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Pentney Parkway


Noisynoel
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Afternoon,

    Well I thought it high time I shared my garden railway with you all. It's approx 70' x 30' double track main line, and features several challenging gradients which requires some trains to actually be driven as opposed to being left to run themselves. All controlled by Lenz DCC, with a wifi connection. This allows me to utilize a couple of old iphones with touchcab software giving me total fdredom to control trains from anywhere in the garden (and the top garden when SWMBO calls!) Era is mainly BR Blue but with the occasional foray into the modern day. Loco's are the usual mix of current manufacturer with some older Lima stuff being slowly restored to service. 90% of the rolling stock is Lima which I find runs fantastically outside.

So just to give you all a taste I uploaded my first video to Youtube today with a pair of sound fitted 37's on a heavy enterprise working.

 

 

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Welcome to the forum Noel(?) A new garden layout is great news. Thanks for including your maiden video.

'Challenging gradients' are generally best avoided but if your loco's are up to the task then there's no reason why you can't incorporate them into the layout and as you say, if it means having to 'drive' the trains then that surely adds to the enjoyment. I never experienced many problems with diesels up the gradient on my previous garden layout but many steam loco's were another matter.

Is the layout relatively new or has it been operational for some time and is it plain track all round or do you have stations, storage yards etc?

Looking forward to learning more about it and seeing further videos in due course.

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Welcome Noel, great video have you actually finished the whole circuit, would  love to see more, yeah how I would love to have a permanent garden railway  and bugger having to shift house now have to plan a new garden railway, got progress pics to share be awesome .

Tony from down under

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Thanks for the comments guys,  so a bit more detail. I started the layout 4 years ago, initially as an end to end with a view to making it a full circuit. That has taken 4 years thanks to work getting in the way.

The first section built was the main station at the top end of the garden. This features 4 platform roads (Platforms yet to be built) 2 fully reversible, 4 carriage sidings and a small stabling point. From there it went slightly up hill to go round the top of the rockery and then down the far side of the garden to the shed. This section included a long passing loop on both the Up & down lines, whilst the shed consists of three terminal lines. The next extension was from the other end of the station down the opposite side of the garden to the smaller 2 bay platform station with two "through" lines laid ready for the bext extension. This came last year and starts 1/2 way down to the shed but swings out and round the front of a flower bed then across to join the two through lines that were previously laid ready.

The station is built on external ply, but is in desperate need of a rebuild after part of the tree landed on it last year. Temporary fix done for now, with the replacement planned to be external py laid on decking boards and covered with roofing felt. The rest of the layout is on treated decking planks fixed to breeze blocks, the whole layout is between 1 & 2 foot above ground level.

 

Hopefully if the weather stays and I don't get called into work then a large bridge is being installed part way round.

 

I have got several other vids which I need to get off of the phone, none of progress through building, but attached is the only video of the full circuit.

 

 

Edited by Noisynoel
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That's an impressive total running length Noel, ideal for lots of scale length trains and you can take it from me, building a garden railway takes several years even without the intervention of your employment!

Out of curiosity, is a garden layout your favoured choice or did you choose this route due to the lack of space for an indoor layout? I actually chose the garden route because I wanted scale length freight trains but then discovered what a pain it would be having to place them all on track at the beginning of the session and have to remove them all again afterwards. That's when I decided to scale down train length outdoors and use the attic for a permanent home for the freight. An outbuilding of a size capable of stabling several long trains was out of the question. Of the two the outdoor layout gives me more satisfaction and is more akin to operating a real railway with all the maintenance it entails - much of which I quite enjoy.

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Thanks Mick et al, the original bridge that was going to be built was to go over the pond and if Jez had still been around, i suspect he'd have made it work, however, as I'm no good at buliding that sort of thing I had to go with a ready built bridge which meant it wasn't going to make it over the pond. Still, happy with how it looks.

So, over the past couple of days when I havn't been working or recovering from the night shifts, I've been working on Pentney Town station. The clip here shows it a couple of weeks back https://youtu.be/oGTTtmWY8X4  it now has platform furniture and people as well as brick work over the wooden base. Hopefully I'll get a couple of shots of it tomorrow looking a lot more like a station!

Noel

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So I've spent a bit of time in between shifts to do some work to the area behind Pentney Town Station. It's on a removable board so it can be brought in at the end of each session, the same as the platforms & footbridge. Board cut, painted and a grass field with some sheep added. Unfortunately I need more buildings before I can really do much more. Still looks good with trains passing 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, mick said:

A nice scenic addition Noel and constructing on removable boards is a good idea - a method also adopted by @chris to great effect on his Amblethorpe layout.

Yes, it was @chris post on Amblethorpe that gave me the idea, so all credit to him :-)

 

Well, the sun was out about 1/2 hour ago so I thought.. time to test the newly acquired Vep & Cep... too late, heavy rain now :-(

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1 hour ago, Noisynoel said:

Well, the sun was out about 1/2 hour ago so I thought.. time to test the newly acquired Vep & Cep... too late, heavy rain now

It's that time of year Noel but if the forecast's to be believed we're in for more settled weather next week so don't pack them away just yet.

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So better weather today and a day off gave me a chance to run so recently acquired stock. 4 CEP 7134 & 4 VEP 7830. The VEP did not run very well on it's own, but when in multiple with the CEP it ran great. Defiantly nostalgic now as these were the norm for me when I started on the railway!

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So last weekend, with a couple of days off work and with a bulk delivery of wood having arrived, I set about rebuilding the main station area. This section was the first bit built 5 years ago and was done in a "bit of a rush" with 9mm external ply on a 2x2 frame. However, part of the frame was secured to the concrete fence posts and the screws basically failed. On top of this I never covered the area with felt, I just treated it with preserver. As it was under the tree not only did it get very wet but occasionally had branches land on it. As a result the boards were literally falling apart and the track geometry was a little bit "dodgy"!

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So the "new build saw the same method I've used on the rest of the layout with enhancements. The foundations are now concrete blocks. This forms part of a frame for decking planks which are topped by 12mm external ply which has been treated and covered in felt.

The 4 through platforms have now been relaid and joined by a 5th in lieu of one of the sidings. This gives and extra through line or more importantly a platform to enable a shuttle to Pentney Town to operate whilst leaving 2 through lines in both directions.

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The sidings have yet to be laid (Waiting on fishplates) and I am currently bonding out the joints using copped strip which will run under the platforms where possible.

The 1st platform has also been built using cable trunking (Thanks to Chris of Amblethorpe fame for the idea). This is being topped by plasticard for the platform surface.

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The big question now is, do the platforms get made permanent and just get covered over by the tarpaulin that protects the station or do I make the removable so I can take them in . Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

Noel

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The only concern is that the platforms may become a water trap if the water drains that way. I have one platform where this is a problem and another two where it isn't. Gently pour some water on it and see where it drains.

If you are leaving it out then make sure that the top section of your trunking can't slide along the bottoms section. You may think that there is enough friction, but expansion and contraction with heat will make the top creep. I drill a small hole through the bit where they clip together and stick a track pin in. This ensures that the top can't slip along.

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Hi Noel, I am running with a Lenz DCC set but without the WiFi. How do you get control on your iPhone? That would be a real boon for me. Ive heard of touch cab software but dont know how it all works together.

Cheers

mark

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