Hello from Lancashire

[Allegheny1600]

Hello All,

I just happened upon this forum by chance earlier today and thought "00"? "in the garden"? That sounds interesting, what a good idea!

So, a quick look around and here I am! Some of you may have heard of me before as I am on quite a few forums, all "indoor" based jobs though. I have many times contemplated an outdoor line but always in the larger scales. I do like to chop and change my interests and it gets stupidly expensive to do that in the big scales, which is why I had settled on 16.5mm gauge track. I run a mix of 4 and 3.5mm scales as I like trains from all over the world.

My name is John Edge, I am about 50 y.o. married with no kids but three cats! The wife and I are both big cat lovers, we have two Bengal girls  (sisters) who are now 13 and one Greek boy who is three and a bit. The cats may actually make it easier for me to go outdoors as they have a large cat pen and associated run, this is due to an adjacent busy road, far safer for the cats!

Untitled by Allegheny1633, on Flickr

This is the main part of the cat run in an uncompleted state, last summer. It is now finished and has a connecting "tunnel" that is about as long again and reaches back to the house. The "tunnel" is actually a mesh covered walkway that is between 3 and 4 feet in elevation. I have been thinking that it would not take much to attach a slim "plank" upon which to run a model railway, to the outside of all the feline constructions. In fact the cats would probably chase the trains! Everything would of course be physically separated by wire mesh, paws cannot reach through to cause any derailments. 

What do folk think, please?

Cheers,

John.

[mick]

HI John and firstly, welcome to the forum.

That's the first time I've ever seen a cat pen and it looks like they've got plenty of space in there. I understand your concerns over their safety close to a busy road as we lost one of our two cats many years ago when the roads were much quieter than they are today.

Well I hope what you've read on the forum so far has convinced you that OO in the garden is possible? Clearly if you think it's 'a good idea' then we've already won you over.

It can be very frustrating at times but providing you follow a few sensible guidelines then you shouldn't have too many problems. The main concern is the weather which restricts the amount of time we can spend out there. It also tries it's very best to undo all the good work we've done so it's a constant battle to gain the upper hand. Despite that, if I had the choice of indoor or outdoor layout I would certainly choose the latter simply because it looks so much more natural.

I look forward to seeing how you get one if you do indeed decide to proceed.

Mick

[Allegheny1600]

Ahem!

Hello again, Mick and everyone!

 I see that it’s been some six plus years (!) since I introduced myself on here, heavens.

Well, I didn’t get my outdoor railway started unfortunately, I did start again in my “big shed” that was just out of view in the above picture but then, so many things happened and nothing was completed.

 I guess first thing was that my beloved mother in law died after a long illness, I had been helping my wife, Bev and her dad, look after MiL but I wasn’t prepared for the deep after effects of her passing away, it really affected Bev. Ultimately it ended up with my wife and I emigrating to Greece.

This was after our Bengal girls had both passed away but we still had our Peanut to take with us, despite the trip being very traumatic for him.

We sold the house that is sort of pictured above and left just prior to the major lockdown in November 2020 and landed at our rental apartment just before Greece also went into lockdown! That was much more strictly controlled than the UK ones and lasted until the following April 2021.

Only after this could we start looking for a property or land and after a few false starts, we finally bought some land, probably around December 2021 when it became officially ours. We had decided that existing properties just weren’t what we wanted so we would have our house built  - as a “flat pack” type of house.

What happened next was we found that the prices quoted by the suppliers for such houses were only the start of things, the “add on’s” were worse than with a luxury German car! We had to scale down our original plans but it was still feasible, just, but then a certain Mr Putin decided to invade his neighbour and that caused the prices of all raw materials to increase such that we simply couldn’t afford to continue.

Well, we had also inherited half a bungalow back in England as my Father in Law had also passed away due to complications with Covid and other things and my wife and her brother were the beneficiaries of FiL’s estate. We had the option of starting over in the UK, cutting our losses in Greece or trying to continue there with increasing expenses and almost zero income (for many other reasons) giving us the certainty of running out of cash within a certain time.

As it was rather a no brainer, we decided to call it a day and return to the UK. We sold our Greek car and the land at a bit of a loss but it was worth it otherwise these things could have been hanging over our heads for years to come. All our possessions were shipped back to England again, most had never been unpacked.

We landed back in England about a year ago now and tried to settle in but unfortunately, despite the bungalow being Bev’s childhood home, she just couldn’t settle, it is quite small and poorly laid out with no real possibility of changing it to how we want so we have to move again! Currently, I’m working on the bungalow to make it saleable so hopefully, by the end of this year, we may have somewhere that will allow us both to get settled down in and we can take up our hobbies again.

We will never afford such a large house and garden as we had previously in England and certainly nothing like what we almost had in Greece but if we can get something with a half decent garden and room for a garden room, maybe I can do an indoor/outdoor layout that will give me the length of run I crave.

Fingers crossed!

John.

[Clay Mills Junction]

Hi John,

Sorry to hear you and your wife have had a tough few years and I hope your building of a new life goes better and you find somewhere that suits your needs with space for a garden railway.

I suppose the only thing I can advise, I guess if you were willing to up-sticks to Greece that you aren't tied to a particular area of the UK, that there are areas of the UK you can get a lot more for your money than other areas.

Best wishes,
Barry.

[mick]

Hi John

It's good to hear from you again though it sounds like you've been on quite some journey since your initial post. I'm sorry to hear that things haven't worked out as you had intended but I certainly admire you and your wife for attempting to start a new life, especially in another country. I'm sure that at a certain point in our lives we all entertain similar ideas though perhaps only a very few are brave enough to take the plunge.  My particular interest would have been to have a narrowboat and just cruise the rivers and canals but after watching YouTube videos of those who have already done so I'm not so sure anymore! I think it's far better to have the security of your own home with all its conveniences and just go walking along the towpaths.

Anyway, I hope your circumstances improve quickly and you are able to find a home that's suitable for you both. Looking forward to hearing that the railway is a goer!