Leaderboard

nearing completion ok my skills not not great but it will do with just a bit of 60git to sand it flat just need to cut some keys stones now to complete a 50 mm gap in span 7 of the viaduct

Here's a very brief video made up of clips taken during yesterday's running session, the final clip showing the train passing over the sprung points before crossing onto Low Shott viaduct.

Selection of clips with the few mineral wagons I have running on the Garden Railway. Must invest in some more freight wagons! I have also started making some false floors for the wagons with coal loads on top. I'll show these in a future video. No progress yet with the platforms. Link to my You Tube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYmxyrVYHbKF0NODKlqzh6A?view_as=subscriber

It's quite a pleasant change to be outside with trains running round and be under no pressure to chase after them with a video camera. Not that I would have had much opportunity today anyway with messing around changing couplings and rummaging around indoors trying to find coaches I know I've got but can't remember where I put them. But at least I've now got one 11 coach rake of BR Mk1 Pullman's together and all now fitted with inner close couplings and kadee's at either end. I'm not sure they will see much service outdoors as the indoor stations on Worsley Dale can't handle a train

More pics.

Had a first attempt at weathering a wagon. Pretty pleased with it. I used some soft pastels which created a dry dust, mixing orange, brown and grey then a mix of burnt umber and Payne’s grey Acrylic paints dry brushed. The coal load was made along the lines as described in Model Rail June 2020 using a false bottom and some black cork granules that look like coal fixed with PVA glue slightly watered down. There are a couple of nuts embedded so I can remove with a magnet.

Here's a few more updated pics, I've been trying to work away over lockdown on the landscaping, 30 bags of soil went in to the main section to bring it up to a higher level, I had a garden gazebo that had been wrecked by high winds so I cut the patterned curves from it and painted them with hammerite to make the bridges. They probably aren't perfect scale wise but I think they look quite good. Been plodding away all summer when I get a moment, planted a few plants in the rockery so it's getting there..

Strange Cargo at Northdown Junction This curious object was recently seen on a Lowmac. Is it perhaps a prototype Korean deep diving bathysphere? Nope! It was of course Josh's 360 degree camera ready to record full details of the DGR circuit. On the following video you can swivel the field of view by tilting your device or using the mouse. Quite fun to give it a try:

So, where was I, oh yes, last time I'd really put any update on here was shortly after rebuilding the main station, Pentney Parkway, well, since then a lot has happened. I decided that I didn't want to progress the station any further, eg platforms and lighting, until I had a suitable way of protecting it from the elements (This includes 4 legged incursions!!), or more specifically the rain and leaves from the Willow Tree that the station is under. It was the dear lady wife who, after some deliberation came up with a tarpaulin, fixed to the fence, by hooks but wrapped around a 2"x2" batten at

Like @ba14eagle I've been making the most of the fine weather today by spending time in and around the garden layout. I seem to have been through the sorting out of stock stage many times already but today was another day for that and now that I've got a good selection of locomotives I want to get the coaches together in suitable rakes so that I have easy access to them and don't have to worry about taking them out of individual boxes. The standard rakes of blue/grey Mk1's, Mk2's etc are fairly straightforward as are the Kyle line and West Highland green & cream sets but occasionally

Some freight action, captured today, at Summer Hampton.

hi all am currently building a oo scale garden railway, its mainly in raised bed but has some features inspired by some of you.

It's been a while but I had Worsley Dale up and running again yesterday albeit with a very limited roster. Almost all of the stock had been removed from the layout for safe keeping while I've been enjoying following other interests and so only a couple of loco's were brought back out in order to run some of the new Heljan Cargowaggons. Typically, I'd previously sold several Cargowaggons a few years ago believing that they wouldn't fit in with my plans at the time, but then looking at videos of the later EWS period it seems they would have had a place after all! Anyway, I now have five of

Been a while, hope you are all well. The Z21 arrived today so we can finally run a few trains around at the same time. Impressed with the system so far and I've managed to set up the supplied router as an extender for our home WiFi which means I don't have to manually connect to the Z21 network and now have home WiFi coverage in the garden.

Yes I have Dave but I'm pretty happy with the results you can get from the Hornby model and I don't see what benefit I could possibly get from changing. There's also the fact that the Cavalex models are priced at £89 for sets of three wagons, so that's more or less £30 per wagon, or approx £1,000 per set! Ouch!! The amount of detail they are able to include these days makes them more display models rather than models for running on your layout. I think I'm better with something I can stick some coal into, spray some paint over, and generally hack about to meet my needs. I hope these

Belmond British Pullman in the Surrey Hills In normal times this luxury day excursion train is often hauled by Merchant Navy class engine "Clan Line", lovingly polished into gleaming condition. During periods of high fire risk, most of the tractive effort is provided by a Class 67 diesel running as the train engine, with the Bulleid sauntering along as pilot with little effort. These photos were taken near Dorking on one such trip, although no-one attached the headboard that day. Northdown Junction Running along the Downs

Oh yes they're extremely generous with the size of the opening which is why I never used them on the garden layout. They were much better suited to the smaller radius curves up in the attic.

