mick

Almost there Ken! Does the neighbour share your interest?

I agree. Those photos should give inspiration to anyone contemplating building an OO gauge garden railway. Great to see.

Structurally at a width of 7cm-10cm I can't see that being a problem. I imagine the greatest force on them will be during the actual cutting and that would be my biggest concern so it's going to require a steady hand. As for the piers looking overscale, I wouldn't worry too much about it especially with the viaduct being not very tall. It should look fine.

Here's a 'double act' that will probably see action on both the indoor and outdoor layouts although I can't see me ever purchasing matching WCR coaches. I'll just have to make do with what I have. West Coast Railways 37248 'Loch Arkaig' heads 37669 past Skew Bridge. 37248 has a Jamie Goodman class 37/0 soundfile while 37669 has a Locoman class 37 soundfile, both loco's having Rail Exclusive Chunky Boom Box speakers in their fuel tanks. I have yet to attempt any speed matching with these two, though I was hoping to be able to top and tail with them but I'll see how that goes.

I'm extremely relieved to be able to say that 37114 'Dunrobin Castle' is now almost completed with just some minor detailing still to attend to. It now has the Jamie Goodman class 37/0 soundfile playing through a Rail Exclusive Chunky Boom Box speaker in the fuel tanks which is a massive improvement. To accompany it I have 37012 'Loch Rannoch', also fitted with the same soundfile and speaker combination and again requiring some minor detailing parts fitting before it is fully completed. Both loco's have been weathered and I've also managed to get them running nicely together. I've taken the opportunity to get some photos of the pair on Skew Bridge while hauling a trio of Cavalex BBA wagons to which I will eventually add some 'aluminium ingot' loads. I have 6 of these wagons so may decide to leave the other 3 empty. I've used one of my older class 37 chassis' to produce another dummy 'sound-fitted' loco that can be used for simple double heading with the possibility of alternating the loco body depending on whether or not there are any problems doing so. It's been fitted with a Locoman class 37 sound decoder and the same Rail Exclusive chunky boom box speaker as above.

Nice to hear from you again Thomas and good to see the additional progress you have made. I have to admit once again that, seeing what you've achieved so far, it all looks well beyond my own capabilities and if you'd seen my attempts at constructing just a short river section you would understand why. You're obviously a little behind schedule with everything that's been happening over the past couple of years but have you any idea when you might be reaching completion?

I've done very little additional work on the 'river' beneath the girder bridges as the weather hasn't really been that suitable (and I'm not keen on strong breezes) but I have been busy with some other jobs. Believe it or not I had completely forgotten that my 37114 had already been fitted with a sound decoder until I 'tested it' a few days ago. I hadn't even recorded the fact in my loco database. It's got a Jamie Goodman 37/0 soundfile but with a small square speaker beneath the fan grill which does it very little justice at all. So I'm currently part way through adding a Rail Exclusive 'Chunky Boom Box' speaker in the fuel tanks as I've found that's what works best for me. It does mean I have to remove the ability to manually switch the tail lamps but that's not a problem with how I operate. I have also purchased some additional speakers to upgrade some of my other loco's and have been going through them to determine which are suitable and would benefit the most. It'll be something I do over the coming weeks because I would like to get some of the cleaner ones weathered as I go along, especially while they are already dismantled. If all goes well then I'll have 37114 back in action soon.

No, there's just the boundary fence beyond so the bridges are permanently fixed.

I enjoy taking the photos just as much as I enjoy running the trains so it's nice to have a subject that's close to home! I keep trying different techniques to get sharp, in focus images and that particular one, staged as it is, comprises 12 individual photos blended together, with the focus point being increased with each shot. Fortunately the camera can do that automatically and it just leaves me needing to put the images together using software on the PC. I'm not really sure why I go to so much trouble because my phone camera does a pretty good job without all that messing around. It's pretty shallow yes, but that's not a problem even if it dries out. My pond is a matter of feet away so there's a handy source of water if and when it's needed. It's only going to need water in when it's being filmed/photographed and that's really the main reason for doing it.

It's something I've been meaning to do for quite some time and I've finally made a start but I'm beginning to wish I hadn't. I've always liked the idea of having a bit of water beneath the girder bridges, nothing too grand and certainly not a small pond of any kind, just some standing water. The trouble is my creative flair diminished a long time ago and I'm having difficulty working out what to do with it now. I daren't start chopping away at the central support footings to open it all out so it will just have to be very shallow directly beneath the bridges. I thought about using the angle grinder to cut a channel either side but then decided against so it will have to stay like that. I've got some rubber pond liner that came from a pond we made some years ago which was later filled in so I'll be using that in an attempt to contain some water to the rear of the bridges and to a lesser extent in front once I work ouut how to do it so that it looks okay. I've spent most of the time pondering the situation (procrastinating I think is how Chris refers to it) while doing nothing so don't expect this to be completed anytime soon. I'll add this photo of 26024 with a few oil tanks crossing Low Shott viaduct because it's one I haven't yet added.

