Planning a new garden railway

[kedwards]

I may be kidding myself but I'm intending to start work on my new railway later this year. The photo above shows the canvas I have to work with. I've got a rough idea in my head of the route the line will take through the garden. I intend to lay roughly half as single track and half as double track. You may remember that my previous railway, the Sandwell Valley Railway, was the film set for my Thomas the Tank Engine videos. Having half single and half double track will allow me to film both main line and branch line scenes. I've also decided where the stations will be situated. As I'm not really a railway buff I could do with some help with station layouts that will give both operating potential for open days and also be interesting film sets with sidings, goods sheds, engine sheds, cattle docks, head shunts (whatever they are) and so on. I would be very grateful if any of you could supply either photos or plans of stations to fire up my imagination and help me with my planning. Thanks in anticipation. Keith

 

[PhilP]

Yeah! The return of 'Caver Keith'!

You could do a lot worse, than have a nosey at:

Peckforton Light Railway

Narrow gauge large scale model garden railway. Battery powered, radio controlled locomotives, some Bluetooth. Set in Cheshire UK in 1930s

riksrailway.blogspot.com

Amongst others..

Enjoy!
PhilP.

 

[dunnyrail]

My build may also give you some inspiration linked below. Though German style the layouts are pretty generic for single line stations.

 

[kedwards]

Thanks Phil and Jon for the links. Lots of stuff to look through with both railways. I'll let you know how I get on. Keith

 

[justme igor]

It is of course a personal preference regarding your station, and there are a lot of differences in taste:
But if i may suggest the "old" central station of Krakow Poland.
Why old: last time i was there it was closed, my polish is not up to date, but i could understand something of renovation or demolition and build a new one.
The central station of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, could be something? The build of this station was somewhere before 1900.
Or my other personal favor the old wild west stations especially from once upon a time in the west, probably that will be the only scenery in my garden

I have drawings of the track lay out from Amsterdam Central dated from 1932.... somewhere.....
In n scale layout it would be 9 meters total, incl ashpit coal ect
I hope i could tribute something.

 

[dennishodge]

I have nothing to offer but excitement and appreciation! I loved a look of the look of your old garden and railway and was inspired by your videos and blog to purchase an overabundance of Thomas and Friends locomotives which I enjoy with my two sons aged 6 and 2 (though the little one calls Thomas "Percy"). Two years later I am still in the prototype and design phase of the outdoor railway.

I wish you the best and look forward to what you come up with!

- Dennis

 

[kedwards]

I have nothing to offer but excitement and appreciation! I loved a look of the look of your old garden and railway and was inspired by your videos and blog to purchase an overabundance of Thomas and Friends locomotives which I enjoy with my two sons aged 6 and 2 (though the little one calls Thomas "Percy"). Two years later I am still in the prototype and design phase of the outdoor railway.

Thanks Dennis for your kind words. I had been making good progress in the garden but work has stopped as I have developed very painful sciatica. Hopefully I will be able to begin work again in a couple of weeks. I will be posting to my blog as soon as I begin work on the railway.

 

[playmofire]

Thanks Dennis for your kind words. I had been making good progress in the garden but work has stopped as I have developed very painful sciatica. Hopefully I will be able to begin work again in a couple of weeks. I will be posting to my blog as soon as I begin work on the railway.

I wish you a speedy recovery and look forward to following your blog. May I suggest that for the branch line station and buildings the old style Playmobil buildings might work. You can see some here, some made up in low relief and others in full.

Edit, 12:00 26/04 Replacement of "loom" in first sentence to "look".

 

[Jasper]

I had been making good progress in the garden but work has stopped as I have developed very painful sciatica.

Owwww.... Good luck and be careful.

 

[kedwards]

I have recently posted some provisional plans for the track layout of my new railway to my blog at A New Railway. Any observations, comments or suggestions for improvement would be gratefully received. Any resemblance of Wychbold Station to Bulkeley Station on Rik's Peckforton Light Railway is purely intentional. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I hope Rik doesn't Mind.

 

[dennishodge]

How very interesting! I like the idea that you've treated your garden layout as a series of vignettes or movie "sets" that each have interest and purpose. It has a "real" feel to it vs. my experience as I go about planning on my own space, where devolves to "how can I add X additional stuff into it without being awkward?" My space is a bit cramped by existing geography so I don't know how much separation I can get though. unless you cut out some of that junk you wanted to add, Dennis.

