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Long time no see, we have been doing other things, and during this enforced lockdown in France we uncovered the railway. Bigs smiles as we got an engine to run.

http://i.imgur.com/QZG4Rkc.gifv

love the bridge! don't forget to keep on taking photos from the upstairs window so we can look back at the images from a single pov to see the development from its start to its future greatness.

your garden is pretty big, and clearly you have some good gardening skills as the deck is nice and the new sheds are well done. The left side there is lots of space, and along the right edge there looks like room for a nice dog bone layout. with one turn around in the flower bed by the blue shed, and the other turn around to be built on a raised table like wood structure nearer the house - but leaving enough room to walk around it. http://i.imgur.com/cJJjOfD.png http://i.imgur.com/RrSk5l8.jpg http://i.imgur.com/r1Im7SK.jpg having the layout on a raised bed is a good idea as the trains are at a good viewing level and also away from peoples feet. Anyway, that's my first idea as I think its safer to keep the children's fun on the lawn and adult fun patio area separate from the model railway rather than trying to have both in the same space.

I got particular 08 loco to do the humbro weathering, I brought all the powders etc that is required. - My son and I go on many adventures, kayaks, bikes, bike races but for some reason he really likes trains. My father showed him that they are putting up power lines for the new electric cross rail trains that will replace the diesel 125's. This lead to a rather existential debate on where trains go when they are not needed so we said a museum and he didn't believe it and kept questioning it until I took him to didcot railway museum. That sounds interesting so I did some searching and came up with almost nothing appart from there might be an office in portsmouth which can operate outside of the letter opening law. 'This (referring to Belfast), and the smaller office in Portsmouth where most of the parcels go, is the only place in the UK where the Royal Mail is allowed to open letters.' - but the link is from 2003 http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jan/27/post.features11 There is not much information on these places, and no way of contacting them.

while we are here talking about lego trains.... - the lego train and the pond tunnel.

I buy most my points on ebay.co.uk the other place I recently discovered was a second hand model shop in the UK. There must be plenty of those dotted around the UK. Ehattons is great for bulk purchases of flexi track and other new items. Have you brought track pins yet? As I have two pack of peco pin's that I found to be useless for my strong outdoor baseboard, worth making sure you get the right ones before you bulk purchse, also having a tool to push the pins in might help. I wish I had known to stagger join's when laying corners. When you lay your track this is really important to avoid kinks that can derail trains - http://oogardenrailway.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=649&p=14408#p14408

We have action, one line cleaned and operational. Points are in serious trouble, be lucky to have them working this year. greenery is growing strong, happy with that. Still not built my station etc, still its only april.

Fast work, I am enjoying watching the progress. I agree its best to keep things private . Actually a few years ago I could see a garden railway layout over a fence when I visited my friends flat. It inspired me to go and do one.

I have some moss, but in my hot location the sun kills any moss it see's. My moss has to be very much in the shade. I can only keep moss alive in a few dark corners. If you live somewhere with less sun and a section of layout with shade it should work.

I brought the basic items to do some weathering, but there was only 1 weathing powder in the shop. In your experience is it worth me hunting down £4 a pot powders, or will home made soft pastel powder work?

I think it would be really neat if you could take a photo with the same camera,from the same window, one photo portrait one landscape each time you do some work, and once a month. That way, when the railway is looking really good we can go from grass, to destruction, to progress, to amazing layout like a flip book.

That is very cool.

Grass is over rated in gardens. Your last garden railway and the videos you produced was a big influence for me to start my layout and to try and combine the garden with small planes with the layout. Looking forward to seeing your videos once you get this new line up and running

Bekonscot is my inspiration. The Coaches pick up is something I was actually thinking about yesterday, as I believe that is key to the success of the trains at Bekonscot. Here is what I thought would have to be done, but I don't have much experience in model trains or electronics I am just a gardener. I have never taken on a project like this before, so its just my theory on how to go about it. Step 1. Take a coach with metal wheels, or added Hornby R8234 metal wheels Step 2. Next up you need to take an axle, make one side live, the other side insulated. --> (video of coach lighting) and repeat for the other axel, so you have power from both lines. This section of video covers how to do this perfectly. Step 3. Then add wires to each axle, and head those two towards your engine. This involves drilling holes in the coach I think. Step 4. Your engine will need wires soldered onto each side, probably from the pick up wires or wher ethe pick up wires join the motor. Theese new wires then will need to head out the back of the engine Step 5. Connect engines wires to Coach wires, either plugs that can plug in and out(do these exist?) or make some kinda of temporary connection - or have it permanently connected so the coach is always connected to the engine 24/7. That gives you one set of pick up wheels that drive the engine. If you repeat step 2, you get more wheels. HORNBY R8234 - metal wheels http://www.dccconcepts.com/catalogue/e/flicker-free-pickup-springs-and-pickups - pickup springs That a lot of work for adding not much pick up, and to have the problem of connecting all that up having it always connected. Most Garden railway engineers do so to run their collection of beautiful trains on longer layouts. They would not want to butcher engines and coaches to make them work better outdoors and they may find their engines work well enough with out the mod. Just my thoughts, would love to hear what others think. This is something I would be willing to try and build if others think its a feasible plan.