Llareggub Light Railway

[Huw Jones]

So after announcing myself I thought I would start my own gallery of the work I'm doing on our garden railway as it materialises out of the flowerbeds that SWMBO has green lit for train purposes!

This is the main return loop on the line. Originally the idea was for it to run within the width of the flowerbed but that was before I even had track, and WAY before I had started doing proper research into G-Scale. Because of the 1.2m diameter of even the tightest LGB curves this necessitated the extension boards built out over the slate garden path, but thankfully they do blend in reasonably well with the deck-board steps to the summerhouse (inside which is mains electricity, and is where the trains will be run from) and management hasn't complained! They are also over engineered to allow me to be able crawl over them to access track, and to make sure that our 18.5kg monster two and a half year old can't do any damage to them.
The sidings in the middle are intended to be a little loco shed, and the sidings at the rear are for storage of rolling stock........
I'm unsure at the moment if I'm going to leave the points as hand operated or electrically via point motors.

Moving down the line we have the little passing loop which I'm going to turn into a little halt called 'Spike's Halt' because one of our cats likes to sleep in the flowerbed at this point during the summer months. I'm hoping it should allow one train to lap the circuit and then another take over when it makes its way back around.

Finally we have the jungle!
This has been a dead space in our garden for years and has basically become a dumping ground behind our oil tank for all manner of left overs from various garden projects and for our plastic garden furniture that only comes out when we have large gatherings and we don't have enough wooden furniture!
I've already given the conifer a serious haircut to allow passage of trains underneath it, and the intention is to build an identical loop down this end to return trains to the summerhouse end once more. I want to try and build a tunnel down this end just to make the run a touch more interesting, and hopefully keep some of the dirt off the tracks.

It's all going down onto tanalised boards and I'm hoping my usual over-engineering of things will keep things running well for many years to come.

 

[3Valve]

Excellent start mate.

 

[Huw Jones]

And so the work continues on the Llaregub Light Railway!

Initial track laying for the return loop in place to enable me to get an idea of where to build the timber substructures.

The return loop in place

Tricksy bit of angled board work in place

Track down for the loop, and work done on more boards for the rest of the track.........the straight track coming back from the fence to the trackbed will be a bridge once I get round to getting it built.

And the start of my bridge to return the track from the fence to the trackbed. It will be painted in ebony Cuprinol once I've done a lot more work on it so its prepped for living in the great outdoors. It looks a touch wonky because one side of the bridge is 1cm shorter than the other to fit it into the space properly, and the track base is 3 bits of tanalised baton screwed and glued together to resist warping.

And with thanks to eBay Mike I now also have a live steam loco so I have something to play with as we'll as my two and half year old son!

 

[pugwash]

If I were you I would buy or borrow a large piece of rolling stock and check the clearance at the bottom loop because from the photos it looks as though the fence is too close to the track.
Also I would at least motorise the points for the sidings at the top end, they are going to be difficult to get to especially if you build an engine shed in the middle.
Just suggestions as these things are more easily done before everything gets bolted into place, otherwise I like it

 

[stockers]

Sounds like good advice Pugs. Looks a bit tight from here.

 

[Huw Jones]

Thanks guys.

No intention to use anything larger than what I currently have, and all of the rolling stock I have passes the fence without any issues. The only thing that gets close is the gas lever on Ruby if I have the burner turned up bit.

All the curves are R1 so anything larger (ie bogie coaches) are not going to go around those tight corners easily anyway.

Been hard at work today though

 

[Huw Jones]

Todays carpentry!

Tidied up the top end of the track where 'Ruby' decided to launch herself off on her second firing, and now have facia boards on the front edge of the entire length. These act to finish the railway nicely, and will also hold the ballast in place once I get round to that after I've sorted out the electrical gremlins (LGB R1 points are NOT isolating, so I'm going to need some plastic fishplates and a couple of little switches to isolate my engine shed and station halt)

Finally spent the last vestiges of daylight working on the bridge for the railway...........

Rather pleased with that as it completely came from my own mind and came together rather nicely in the end.
Now to paint it with Cuprinol ebony paint to protect it from the elements and then it's ready to take the place of the plank I have in position currently. Once in situ I can screw down the last couple of bits of track and start considering ballasting the whole lot.

 

[Huw Jones]

Well progress is being made!

Carpentry finished off last week, and this weekend I've finally got round to ballasting my track work so it's starting to look meant now.

The black square up by the summerhouse will eventually have a loco shed built over it so we can store a loco or two in there when they're not running. I've got all my isolated sections sorted now so any electric locos can be stored in the sidings whilst another is on the tracks.