Great to see you've been able to make a start Ken and the boards look nice and solid. Getting started is enough to spur you on to making further progress. I didn't respond to the above from your initial post but there's certainly nothing wrong with running exactly what you want to run - it's what I do too. My attic layout is simply 2 ovals, all very low-tech, but allows full length trains which was my main objective. Garden layout is one loop with no real limitation on train length but exactly what I set out to achieve. There's no need for anything too techical in order to enjoy it.

If there's one thing I'm not short of (other than Hornby A4's) it's Bachmann class 37s! However, some of them are a good few years old now and although they're all operational some of them run more smoothly than others so it's just a case of me determining which one(s) would make the best donor(s), taking into consideration the potential for swapping loco bodies around.

37692 and 37698 have been out running again this afternoon still with the PFA wagons in tow only this time, for a short while at least, they were joined by 37419. If you can manage it, having a sound-fitted 'dummy loco' is pretty handy as it can be added to any consist without any problems and there's no need to speed match. I plan on adding another one in the near future once I sort out the best donor to use. The triple header can be seen running in a single clip at the end of the latest video upload.

It wasn't bad at all Barry and action cams exaggerate any slight irregularities with your track but the real railways are like that too. Looking ahead from the cam it all looks pretty straight to me and that view along the track tends to highlight the places where it isn't. Point a camera along any railway line and zoom in and you'll be amazed at what it looks like! I wouldn't worry too much, you're certainly heading in the right direction.

Really good to see something running after all your efforts. Still work to be done of course but that's how we've all started and at least being able to run something, even if it's only across temporary boards in certain places, gives you the motivation to carry on and get more of the layout completed. You've made a great job of the track you've managed to get down and it all looks pretty smooth to me.

Looks like some major work going on there Chris. I assume that you are also doing at least one of the junctions at the same time as the corner board? Save a bit of plywood for the void before something comes a cropper reversing out of Colwick 4!

That does look slightly precarious!

No not at all. I'm probably in the minority when it comes to not being all that concerned about liveries and allocations and to be perfectly honest I'm modelling something in the garden that I know very little (aka nothing) about. I've never been on a train in Scotland in my life but I just try to recreate a sense of the single line through remote surroundings with the reverberations of class 37s!! The attic layout is a slightly different story but even up there ANY class 56, 58, 60 is fair game for the MGR workings, though I don't allow 60s on HTA's as that was after my time. The first steps always the hardest as they say but Iain's right, start with acrylics and you can remove it quite easily if it doesn't please you.

You're not kidding. It doesn't stand up well at all to moisture ingress does it. It can be a real pain having to take everything up to replace the boards beneath but in a way it's the reason we're here because it's also enjoyable. Maintenance shouldn't be a chore it should be fun, a big part of the hobby. I really do enjoy the maintenance part, in fact it's a shame when all the initial construction work comes to an end

You got it! Copper clad.

I actually feel like I'm getting somewhere having spent a good deal of the day weathering more stock. 37254 is a older BR Blue loco that I've rarely used in the past because it was initially fitted with a defective v3.5 Loksound sound decoder where the sound played but there was no loco movement. So I swapped the decoder for another v3.5 decoder which I had removed from 37248 Loch Arkaig when it was upgraded in 2020. 37254 was one of my first attempts at fitting speakers in the fuel tanks so being a v3.5 decoder it has a 100ohm speaker. I assumed because of this that it wouldn't sound all that good but it is pretty decent so today I started the weathering by airbrushing first rather than using the brushes because the airbrush was out for weathering coaches. 37254 isn't a Scottish loco but it makes a change from large logo 37/4's. It really isn't worth the time and effort in renumbering. The rake of six Mk2's have now been weathered, or at least approx 90% of the weathering has been completed because for some reason I completely missed doing the chassis on one of them and didn't notice until some time after I'd put the airbrush away. In addition I have weathered the BR Blue sleeper train as well as a couple of NEA full brakes in Inter-City livery. The 2 NEA's are to add to the Inter-City sleeper train. I've also done my two Regional Railways Mk2 coaches which I can mix and match with other Mk2's. The six MK2s had been fitted with those 'brake pipe' couplings meaning they were a fixed rake so extremely difficult to couple and uncouple as you have to almost lay the entire rake on its side. I took the opportunity to remove them and glue NEM mounts to the underneath of the chassis to accept Kadee couplings. This left a larger gap between coaches and so I've added paper corridor connectors. They look much better and are now a doddle to couple/uncouple. So I feel like everything is falling into place, coach rakes are being assembled and there's enough wagons to marshall a variety of trains. There's still a few large logo 37/4's to weather and I need to sort out some more speakers to replace some of the inferior ones. I'll grab some photos later but I'm in need of a break right now.

I suppose it depends on how many blocks and whether you can handle them once they're glued together. It sounds like a good solution if it's workable.