I've always thought G scale trains looked fabulous carving a gentle "S" curve through a landscape. You have some nice stretches there. What is the overall approximate length and width of the railway area? Mine is also on a perimeter of a foot travel area, about 40' x 40'.

The good news for your narrow/standard mix is that the Bachmann TTTE stuff is approximately standard gauge bodies on meter gauge chassis. So at least your stations and buildings can just exist in 1:22.5 or similar. I love British standard gauge locomotives and someday imagine a Gauge II standard gauge line next to my IIm/G scale layout.

Keep us posted! I'm excited to learn from this

 

[kedwards]

How very interesting! I like the idea that you've treated your garden layout as a series of vignettes or movie "sets" that each have interest and purpose.

That's exactly the aim. The plan is still evolving. We're still discussing where we could position a pond and possibly a stream. There is a slight natural depression in the lawn which we are examining. If we decide to put it there then the quarry line could be repositioned to run round it and through a tunnel in a rockery. That would have great video potential.

I've always thought G scale trains looked fabulous carving a gentle "S" curve through a landscape. You have some nice stretches there. What is the overall approximate length and width of the railway area? Mine is also on a perimeter of a foot travel area, about 40' x 40'.

I couldn't agree more. I do love seeing trains progress through a natural landscape. The garden is about 100' long and 60' wide. The area covered by the railway will be around 62' x 34'.

The good news for your narrow/standard mix is that the Bachmann TTTE stuff is approximately standard gauge bodies on meter gauge chassis. So at least your stations and buildings can just exist in 1:22.5 or similar.

This did seem to work quite well on my previous railway.

Keep us posted! I'm excited to learn from this

I will keep everyone posted but I'm not so sure there will be much to learn except perhaps from my mistakes.

Meanwhile I've added a few photos of my garden to my blog. Here's the link - The Garden - Just Add Track

 

[Paradise]

I've never seen a red Stainzgarrattmeyer before. Plenty of purple ones but never a red one.
I often watch your Thomas YouTube videos and admire the lovely garden setting you had.
I'm sure the new place will be transformed into something spectacular. Great 'canvas' to start with.

The Garden - Just Add Track

 

[Madman]

I like your track plan.

 

[kedwards]

I've never seen a red Stainzgarrattmeyer before. Plenty of purple ones but never a red one.
I often watch your Thomas YouTube videos and admire the lovely garden setting you had.
I'm sure the new place will be transformed into something spectacular. Great 'canvas' to start with.

The Garratt is one of my favourite locos. I broke it quite badly a few years ago but it's now fixed and converted to battery and radio control.
Thanks for your kind words about the SVR. I'm hoping this railway will be as good.

 

[kedwards]

I like your track plan.

Thanks. I haven't started track laying yet and we've already started tweaking it. We're thinking of relocating the quarry and running the line around a pond. I'll sketch up a provisional design in the next few days.

 

[dunnyrail]

The Garratt is one of my favourite locos. I broke it quite badly a few years ago but it's now fixed and converted to battery and radio control.
Thanks for your kind words about the SVR. I'm hoping this railway will be as good.

We like Battery Radio Control here in the nits. Ok so can we have some details of the system please, sound etc?

 

[kedwards]

We like Battery Radio Control here in the nits. Ok so can we have some details of the system please, sound etc?

Hi,
The details of the conversion can be found on my blog. I posted how I did the conversion in March 2016. Here's the link - The Wychbold and Stoke Prior Railway
Keith

 

[Paradise]

Hi,
The details of the conversion can be found on my blog. I posted how I did the conversion in March 2016. Here's the link - The Wychbold and Stoke Prior Railway
Keith

So it is a true Garratt then. I could not see that the rear bunker was separate from the cab in the first image I saw therefore assumed the rear engine swiveled beneath the bunker like on a Meyer.

 

[dunnyrail]

Hi,
The details of the conversion can be found on my blog. I posted how I did the conversion in March 2016. Here's the link - The Wychbold and Stoke Prior Railway
Keith

Never ceases to surprise me how difficult it can be in our scale to get all the gear stuffed in to whatever space there is. Not sure if you have any more to Batteryize but my Piko 25 Ton Loco may give you some ideas, particularly how I used a Tank on the footplate for Charging Socket and on/off switch.