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Hello from Ilkeston Derbyshire


TotonRelayGang
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Hello everyone.

Am Ray from Ilkeston Derbyshire.

We had a large attic oo gauge railway but a couple of years ago had to have a new roof on house, and the railway had to go.

Been toying with the idea of a garden railway for a few years and i know run all DCC engines.

got a 20 x 20 area i can use which is paved patio or 80' stright up the garden.

Not sure as yet.

As for the user name i used to work for BR when i left the navy and was on the PW relasying gang 2x and also a track machineman.

Regards

Ray

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Hello Ilkeston, welcome to the forum from Chesterfield :)

If you used to work on the P.W then building an outdoor layout will be a doddle! It's just like the real thing only smaller (obviously!) foundations to put in, drainage to consider, weather proofing electrical stuff, and then general maintenance as time goes along, only now you don't have to set up a "possession" or make sure you hand it back on time! :lol:

I have to pop over to Ilkeston on Thursday to Malc's Models for some Kadee couplings, I used to be able to get them in Sheffield which is a lot closer but the shop closed down :(

Only other thing is we like lots of photo's /video so we can see what you are up to, ok?

All the best for now Nige.

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Hi Ray - delighted you've decided to join us so welcome to the forum.

As Nige says, if you're used to working on the real thing then you shouldn't encounter too many problems building a model railway outdoors. There are plenty of us on here who have already made the mistakes so you won't have to.

I would encourage you to plan things thoroughly before you begin and don't try to cut any corners if you want reliable running. There are a lot of things you can get away with indoors that simply won't work well out in the garden. A weatherproof and level base is essential and there'll be lots of soldering to ensure electrical continuity throughout. A weatherproof shed or other outbuilding is handy to act as a station or fiddleyard so you're not continually adding and removing stock from the tracks. You may already have something suitable? Gradients have to be taken into consideration outdoors as few of us have a perfectly level garden. In my opinion it's best to overcome them rather than try to follow them, especially if you're planning on lengthy trains. Level track would be my advice.

I'm not sure just how much progress you'll be able to make at this time of the year. It's often cold and damp but perhaps it will allow you time to plan things out ready for a start once the weather starts to improve and we get longer daylight hours. Take a look over the forum and see how each of us has tackled it in our own particular way and ask as many questions as you like.

Looking forward to seeing things develop.

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