At long last the bridge constructing is finished other than sand the top of the arch square and tiding up the underneath of the arch ready for painting, it has being a long while since I started this thread , March 2018 with different designs till I came up with this one . Yes it is a heavy bridge bridge to move on my own from where it is in the garage, I plan to make a small trolley that will clip in underneath the bridge. The bridge still is call the Cam river bridge after my late son, since Camdale was renamed, bridge has a 14 foot main span with a height of 6 foot from water lin

Give me an hour or so and I'll let you know if I've still got mine. I used to have 2 as I was going to use them myself but then changed my mind but I can't remember whether I let them go or whether I've put them to one side. I'll get back to you. EDIT: Oh damn, I forgot - mine are double tunnel mouths!

My dad said glue the track to the felt, then remove the pins holding the felt and place aluminium bar down the side with slots in for the few fastenings needed to allow the felt to slide. which if my small bits don't work out then i will have a look at doing as the. The track is mostly decoupled from the plastic, but i would need to keep to set track to keep by geometry neat any tidy. Overall i think the plastic might be ok as a deck as per Duncan's work on a wooden lader but the plastic on plastic ladder is a no and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone going forward.

As most of you will have gathered I'm not much of a rail enthusiast so I tend to model what I like rather than what I probably should. I don't worry too much about running stock together that probably never came close to meeting each other during their life times but I do take notice if anything is ever pointed out to me. I might decide not to do anything about it but there again I might on occasion heed the advice. One of the comments on my YouTube feed pointed out that, as nice as it looks, 47715 Haymarket wasn't fitted with the buffer beam ETH sockets as I had portrayed it and the corr

I just used this stuff and have noticed the expansion and contraction is a bit more than track pin breaking. In the day time it expands a lot opening gaps in the track. Then at night when cooler shinks so the track expansion gaps disappear buckling the track until it warms up again. Am going to try some methods to fix the issue, this being ensure the plastic base has gaps every 300mm on the straights, and ensuring my track peices are cut into half yards to spread the movement across more joints. I will see how i get on

Well congratulations to you both on your anniversary today! Model railway layouts can take up an awful lot of room and not just the layout itself - there's all the boxes and boxes of stock to go with it. Integrating your layout into the garden is a good compromise. Even with the two viaducts on my layout visitors rarely notice it's actually a model railway running round the garden. It adheres to the perimeter more or less and you don't need to step over it to access the garden itself. I believe a large majority of modellers look upon a garden railway as a last resort after discovering the

Virgin Trains When Virgin Trains used Pendolino electric units for their West Coast Main Line franchise they also had a full rake of MK3 coaches including DVT as a standby set (known as WB64). In 2011 Virgin Trains started hauling this set with Class 90 locomotives hired in from Freightliner, and this arrangement lasted until the operations ceased in late 2014. More details here: http://www.class90electriclocogroup.co.uk/virgin_trains.html This is what it looked like (you have to imagine the OHL equipment):

From my limited experience scaffolding boards are ok but tend to bow width ways, great for water drainage but not much else! Scaffolding, decking or just plain floor boards are great for doing long lengths but need plenty of bracing to stop warping every which way. According to Ebay (other action sites are avaliable) you can get scaffolding boards for as little as £1 each the problem being that you have to collect them, so you can guarantee the nearest to you are 100 miles away ! As l have said l use pallet wood as slats screwed to a brace. Yes they may not provide a perfect flat surface but

Look forward to see your update in due course Noel. The BR Mk1 Pullman's behind Loch Arkaig in yesterday's video were coupled together straight from the box in order to quickly make a suitable rake. Viewing the video I noticed the large gap between coaches which I decided to sort out today and so the tension locks have been removed and replaced with the R8220 close-couplers that I've used on a number of coaches already - in fact believe it or not I was even able to remember the Hornby catalogue number without needing to look it up! I've had to file down a small portion of bufferbeam to al

I've uploaded another video with footage taken today. The bright and breezy conditions made capturing decent footage difficult with plenty of distortion from the wind noise so there's action from inside the shed area too where it was a bit calmer, though not so bright. There's a full cold start-up sequence from 37248 'Loch Arkaig' at the beginning which takes up the first 60 seconds or so but it's really nice to listen to - well perhaps for the one time it might be! I suppose it might grind a bit after a while so apologies if it does. You can always skip the first minute should you choose

Hi Marcus My ground level section running between the two viaducts was initially on a base of exterior plywood screwed to concrete footings with a layer of roofing felt in-between which I hoped would keep some of the moisture rising from below. The plywood actually warped between the spots I had screwed down leading to slight humps and hollows in the track which I found really annoying when looking back over video captures. Hopefully yours will be better screwed directly to a timber base rather than my perhaps not so level footings. A garden layout is a continual learning process an

Evening all, I'm Chris from sunny (well, sometimes) south Devon and I'm currently in the middle of building my first garden railway for my little lad who is 4 this year. A quick bit about me I suppose. My father and I built a 00 gauge layout in my bedroom when I was about 8, we then moved to the loft and expanded. We moved to Devon and again started a project in the loft this time switching to DCC. Years have flown by! We were just getting to the scenery part of the loft then I moved out, got married and had a little dude with another on the way. My son is MAD on trains and with

Nice weathering Steve and a very realistic coal load. The embedded nut idea I'd not heard of before but I'm sure it would be a great help in removing the loads enabling you to run loaded and/or empty. The simplest ideas are usually the best.

