My first garden railway...

voodoopenguin

voodoopenguin

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... will not start for a few months. The house we are buying is still being built and the date we had was the end of February 2017. Hopefully reasonable weather will bring that date forward a bit however it will still be next year. We do visit the site on a regular basis to see any progress and today found that the back garden had been tidied up from the piles of builder's debris. It is much smaller than the third of an acre we previously had but we are thinking of the next 20-30 years and we are not getting any younger. Two similar photos to show the general idea of the plot.

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2.jpg

The garden looks even smaller in the photos! Pictures taken from just inside the neighbour's property, the blue marking on the ground is where their garage will be, the wall of which will be our boundary. The garage is 10' wide and the gap from the back of the garage to the back fence is 21' so I am thinking of putting a 16' x 8' shed in there for some of my other railway. There would be a little access all round. It does seem to slope up to the back fence but I'm thinking I will create a raised bed from sleepers at the back and the railway will thread its way through the plants. To the left will be a loop to return the line back to the shed. The back boundary is 42' wide.

Quite a long posting about a non existent railway which will be my first in this scale but while out today my wife helped me with a possible name which many here seem to think is important.

Paul's
Initial
G
Scale
East
Anglian
Railway

Quite a mouthful but I think it can be shortened.

Paul
 
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Looks a great opportunity. Maybe a retaining wall towards the front to give easy access when the back is feeling a bit 'older'.
 
Got the keys to the new house last Friday and they had turfed the small back garden.

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I had asked them to level the gentle slope towards the back and I would construct a raised bed to deal with the height difference. There are 20 of those new type wooden railway sleepers sitting in the drive ready and the PIGSEAR should run along it. With help from my son-in-law we removed a lot of turf and constructed the base for my toy shed which duly arrived yesterday, 8' x 18'.

2.jpg

The boards on the grass are to protect the newly laid turf and will have to moved around every other day to stop it yellowing. It might look a little strange sticking out sideways but I have a plan! There will be a pergola with walkway underneath running from the garage across the garden bisecting the area so the shed and the back half of the garden will be screened by trellis. Yes, I will provide a gated access!

The shed will contain my toy train collection after suitably insulated and lined. Initially the PIGSEAR will be a single dogbone with one end in the corner on the left, possibly with pond in the middle, and the other end circling behind the shed. A spur will come off that to enter the shed which because of the height will run into storage sidings under the workbench.

That's the theory, let's see how it all progresses.

Paul

Not quite the Norfolk Broads now
 
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Looks a bit like a plan coming together to me.:clap::clap::clap:
 
It is all so neat and tidy, Paul. Looking forward to your progress.
 
Last update was early March so thought I would show the current state although I'm still nowhere near able to run trains yet.

I said that the shed would be disguised with a pergola and I've made reasonable progress but still a fair amount to do and then the planting begins.



Through the trellis going across the garden you might make out the start of the raised bed being made from new sleepers. That's where the trains will be.



Do you want to see in my shed? Sorry about the mess!



On the right you can make out my small exhibition demonstration Tri-ang TT layout as well as that metal bridge I hope to incorporate in the outside layout.



On the left, floor to ceiling and more is my Lima O gauge collection from the 70s and 80s (with the odd bit of Tri-ang Big Big), I will be exhibiting that at Milton Keynes in the summer.



No G scale you might ask. Well apart from a small number of pieces buried in the shed it's all still over at the riverside bungalow we were in for ten months between houses.

Maybe next update will show a train, I do hope so.

Paul

PIGSEAR

Norfolk
 
Just how on earth did you get an armchair into that shed? Anyway it can't be a shed as it looks like my wifes handbag

tardis.gif
 
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