planty
Live steam, battery power
I thought I'd post up a rather long post of my first attempt at a Garden Railway! Let me know what you think.
Where to put a Garden Railway? Well I decided to go for a functional railway that would fit in with an already established garden rather than design a garden round a railway. So the first section would be used to edge a lawn that has an annual habit of encroaching on the flower bed borders! The plan was to use paving slabs to edge a trench, this hopefully would provide some drainage to an area of lawn that gets very damp in winter.
The idea was to fill the trench with gravel to provide a ballast effect, however I didn?t just want to lay the track free floating on top of the gravel and so I laid some treated fence posts chopped into sections in the trench. I could then fix the track in place by screwing down into the wood.
There were a few issues to negotiate (hazards of building round an established garden!). First up were two obstacles in the photo below. To top left of the photo the trench ends, at this point there is a manhole cover for the drains. Whatever went here had to be easily removed. Then in the centre of the photo there?s a gap. This was due to some large roots of the tree to the left, something I didn?t want to move. So for the roots I left a gap and scratch built a small wooden bridge.
For the man hole cover I decided to try my hand at building a mould for a concrete bridge, this would be steady enough to sit on the cover but be easily moved if needed. I built the mould from bits of wood and then for the arches placed two quality street tins in the gaps to get a neat curve. I used some PVA glue to setout some brickwork on one side of the bridge (the other side would be against a fence and thus never seen).
At the other end of the flower bed was a large bush. I didn?t want to chop away too much at the base to provide clearance and so I created a basic tunnel. There was nothing fancy here and in future I may decide to model this a bit better.
The curve behind the bush I decided to build out a little bit and add a set of points, this will allow expansion in future. However at this point I realised the benefits of buying all the material you need in one go as the shade of gravel at B&Q changed leaving me with a two tone effect!
Luckily I found some stock at a later date and so could make amends. The final leg of the track against the fence was not really visible when all the plants and flowers were in bloom so I decided against the difficult job of building a trench behind a number of rose bushes! Instead I wrapped some decking boards in roofing felt (Two plus points of the felt, it ?hid? the boards at the back of the flower bed and also I figure will provide a bit of protection from the elements). These boards were then attached to the fence. Once the track was laid I used more of the gravel brushed in between the track sleepers to add to the ballast effect.
And after a summer of work (the project started at the beginning of June) the first engine got to run on the track, a basic MSS steam engine. Which ended in the first accident as it took a corner a little too fast, caught the bridge and took a fence post with it!
Next project? Well I?m going to look at scratch building a station based on a long gone Yorkshire station in our village of Stanley. This is where the railway gets its name, the old joint line that passed through the village Methley Joint.
Where to put a Garden Railway? Well I decided to go for a functional railway that would fit in with an already established garden rather than design a garden round a railway. So the first section would be used to edge a lawn that has an annual habit of encroaching on the flower bed borders! The plan was to use paving slabs to edge a trench, this hopefully would provide some drainage to an area of lawn that gets very damp in winter.
The idea was to fill the trench with gravel to provide a ballast effect, however I didn?t just want to lay the track free floating on top of the gravel and so I laid some treated fence posts chopped into sections in the trench. I could then fix the track in place by screwing down into the wood.
There were a few issues to negotiate (hazards of building round an established garden!). First up were two obstacles in the photo below. To top left of the photo the trench ends, at this point there is a manhole cover for the drains. Whatever went here had to be easily removed. Then in the centre of the photo there?s a gap. This was due to some large roots of the tree to the left, something I didn?t want to move. So for the roots I left a gap and scratch built a small wooden bridge.
For the man hole cover I decided to try my hand at building a mould for a concrete bridge, this would be steady enough to sit on the cover but be easily moved if needed. I built the mould from bits of wood and then for the arches placed two quality street tins in the gaps to get a neat curve. I used some PVA glue to setout some brickwork on one side of the bridge (the other side would be against a fence and thus never seen).
At the other end of the flower bed was a large bush. I didn?t want to chop away too much at the base to provide clearance and so I created a basic tunnel. There was nothing fancy here and in future I may decide to model this a bit better.
The curve behind the bush I decided to build out a little bit and add a set of points, this will allow expansion in future. However at this point I realised the benefits of buying all the material you need in one go as the shade of gravel at B&Q changed leaving me with a two tone effect!
Luckily I found some stock at a later date and so could make amends. The final leg of the track against the fence was not really visible when all the plants and flowers were in bloom so I decided against the difficult job of building a trench behind a number of rose bushes! Instead I wrapped some decking boards in roofing felt (Two plus points of the felt, it ?hid? the boards at the back of the flower bed and also I figure will provide a bit of protection from the elements). These boards were then attached to the fence. Once the track was laid I used more of the gravel brushed in between the track sleepers to add to the ballast effect.
And after a summer of work (the project started at the beginning of June) the first engine got to run on the track, a basic MSS steam engine. Which ended in the first accident as it took a corner a little too fast, caught the bridge and took a fence post with it!
Next project? Well I?m going to look at scratch building a station based on a long gone Yorkshire station in our village of Stanley. This is where the railway gets its name, the old joint line that passed through the village Methley Joint.