Its been a while since I ran any trains, so today I was determind to change that! Remember my "bored in lockdown" purchase of some On30 from Hattons? Well, I was determind to try and get the loco working and I did to a point. I don', t think the chassis likes my railway much, plus, I think its quite worn, meaning it has pick up issues, in places. Also, the longer you run it, the less it wants to pull up the inclines. So, I will be trying to sell it on. I do like On30 stock, so this might not be my last foray into this scale, but next time I will buy some more serious models. Also, my Horn

I've had a good day out on the layout today and managed to run the loco's I've recently been working on as well as give a quick outing to a few new wagons Unfortunately 37254 has been erratic, stalling at the same two locations on almost every circuit. It seems like it's got a problem with the pickups so perhaps there's a connection come unsoldered or I've not put it back together properly. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about and I'll have it up and running well soon. It's very smooth once it's in motion. D6607 'Ben Cruachan' has been on track again today hauling blue/grey Mk1's. Ve

Thanks John, Yes, the Warship is one of my old locos from when I was (much) younger!! I spent yesterday doing the return loop under the conifer trees, so I'm making progress. I'm trying to make the layout quite generic so I can run UK, European and even North American and Australian stock with subtle changes in buildings etc.

Hello Stephen, I can see you've put some real hard work in there, it looks great. There's nothing like seeing the trains going round in natural daylight, is there? Cheers, John. PS I was like you - joined years ago then forgot about it!

I run with JMRI, but with a NCE PowerCab as the command station. Old phones as throttles and an old iPad as the signal box. I run it on it's own wifi network provided by a retired broadband router now living in the shed. No problems with signal range or interference from traffic on the home wifi. It all works well and friends can join the network with their phones and get driving. Handy in these COVID times when you don't want to be handing things around.

Providing you've done all you can to construct your garden layout to a satisfactory standard, there are two main tasks that need to be undertaken regularly in order to achieve reliable operation. One is to ensure that the rails are kept clean and the other is to ensure that the wheels of your locomotives and rolling stock are also clean. A garden layout and its rolling stock requires much more frequent cleaning than an equivalent indoor layout, especially if your garden attracts lots of wildlife, all of which seem to enjoy depositing their business along your tracks. Cleaning the rails is

Instead of laboriously painting wooden parts, I tried a new method, the entire wooden component is laminated in a thin, self-adhesive plastic film.

Hello everybody! My layout also went a little further. However, I had to change the tunnel entrance in the northeast corner and change the position of the junction with the many switches in the garden. But you can already see how it will go on. Best Regards Thomas

Having a very tight budget l used pallets on my original section, some most of which are still I use. I found it hard to get them apart so in the end l cut them up and used them as slats rather than length wise, screwed or nailed on to 6ft treated 2 x1 and covered in felt. Cheap and cheerful. BUT, the problems. I had support posts at the end of the 6ft lengths which meant the boards could sag in the middle, not all pallets are the same thickness so you may have to be careful, wood quality varies too and l have had the odd exposed bit rot very quickly. You can even use the block pieces glued

Oops, I did it again...

Hi Mike I don't want to put you off, but if you are going to get more than 1 or 2 years from your railway, you need to buy quality materials - this doesn't come cheaply! Hence why, many people on here will tell you to do a little bit at a time - what you can afford, when you can afford it. I think i'm right in saying, most people who use timber for their trackbed, also cover & seal it, to prevent as little moisture to get into it, as possible. This involves roofing felt, mastics / glues or bitumen - all things that add to the cost. Personally, I make things completely solid, usin

A 1.5 minute video of the King

Hi Steve - thank you for your comments. I believe the blocks are approx 440mm high standing on end. I wouldn't think they would be quite so sturdy if you were to stand one on top of another but I added additional height to maintain a level track base by building part of my viaduct on top of a raised block wall. Here's that section under construction: Perhaps something like that would be suitable for you? It's certainly a decent height for accessing easily. The individual blocks are not quite wide enough for double tracks but that gives you the opportunity to build two viad

Some running today

Thanks for the replies, the above storage looks great and is something I'll definitely look into over next few weeks. I decided against putting points on the the layout , still a relative novice at it and it was my first time using flexi track, so felt I had enough on my plate without adding points. Theres still a few wee parts of track that cause the odd problem with certain coaches and locos but hopefully I'll get them sorted over time. As I want my kids and nephew to be able to enjoy it I'm using hornby select controllers too, I find they offer enough dcc control without being o

A fabulous FREMO day Yesterday I was privileged to be able to help out the British FREMO section as they ran a layout operating session in Sussex. This modular approach to HO layouts uses the FREMO specification which is extremely popular among our European neighbours. It means anyone can build compatible modules which can be combined into an ambitious layout for a running day, or as this was, a weekend. For each get-together, someone has to mastermind designing the layout from all the modules on offer. Then, rolling stock is added to the mix, everything is zapped off for further mag