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DianeTape

DianeTape

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Hi.
I am a novice G scale modeller, but I have a life times experience in other scales and gauges, I have modelled in T, Z, N, OO,OO9, On30 and O, I am currently building a garden railway in my back garden on raised beds, but it is one step forward and 2 steps back, I laid my track but then came the heavy rainstorms and the soil in my raised bed compressed and compacted leading to subsidence of up to 4 inches in places and a lot of my ballast was washed away, I am in the process of lifting, levelling and relaying my track but as the weather changes I have less opportunity to work in my garden, but I am working as often as weather and health allows (I have COPD) by the way I am divorced 72 years old and live on my own with my dog (an 8-year-old CKCS who is a rescued dog)
Back Garden2+.jpg
This is the plan of my back garden and Blassen-Hugel Gartenbahn a freelance European meter gauge narrow gauge railway using LGB equipment currently track powered locos 7 in number, but I have stared converting to RC battery power, I may consider live steam eventually.
WhatsApp Image 2025-09-08 at 14.09.06_dec89487.jpg
This was the pre rainstorm build.
 
Welcome @DianeTape , that is a very nice neat looking setup you are building.
I am also building a raised bed railway, running battery R/C trains.
I waited a few months after filling (our winter wet season) before laying track and roadbed, after a few hiccups things seem pretty stable now.
I used a mix of broken up concrete, bricks, soil, sand and leftover roadbase as fill. Mostly broken up concrete and sub soil.
You can speed up the settling in by watering the beds with a hose (if its not raining much) and then just top up the gravel on top as it sinks in.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing how your line develops.
 
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Welcome, Diane. That:s a very neat setup you have.

I think you may be in East Dereham or thereabouts from the title of your thread?
 
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Welcome to the Forum! That looks to be a tidy set-up, with your track plan showing scope for some enjoyable running. After the long dry spell that we've had, you'll probably suffer some subsidence in your raised beds if they are new. Hopefully they will settle soon, although the roadbed will need ongoing maintenance/topping up over time.
 
Welcome to the forum Diane, not sure that soil in raised beds a very good solution for putting track on. In my raised beds I had concrete foundations with blocks and the track laid on cut paving slabs-no subsidence (you can see how I built it in the blue link to my build below, look at earlier pages). However next to that where there was soil I later put in a concrete area for a road and buildings on top of the soil. That has had to be redone at least 3 times since 2013 due to the soil sinking! Not sure how you can go forwards, possibly with plastic decking screwed under your existing top planks every foot or so with plastic decking for your track then you could plant in the gaps if that is your wish. If not the stones would hide the cross decking till it all sinks again.
 
Welcome Diane, soil is always going to move for one reason or another, if it has significant clay content it will shrink when dry and swell when wet. Granular materials will compact. Movement can also result from creatures (e.g. ants).
 
Welcome to the forum Di....
 
DianeTape said:
Hi.
I am a novice G scale modeller, but I have a life times experience in other scales and gauges, I have modelled in T, Z, N, OO,OO9, On30 and O, I am currently building a garden railway in my back garden on raised beds, but it is one step forward and 2 steps back, I laid my track but then came the heavy rainstorms and the soil in my raised bed compressed and compacted leading to subsidence of up to 4 inches in places and a lot of my ballast was washed away, I am in the process of lifting, levelling and relaying my track but as the weather changes I have less opportunity to work in my garden, but I am working as often as weather and health allows (I have COPD) by the way I am divorced 72 years old and live on my own with my dog (an 8-year-old CKCS who is a rescued dog)
View attachment 347827
This is the plan of my back garden and Blassen-Hugel Gartenbahn a freelance European meter gauge narrow gauge railway using LGB equipment currently track powered locos 7 in number, but I have stared converting to RC battery power, I may consider live steam eventually.
View attachment 347828
This was the pre rainstorm build.
Click to expand...

I applaud your ambition, but your somewhat tight curves are going to limit your choice of live-steam, to 0-4-0 configuration - or maybe Garratts, Fairlies or Pechots.
 
Welcome, Diane. Looks like a promising start. I will be interested to see how your line develops.

Rik
 
Greetings from teeny-tiny land, the one that time forgot. The layout you have planned looks like it will be fun to operate and having everything to hand is an advantage. I'm interested to know how the bridge is connected and operated. I had my railway on the ground but I was younger then so a raised layout is appealing, again I'm not an expert but perhaps having the subsidence now might be a good thing after all if it happened when things were getting permanent it would be a tad distressing.
Forgive anyone who says anything against our delightful sense of humour, we really are all sensible and grown up.
Have fun!
 
Oh and ignore @tac foley as you can run an 0-6-0 like my beloved LGB Corpet-Louvet. Oh how I wish I hadn't sold my grey one, so quintessentially French and gorgeous. I had a green one too but the grey...

376621.jpg
 
pugwash said:
Greetings from teeny-tiny land, the one that time forgot. The layout you have planned looks like it will be fun to operate and having everything to hand is an advantage. I'm interested to know how the bridge is connected and operated. I had my railway on the ground but I was younger then so a raised layout is appealing, again I'm not an expert but perhaps having the subsidence now might be a good thing after all if it happened when things were getting permanent it would be a tad distressing.
Forgive anyone who says anything against our delightful sense of humour, we really are all sensible and grown up.
Have fun!
Click to expand...
The bridge is a lift out feature with power leads connected to the rails, the tail is connected to the main bus with a waterproof plug and socket.
 
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