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Hi Andy, Unfortunately, amost all old diesel types are not anymore used by Belgian Railways. Nevertheless, very few of them are still used by Belgian Railways track works and sub-contractor companies. If not today but very very soon, there will be only very few different types of locomotives, EMU and DMU running in Belgium. This situation will be quiet different compared to the whole fleet made of so many types of locomotives with their own style and colourful liveries which used to run in the eighties. But this is the price to pay (as they say) to keep the belgian railways still alive ! As soon as the weather will be sunny and dry again, I will post more pictures of SNCB Diesel locomotives.

Hi Everybody, Since yesterday I work on the points and doubleslips wiring. I don't go as fast as I thought I would do it. I have some problems with the alignment of the motors and the adjustment of the microswitches. I expect to finish this job by end of this week. Picture of locomotive 5320 (Märklin). Same original livery as 5319 but with a third headlamp (from a scrapped steam loc) to be allowed to run in Germany and in the Netherlands. Picture of locomotive 5315 (Roco). 1970's livery.

Hi Traingeekboy, If possible, I would like to provide the layout with spurs, tunnel, buildings, signals and so on ... But after so many years of frustrations with my indoor layout, now I want to make this garden railway as simple as possible to allow me to enjoy running (long) trains as soon as possible. If I'm happy with the results of this first stage then I will certainly think about improving the layout decoration.

Hi Mick, Sunny day today, so I took several pictures of belgian GM/EMD locomotives from my collection. 5217 (Roco) Locomotive modified in the eighties and then fitted with new cabs fixed on silent blocks. 5319 (Märklin) Last locomotive which ran with its original cabs and original livery almost up to the year 2000 (as well as loco 5404 which has been preserved by SNCB).

Hi Traingeek, I bought Peco Electrofrog becauseI I wanted to have the best rail current continuity. Now I regret this choice because it's a little bit complicated to wire. If I would have the choice again, I would go for Peco Code 100 Insulfrog. Today, the weather was fine, a little bit cold but dry and sunny. So I worked outdoor to install properly the ballast layer and the track. But late in the afternoon, came the first raining snow.

Hi Ian, Thank You for the warning. I know that maintenance will be big part of the game with outdoor railway. Do you know any improvement that can be made on Peco Electrofrog Doubleslip to avoid electrical continuity problems ? I already modified the Peco Electrofrog points as described previously in this post.

Hi Mick, The double headed passenger train shown at Vonêche station is unusual. Actually, there were no international trains running on this line in the Ardennes. There was a railway strike in Belgium on that day and all trains were stopped, except this pilgrims' train heading to Lourdes in France and exceptionnaly allowed to reach France as soon as possible for sanitarian reasons. This is why there is a trade union red flag installed on the head of the leading locomotive. There are many HO scale models (Märklin and Roco) of this type of locomotive. These "europeanized" US GM/EMD locomotives were built in Belgium under licence by Anglo Franco Belge company in the mid fifties. They were used by SNCB until 2007 and are now used for trackworks trains and operated by a private company. I hope to take pictures of these locomotives running on my garden railway very soon.

Hi Mick, As much as possible I try to stick on the 1/1000 real track drawing of the railway station. Of course, points and evenmore double slips are too short compare to the reality but the track lengths will be to scale (1/87). Here is a picture of the northern side of the station. This is roughly what will be installed on the first module (see previous picture). The point motors are Peco PL10 (I still got about 20 pieces of them which I already used in the past for my former indoor railway model) . The motors will be installed under table and offset by about 50mm. I intend to glue the point motors (as I did it already indoor with satisfaction) and to couple the throwing pin to a micro switch for frog polarization (still to be experimented). Offset is choosen to avoid water ingress through the pin hole (as much as possible). I expect to make the first trial outdoor this week-end. I will post pictures of the system if satisfactory.

Hi Dave, Weather is not too bad here, so I continue to work outdoor. Monday, I temporarely installed the first points, double slip and track to find a suitable way to fix them and also to determine where to drill holes for wiring and switch motor.

Hi Traingeekboy, Actually the roofing felt is greener than what we can see on the picture. I guess that the colour looks gray because the picture was taken on a cloudy day and late in the afternoon. With the rest of the roofing felt, I intend to make long bands of 4,5 cm wide to represent the ballast. I would like to paint the bands in matt gray colour similar to ballast stones. I will make a test this morning. This locomotive ( type 201) is the first Diesel locomotive built in Belgium early in the fifties. The design is belgian (Cockerill) but the engine was built under Baldwin Hamilton USA licence, the steam heater (to heat old passenger coaches) was a Vapor Clarkson USA machine and the electrical equipment was built by ACEC Belgium under Westinghouse USA licence. There were more than fifty locomotives of this type built and some of them were still in operation in the years 2000. Now, there are still three or four locomotives preserved by the belgian railways or by private museum companies. As far as I know they are all able to run. The model shows the locomotive with its livery from 1955 up to approx. 1965. It's a DC Trix/Marklin Model. It's one of the last model produced 100% metal. It runs fine but not very smoothly and the noise is very loud. Anyway, it's not a big problem outdoor !

I Everybody, This afternoon, I laid the roofing felt on the baseboards. It is temporarely nailed. I still think about the best solution to fix it on the baseboard. I installed a test track and made already some trial runs to check my Roco DCC remote controller. It works fine even at a distance of more than 50 meters. At that distance, the locomotive looks so small that you don't recognize it anymore and its speed seems slow even at full speed.

Hi Mick, I intend to nail the roofing felt on both sides of the base board. I bought special rustproof nails. If the weather is fine tomorrow (as foreseen by TV weather man), I will lay the roofing on the baseboard and take pictures. Another good news: I received this morning my new Roco Multimaus radio controlled DCC set. I already tried it (indoor) and it works fine. This radio controlled DCC set will be especially dedicated to my garden railway. Tomorrow, I will test the remote controller in the garden and I'm curious to see how far from the central station it still works. If you are interested, the complete set is sold at 300,00 Euro only in Holland (ebay). It's quiet cheap compare to the normal price which is 450,00 and even more (without transformer). Actually, it's a DCC set which used to be sold together with a loco, 3 coaches and rails in a starting box. I suspect that the price was so high for a starting box (850,00 Euro) and so difficult to sell that some retailers preferred to sell the DCC set and the rest of the box apart.

Hi, I'm lucky this morning. I went to a garden shed store and found roofing felt with small stones as used for shed roof. I bought one roll and I will start covering works this afternoon according to the weather. Thank You for your help.

Hi Duncan, Do you know the brandname of this type of roofing felt. If yes, then I will try to find the name of the belgian (or Benelux) importer, if any. Thank You.

Hi Everybody, I went to the shop this morning and I found a possible solution to cover plywood baseboard. It's a thin rubber sheet which is used to make small garden fish ponds. According to the advertisement it's waterproof and UV resistant and last but not least not too expensive. Any good or bad experience made by members of the forum regarding the use of this material ? By the way, I saw roofing felt (UK style with small stones glued on it) in a DIY shop. It would have been nice to use this type of roofing with my OO garden railway. Unfortunately, it was the coverage of the roof of a garden shed but not available as roofing material according to the employee. Thank You.