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the Dorking Garden Railway


Andrew
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We had fun in the spring sunshine today with trains from visitors Geoff and Josh, and also the debut of my new Rebuilt West Country class loco "Ottery St Mary".

First it was Tornado who took to the rails, seen here on Foxdale Bank:

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Then, the second Class 67 to visit the Dorking Garden Railway, this one sporting DB Schenker Maple Leaf livery on a relief train of Virgin Mk3 coaches:

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We then took a quick trip to Germany where we saw this 2-8-2T on a local train somewhere in the Black Forest...

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After that, it was just Bulleid Bliss, as Ottery St Mary made light work of an 11 coach train:

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And then Clan Line joined in the fun and we had the delight of double-headed Bulleid power.  What a way to spend the afternoon!

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Hi Andrew , nice lot of pics especially the German Tank loco, I have the same one in Piko , what brand is the 2-8-2 tank,  did the Germans have bigger than the 2-8-2 tank locos very nice loco indeed.

Keep the pics flowing, I can't wait to run my first train on my layout a while yet.

 

Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead.

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Hi Tony, 

yes the Germans had bigger e. g. 

Class 95, the Mountain Queen, 2-10-2

or

Class 96, 0-8-8-0

or

Class 85, the Hell's Valley Queen, 2-10-2

and many more, also high-speed-tank-locos for 175km/h...

 

Thomas

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  • 3 weeks later...

There have always been plans for expanding the railway - for the past four years!

Meanwhile, David H came round yesterday with some more of his German rolling stock.

 

A 2-10-0 makes light work of this rural passenger service

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2-10-0 showing its rear end

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A pair of 2-6-2s with an express passenger train at Fuchsdale am Rhein

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Who'd be a banker?!

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Blossom time in the Rhineland

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It's always nice when a repair turns out successfully.  A visiting King Arthur Class loco suffered an apparent disaster when the crosshead and slidebar assembly came loose and bent the connecting rod at an alarming angle.  Fine scale TLC and relocating the dislocated parts seems to have done the trick, and this morning 30737 "King Uther" celebrated a swift return to the rails, hauling 11 coaches with ease, including the SR bogie utility van I bought at yesterday's excellent Crawley club exhibition in Horsham.

 

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Andrew, read this thread start to finish and really impressed with what you have achieved.....

A couple of questions. Your baseboards seem to have taken the elements very well, despite what looks like minimal protection - what timber did you use and what treatment have they had?

Are you running DC or DCC? It looks as you are reliant on soldering across joints for continuity - is this the case or have you got a hidden bus wire and droppers?

I live in hope of making a start on a small garden OO this year and looking for as many tips as I can get!!

 

Ian.

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19 hours ago, UKNN said:

Your baseboards seem to have taken the elements very well, despite what looks like minimal protection - what timber did you use and what treatment have they had?

Are you running DC or DCC? It looks as you are reliant on soldering across joints for continuity - is this the case or have you got a hidden bus wire and droppers?

I live in hope of making a start on a small garden OO this year and looking for as many tips as I can get!!

 

Ian.

Thanks, Ian.  All the timber was given a couple of coats of Creocote, whether previously treated or not.  Some were pressure-treated decking boards (but make sure they have a smooth side, not grooves on both!) and the rest were recycled bookshelves or whatever came to hand.  That said, after five years some of the boards are starting to suffer a bit of slow rot, but will do for a while yet.  The whole layout would benefit from another dose of Creocote in situ.  The main problem has been warping on curves, so on any new/replacement sections I'm making them double layer timber, well screwed together to encourage them to stay flat.  The advantage of timber is you can easily work it, pin the track to it, and the weathered colour is pretty good.

There are no bus wires, just the rail-end jumpers, but either option should give the same result.  This seems to work for DC and DCC, depending on which locos I want to run.  The controller plug/socket into the track uses four connections (it's a 5-pin DIN) for two separate track sections and controllers in DC, but the plug for the DCC controller joins the two sections as the whole layout should be on a common supply.  Obviously the conventional wisdom is correct in that you can't 'mix' DC and DCC supplies - but a relatively simple layout can use them perfectly satisfactorily at different times.

Good luck with your construction.  Time flies, so you need to get started ASAP!

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Morning Andrew, wow I wish I knew how you did your wiring technic earlier no bus wiring that extra added expense, thought of just jumping the track  join with soldering  wire to each rail, so you  don't have any drop outs anywhere on your layout, what I was worried about having such a big layout any hints how you did the wiring??., I also bought rotary switches to switch the blocks and one position for DCC do just have one DC controller, my old train club I used to belong to, when they plugged in the DCC it over ride the DC of course when I asked them how they did it, didn't give out any secrets.

