-clamps. They are very effective and cheap as chips if you want an absolutely robust rail connection. No issues with expansion either (at least in my experience) I think your track preparation (polishing and using copper grease) is absolutely spot on though and you should get a few years running out of the that with very few problems if any.

2. Ballast. What do people use? I want to ballast the track to make it look as realistic as possible.

Good advice from PhilP there. Horticultural grit also seems to be a popular choice. Nice and small, plus it's jagged so holds together well.

3. Buildings. What's the best material for building permanently sited buildings?

Resin or concrete I suppose. There are various suppliers of kits Piko (as PhilP has already mentioned), GRS (British Outline Buildings), Modeltown, Pendle Valley Workshop to name a few. You can do scratch-builds of course from all manner of materials (exterior ply faced with some sort of render; Thermalite blocks, plastic sheet, Corex board, numerous possibilities).

4. Tunnels. How do people clean track inside tunnels? I would just like to build a tunnel at the other end of my track to give added interest to our son (and all of our friends kids who are exceedingly eager for me to get this done!) but was trying to work out how the track is kept clean within them.

Basic rule of thumb on tunnels is no longer than one arms length, and as PhilP says keep a straight single piece run within the tunnel if possible.

Hope that helps

 

[stockers]

One advantage with 'big' trains is that some answers are simple. Use an insulated track joiner in your sidings and just fit a simple on/off switch across the joiner - right at the joiner if you like - no need to run wires everywhere. If you power your points it is quite easy to add a supplementary switch to switch tracks with the motor - but maybe that's getting ahead of ourselves.

 

[3Valve]

Oh another thought on Buildings. Keep an eye out in Charity shops etc for old kids plastic toy buildings (Silvanian Families and the like). Cheap, cheerful, robust and easily adaptable.

 

[playmofire]

Welcome from North Yorkshire. That's a great start with ideas worth borrowing.

Playmobil buildings are also usable with G scale, but tend to be pricey. The old half-timbered houses are the classic approach and were included by LGB in their Big Train Book

 

[Zerogee]

Most G scale points are dead (plastic) frog, BUT not self-isolating.... that's how LGB started out, and everyone else has followed suit! As already mentioned above, it's a simple matter of putting one insulated rail joiner in somewhere, and wiring it back to an on-off switch - in fact Playmobil, back when their train system was DC with LGB rail, made a rather useful little self-contained plastic switch block (search for Playmobil item 4373) that clipped onto the rail and provided both the isolator AND the switch in one - these can still be found quite cheaply second-hand, though I don't know how the little wire spring terminals in them would stand up to permanent outdoor use (they were intended mainly for indoor use with the occasional foray out to the lawn or patio!):
http://www.playmobil.de/stromunterbrecher/4373-A.html

Jon.

 

[Huw Jones]

Thanks Zerogee..........
I was told that the LGB R1 points were self isolating, so maybe I'll have to hook up the built track as far as it goes at the moment and see what happens to 'Rusty' when I apply power to the track.
I need to figure out if I need point motors anyway

 

[3Valve]

Oh another thought on Buildings. Keep an eye out in Charity shops etc for old kids plastic toy buildings (Silvanian Families and the like). Cheap, cheerful, robust and easily adaptable.

Here's en example of what I was talking about re: the kids toys Huw. This was being thrown out by my son as granddaughter hadn't played with it in ages. He was well chuffed when I said I'd take it off his hands. Should only take a little work to make it look more realistic.

 

[Gizzy]

Welcome to the forum Huw.

Just back from Wroxham myself, having been on a boating holiday////

 

[owlpool]

Welcome from the old country

Partly due to the weather we run steam and battery.
I echo the advice about tunnels.

 

[Huw Jones]

The old country
My folks have a siding from Wharf Station in their front garden!
And I'd love to have steam, but sadly those locomotives are ever so slightly very expensive

 

[Trainman 864]

Welcome aboard! - and just to redress the balance of advice in this thread a little bit - it looks like it might not be too late - I would just say two things .....

Go battery power/radio control - you'll save hours and hours messing about with track cleaning - not to mention the joy of just plonking a train on the track on a good day in the middle of winter.

It looks like your track is already raised a little bit - I would say raise it to at least 2 feet if you ever want to have the possibility of running live steam in the future. Save your knees all that scrabbling about on the ground.

Have fun!!! ....

 

[Huw Jones]

Thanks John.

Sadly raising the track base by another foot is going to make it too intrusive (this current plan has been tricky enough getting past SWMBO!) in the garden, plus it will lift it up above easily accessible by little hands as this railway is properly for use by little people as well as adults.

I do actually already have a radio controlled locomotive in one of the Playmobile DMU type things which our little lad adores as he can move the Playmobil people around inside it! I may consider other RC locos in future, but am quite happy playing with an electrified track at the moment as I have a pair of electric locos already. Steam sadly is out due to the horrendous cost of a locomotive

 

[Trainman 864]

Fair enough.

BTW - I recently got the Playmobil No.5258 R/C Freight Train set myself and what a great little loco it is - I can thoroughly recomend it.

 

[ebay mike]

Welcome to Norfolk,, Huw. There aren't many of us in this neck of the woods. Myself and voodoopenguin are at the seaside on the edge of nowhere, about 16 miles east of the BVR. What area are you in? I've got an unfired steamer looking for a new home. Yours for £250.

 

[Huw Jones]

Morning Mike (yes I'm up late dealing with a toddler who's decided to wake up for some reason!).

I'm out by the Norfolk Showground on the border of Norwich so probably a little way away from yourself and Voodoopenguin if you're 16 miles east of the BVR, but nothing's really too far away from anything here in Norfolk is it?

And there was me satisfying myself that I didn't need to worry about steamers because my limited knowledge of G Scale only led me to Roundhouse, and I knew that I wasn't getting much change from £1000 even if I bought one of those in kit form...........I didn't need to see a steamer for your price!
ARGH!!!!!!!

 

[voodoopenguin]

Sorry not to be quicker in greeting another from Norfolk but we are in utter chaos at the moment being in the midst of moving everything out of our house. Then again the delay might be due to jealousy that you as a newcomer to garden railway have managed to lay down a good run already! I'm still waiting for a suitable garden (with attached house) to come on the market.

Paul

Norfolk Broads