H&MGR, a family railway in NZ

[Martino]

Superb John. Thank you. Great inspiration.
he tereina anaana toto .

 

[duncan1_9_8_4]

The road looks very good, is it stable once laid, or does it wash away at all? Its given me some ideas.

 

[JRinTawa]

The road looks very good, is it stable once laid, or does it wash away at all? Its given me some ideas.

Hi Duncan, sorry for slow reply. The crushed lime is more stable than sand but is soft when initally laid but goes quite hard in not to much time. The length of time is as much a factor of how much compaction you give it when laying. Hope that helps.

Meanwhile this past weekend Sunday was battery power day, mostly the Dubs A and the O&K and it's Binnie skip train.

SWMBO had her workmates around for a "garden party" so it was appropriate to run the O&K as it, in theory, is her loco ;-)

The sawmill was in place to dress the railway up

Not that I think most, if any of the visitors really had a close look...but I did!

 

[JRinTawa]

It was a beaut warm and sunny day.

Trains ran long after the visitors had gone

Perhaps the favourite pic of the day.

 

[JRinTawa]

Monday was a public holiday in NZ so it would have been silly not to have made use of more sun and warmth and be out on the railway won't it Track powered hadn't been used for quite some months, so after a quick wipe down of the track with a damp cloth wrapped around a block of wood two of H&M's loco's test it out with no problems. And just to check if it's true that track powered locos can't run with/after live steam Otto had a run.

Otto had a good run then the girls locos ran again. Perhaps I'm lucky, but as done previously there was not problems with track power - excellent.
Meanwhile more of Otto (I was doing other things around the railway (including eating tea) while the track power was in use so no photos of them sorry).

Otto is a fun loco, fiddley to light and get the burner to settle but once sorted it just runs and runs

Some nice new angles over the level crossing etc install recently under Junction Bridge.

 

[stockers]

Brilliant - I am very much a steam engine person. Love the O.K. and the Dubs together.

 

[AustrianNG]

I can't decide which of these photos is my favorite.
The crossing under the bridge is one of those pictures which is the epitome of a narrow gauge railway.

 

[PhilP]

Just keep the pictures coming..
T'was a tad chilly this am for the papers, and it got through to me a little.. - Think I am over tired ATM.

There is something about the light in your pictures. That and the fact my garden 'squelches' as I walk on it at the moment.

 

[duncan1_9_8_4]

Crushed Lime..... Can we buy that in the UK?

 

[stockers]

I think it will be called limestone here - and yes you can. Lime is a fine white powder for farmers to reduce acidity in fields.

 

[JRinTawa]

I think it will be called limestone here - and yes you can. Lime is a fine white powder for farmers to reduce acidity in fields.

Alan is quite correct, it's crushed limestone, crushed to effectively a very course sand rather than dolomite lime used as fertilizer.

 

[G-force1]

Limestone is available in various sizes. A suitable one might be '5mm to dust'. The dust part will effectivly set hard, but can be broken up and reused. Commonly it is used under slabs or paviors.

 

[Gavin Sowry]

JR hosted a running day on Valentines Day. While we await the report on the day's events, here's a teaser

 

[Gavin Sowry]

 

[GNB]

I really enjoy the atmosphere of your NZ images and the way the canopy filters the light to produce an ethereal quality giving rise to a very atmospheric effect.

It enhances the scale and excellent detail of the layout and the improved image handling of the new website really allows your images to pop out of the page. Wonderful!

If it's not too much trouble please could you occasionally give some detail of the planting scheme. The garden layout looks a little like some of the gardens in the West coast of Scotland.

 

[JRinTawa]

I really enjoy the atmosphere of your NZ images and the way the canopy filters the light to produce an ethereal quality giving rise to a very atmospheric effect.

It enhances the scale and excellent detail of the layout and the improved image handling of the new website really allows your images to pop out of the page. Wonderful!

If it's not too much trouble please could you occasionally give some detail of the planting scheme. The garden layout looks a little like some of the gardens in the West coast of Scotland.

Thanks
Hmm as for the planting scheme, well it's been 10 years of trial and error with Mother Nature's contribution having more success than me. Lots of self seeded NZ natives like Pittosporum and Lancewood. Some get thinned out before they get to big, some like the Pittosporums can be trimmed to almost be kept in control. Our soil is a very thin layer of poor clayey topsoil over full on undraining clay. Add to that most of the garden being in semi to full shade from the over hanging apple trees, silver birches and a couple of Rhododendrons choice if introduced planting has been limited. Successes have been Cuphea, dwarf small leaf (and evergreen here) fushia "Lottie Hobby" and another similar I forget the name. Also Buxus (box) has provide some background planting. Down around the sawmill area which gets a bit more sun I've had some success with a number of dwarf and miniature conifers, though a couple have failed after not making root growth progress into the clay. On the embankment Leptinella 'Platt's Black' has done well. I now in some other railways Leptinella can get a bit rampant but in our poor soils is fine. I had a form of baby tears to but even on our railway it gets out of control easily.
Hope that helps.

 

[JRinTawa]

Right update time. Lots been happening but the highlight was hosting two layout tour visits of small scale modellers in Wellington for the bi-annual model railway convention. The feed back was real encouraging and with the help of fellow WGRG member Chris Drowley running some of his live steamers I think (hope) we left the right impression of garden railways on the visitors. It was very busy at time so sadly I didn't get any photos of Chris's steamies, these photos from before and after visitors on Sunday.
The Dubs A circulated all afternoon in amongst Chris's steamies...

Manawanui posing at the sawmill (to diffcult for me to explain the railway and run a steamie at the same time ;-) )

The sawmill saw much inspection.

and

 

[JRinTawa]

Now some over view photos initally a general view of the junction and level crossings area.

Standing up by the aviary at the south end of the railway. The track at the bottom left of the photo leads to the elevated reverse loop which is to my left as I stood taking the photo.

Heading up to stand to the right of the apple tree in the centre of the above photo and looking down into the main railway. Note the fence and deck to left of frame.

Standing on the said deck looking back south. The reverse loop is at right of frame in the distance. You can just see Chris's back as he gets a loco ready in the steaming bay.

This last photo may give you and idea of the slope of our many terraced section

 

[JRinTawa]

I lied, I did get a photo of one of Chris's steamies. A Regner vincent

Punga Cliffs was a hive of activity

The Climax posed marshaling log bogies on the log loading siding.

The Bush Jigger plus the Simplex with a few skips completed the scene.

All up a fun couple of afternoon, with much thanks for the help Chris gave me

 

[Martino]

Brilliant John. Thank you.