I like the idea of pulling out the DC trannie and plugging in the DCC , is that what you are doing safer way to go, one day make the change to DCC, DCC decoders are DC friend these days, I have a 10 car TGV set that has DCC on board and a Bachman DD40AX loco.

Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The layout is working out nicely and all your little thymes on the slope really add a lot to the overall look. I am very jealous that I don;t have any real land features to work with.

Loved the DB loco pulling the Virgin coaches. ARe all your DB loco visitors, or do you have some of your own now? Or by Visitor, did you only mean they were not Brit Stock? I had assumed a friend had brought them by for some running.

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Thanks for the complimentary remarks about the railway, TGB. 

The British Class 67 loco is in DB Schenker 'maple leaf' livery because it's owned by the German company, although it lives and runs only in the UK.  Both the 67 and all the real German stuff (as in 'runs in Germany') belong to friends, so you're right that they just show up from time to time.  Genug?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Geoff and Josh came round yesterday and we had another great day running a wide variety of trains in the sunshine.

To begin with, here's "Tornado" on Foxdale Bank with an excursion train of a full rake of nine Pullman cars.

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Here is a Class 08 diesel shunter in post-privatisation EWS livery at Throstlebeck Sidings.  Almost a thousand of these locos were build in the decade from 1952, and many still survive in service.

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Staying with the contemporary railway, here's a Class 92 electric freight loco, built to handle traffic to and through the Channel Tunnel and now seen in GBRF livery:

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Looking across the Pond, the Norfolk and Western Railroad had its roots (and most of its original routes) in Virginia and West Virginia, with tentacles stretching to Maryland, North Carolina and Kentucky.  Here Bo-Bo diesel 6504 hauls a few freight cars along a shortline towards the junction to connect with a long distance train.

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Finally, West Country Class 34045 "Ottery St Mary" appears first with another Pullman excursion and then with regular expresses in the 1950s or '60s:

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Having added some internal partitions in an old Hornby sleeping car (recently acquired from eBay), the DGR sleeping car fleet has increased by 50 per cent. So the offer of being able to spend Fathers Day “doing just what I wanted” meant the chance to run a service of the kind that, with various portions added or subtracted en route, used to operate between London and Fort William in western Scotland.

Goods trains have been neglected on the DGR recently, so the opportunity was taken to make amends. A combination of poor speed control on the elderly Hornby Dublo 8F and poor riding by some of the “Made in Wales” wagons meant it wasn’t a particularly rewarding experience, but at least there are a few photos below.

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Rounding Sycamore Curve on a sunny morning in the Highlands

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The DGR sleeping car fleet

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Enjoying the attractions of Fathers Day:

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Goods train on Foxdale Bank

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8F on Northern Viaduct

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8F and goods train passing Throstlebeck Sidings

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  • 3 weeks later...

Passenger trains weren't often hauled by Class 9F freight locos in the normal course of events (except on the Somerset and Dorset line), but here are some shots of just such a rare working.  The mixed coaching stock suggests an inter-regional working of some sort.

My video of another 9F hauled passenger train (made in 2013) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzP2KSfBppw

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The sleeper train to Fort William, in the charge of a BR Standard Class 4MT instead of the usual Black 5, rounds Sycamore Curve.

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Here crossing Foxdale Bank

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And here a ray of early morning sun catches the locomotive and stirs the sleeping passengers with thoughts of breakfast at Fort William

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The Central Wales Line is a very scenic route that runs from Shrewsbury to near Swansea.  It belonged to the LNWR and then the LMS, and despite being transferred to the Western Region after nationalisation it continued to feature steam locomotives with an LMS flavour, as well as BR Standards, not to mention plenty of ex-GWR pannier tanks.

I came across these old photos from the 1950s and '60s (taken yesterday!) which show a bit of the line's atmosphere.

A BR Standard Class 4MT tank loco (with pre-1955 crest) on a pick up goods train.

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A local passenger train.

 

 

The remaining pictures are of an ex-LMS 8F loco on a freight train.

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Hi Andrew, is that what your layout is modelled on the scenic route in Wales, very nice country as you say, seen a few train docos from Wales and the guy that does the British  Great Rail Journeys a couple of docos  back he visited Wales, at the moment he is doing Europe on a Tuesday night an hour and Britain on a Friday night SBS, you may be able to access the docos on Aussie SBS on demand.in the net.

Love your maroon coaches the second post, how many coaches was the steamy pulling , I have 11, and  are those cheap ones going to replace the bogies, because I have a set of blue and coaches and no problems running them a mixture of Bachmann and Lima.

Any one having any problems with hitting the entre key  on a  lap top when I do I lose the line I just typed pain some times the whole post and have to start again.

Keep the pics flowing and video as well, I be a while yet fingers crossed end of the year and a test run of the front modules end of July, had a set back in June.

Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

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