Hello from South Yorkshire

[StevieG]

Having built an indoor on gauge railway in the spare room based on Mallaig over the last 4 years or so I was looking for a new project. ‘Planning permission’ was granted to build in the garden. It will be continuous double track with mainline station with 2 road storage yard and some room to expand In due course to include engine shed. No particular period modelled although most of my stock is 1970’s to 1990’s. So far I have built the raised track bed and about half of a single circuit which will be in total about 25 metres long. Will be using DCC as I have NCE Powercab on the existing layout and most loco’s have sound decoders. NCE Power Panel and another power supply have arrived today. I can then interchange the handset, laptop and computer interface and use in the garden with WiFi throttle. I have found this forum invaluable for advice so far so thanks t9 all. I have posted some pictures of progress so far and of my existing indoor layout.

[mick]

Welcome to the forum Steve.

Your indoor layout is instantly recognisable as Mallaig - we parked up a little further back on the left! Lovely modelling.

You've also made good progress out in the garden and after the confines of the spare room I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing your trains stretching out in the garden. From looking at what you've done to date I assume there's going to be no indoor storage area and that you'll be setting up and packing away each session? I don't suppose that would take too long if that is the case if you can keep stock in suitable storage boxes. I used to detest having to take stock from their individual boxes and pack them away again after use. Thank goodness for those 'really useful' boxes!

What are you using for you track base? Some of it looks like timber (scaffold board?) and other parts like a type of composite board.

And will you be running the same variety of stock as currently on Mallaig or are you branching out a little further? I guess the temptation with a garden layout is to run longer trains but then I look at mine and find I'm restricted to 6 coaches or so due to the length of my station platforms and indoor storage roads.

Keep us up to date with your progress - I'm looking forward to seeing things develop.

Is that a real blackbird on the handle of the garden fork?

[StevieG]

Thanks. Really pleased with Mallaig. I scratch built the community centre and station. I made the green street sign which is identical to the real one. Street View has been a great tool to support m6 own photographs. Pity I’ve mixed the eras a little in this photo. Class 27 and 25 together but not with K1 and Class 156. I take the view that if it ever ran to Mallaig I’ll run them. 

Yes having just retired it didn’t take me long to put the trackbed in. There is no indoor storage unfortunately as the shed has other stuff in it. I intend putting some foam into a few plastic storage crates perhaps 2 layers per box. I can then take from indoors in bulk and safely protected. We’ll see how that goes. The station area is OSB board covered in shed felt. The remainder is treated timber 150x22 mm, painted either green or grey so it blends in, not prototypical but there were some planning constraints imposed by the ‘authorities’! 

I used the forum for research and decided to use the track as the power bus and am soldering all the joints. Laborious but it’s improved my soldering skills. There will be 2 lift out sections where I have edged the wood with aluminium angle and used copper board at the edges. We’ll see how it works. I’m going to have wires soldered to the copper board and plugs under the woodwork that connect together. I’ll post some photos when I’ve done it.

Most of my stock is West Highland specific plus I’ve got a few more older Loco bits that I need to convert to DCC as well. I’m not going to restrict the garden railway and will allow anything, so that I’m not restricted. The station is designed to handle a 9 coach train when built. 

Ill post more pictures as I go along. Should have something running by next week all being well. 

No it’s not a real Blackbird, a carved one my father in law made, attached to an old fork.

[mick]

I'd have been well chuffed to have built something to the standard of your community centre. Scratch-building is just something I can never get round to attempting, possibly because up to now there's always been so many other things to do. I'm slowly getting round to do many of the things that I've put off over the last few years so perhaps when I run out of things to do I'll have a go at building something myself.

I don't think you need worry about mixing eras - my particular interests span several and there's no way I could restrict myself to any single one at this moment in time. I admire people that can and do but it's not for me.

If you've got additional progress photos to post then do start a new thread in the 'Layout' section. Have you decided on a name for the garden layout yet?