Andrew

A-shunting we will go A few days later, another posing exercise was arranged to mark the arrival of some new wagons, although too late in the day to enjoy the earlier sunshine. Here, a short goods train has arrived onto the branch and makes its way slowly upwards. Two of the wagons, for Dorking's lime works, are detatched and taken forward. Meanwhile, the rear portion is well braked and awaits further action. Eventually the train is reformed... and heads away up the line

Posing Interurbans Sadly there's been little progress on the rebuilding in over a year. I seem much busier now than back in 2012. But one recent afternoon I couldn't resist the sunshine, and after a bit of weeding, posed the interurbans on the remnants of the old railway. Here we see a two-car train a hundred years ago, by which time the interurbans were in decline, approaching Canyon flagstop on a soon-to-be-closed branchline already showing signs of dereliction: Sadly, despite a brief wait, no-one boards at the stop: So the train sets off for the end of the line... Approaching the rather desolate temporary terminus: With no passengers here, it's no wonder the line is due to close. The track has already been abandoned beyond this point, so it's one set of trolley poles down and put the others up for the return trip.

Looks great. Hope it's holding up well. Some ground-level photos of trains in the sunshine would look good too!

Thomas, That's a great video of the Korean train. So nice to see you running trains, and the railway itself is looking very good. Well done for all that hard work. And the way you've securing the new bridge section is very ingenious. Andrew

Interurbans are coming Some railway people, even in America, don't know what these are. In Britain they are even more of a niche interest. But they caught my imagination a few years ago. I now do a short talk called "America's Interurban Interlude". Anyway, what are the implications for modelling? There are no ready to run models. The main option seems to be the HO Japanese brass models of the kind that were very popular for US outline railroads in the 1960s and '70s. As well as mainstream railroads, there were plenty of interurban models commissioned 50 years ago - and they're still around in secondhand form. Mind you, most of them are unpainted and unglazed, which is not to everyone's taste. But I was fortunate to get hold of a pair of nicely painted brass interurban cars from America recently: And they look even better when posed on what remains of my railway: Here are some useful further sources:

I had a great time visiting David's superb French outline 0 gauge layout near me in Surrey:

Then there were three (spans). Need some small adjustments to get things level.

Thomas, It's great to see you running trains now after all your hard work on building the layout. It looks superb, and I hope you'll be able to spend more time testing out how it all runs - and just enjoy the pleasure of watching trains. And your photos of the TGV Duplex are excellent. Don't stop the photos!

My dentist has a garden railway background!

I allowed myself to be distracted by other things today - at the Bluebell Railway:

Finally some progress A couple of weeks ago there was a small step towards rebuilding the Dorking Garden Railway after it was largely demolished to allow last year's landscaping work. Actually this was a 2.4m span of completed trackbed (which somehow looks a lot shorter in the photo) to form part of the rebuilt Bamboo Curtain Straight. This week a second span appeared, with the end shaped to lead into what will be the new Sycamore Curve to take the line round through 180 degrees to join the track on the far side of the circuit. "About time too", I hear you say, so let's hope things will gain momentum.

I've been looking for, and so far failed to find, a suitable adhesive for gluing down my new track. This potentially seems less visible than pins or screws which tend to look bad in close-up photos. The idea glue should be all-weather, exterior rated and not a grab/contact adhesive as there needs to be time for adjusting the position and straightening sleepers. And it mustn't foam or expand or leave a visible residue when dry. And of course it must stick plastic trackbase. I think that's unobtainable!.

Levelling Up I was recently assessing what needs to be done on the garden railway site to reinstate the front part of the circuit and refurbish the rear part where the timber base has deteriorated after eleven years service. One of the key issues is to keep the whole thing as level as possible and avoid any gradients, to ensure best running. Although I possess a small laser level, it's not particularly useful in this context as the small size reduces its precision and in daylight you can't see the laser marker light across any significant distance. Then I went shopping in Lidl and found this: Costing all of £5.99, it seems like an excellent solution to my problem. Probably easier than trying to use the garden hose (which my friend Philip had found helpful when building his garden railway).

New Year resolution? Ordering some new track was the easy bit. Talk is cheap, as has been mentioned on this thread before!

Christmas curiosity This rather odd laser-cut plywood kit, possibly around 0 gauge 1:43 scale, was completed over the Christmas period after being received as a gift (so I had to take it seriously!). It all pressed together well, with interference fits on every joint. Although it's a bizarre model and has no moving parts, it has been very intricately designed and was straightfoward to assemble although took quite a while. Quite why the boiler sides aren't continuous is a puzzle. Now I'm wondering what to do with it.

A very Happy Christmas to Mick and everyone here at 00 Garden Railway, hoping for good weather in 2024!

The National Railway Museum were having derailment problems with a bubblecar on their 0 gauge layout when I visited...

Another enjoyable FREMO day Many thanks to the UK FREMO group for an entertaining time yesterday operating the latest configuration of their German outline modular approach to model railways, complete with fully detailed timetabling which drivers and signalmen have to follow. Some Anglo-Saxon interlopers appeared on the track during the lunchbreak. Altogether an ambitious undertaking, but very rewarding to be able to share in it.