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Simon's Garden Railway


simonjjuk
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Hi Folks

Just wanted to introduce myself, been a reader of the forum for quite a while, also followed the Selby Garden Railway on You Tube. After years of nagging the wife, I took the plunge earlier this year and sold my N Gauge model railway layout and purchased timber, supports ready to commence the building of my Garden Railway. I did toil with the idea of running G scale but realised how expense it was so decided to go with OO Gauge.

My Garden's not level at all so gradients were always going to be a problem, plus I have a very nosey standard poodle, so it needed to be raised off the ground. The first stage was completed late August 2011, I decided to use 6 x 4 timber, 10ft lengths, joined together and hung 4ft off the ground using hanging basket brackets. Once intial construction was complete I laid some track and started running trains. I have tried to ballast the track but the rain keeps washing it away, so like everyone else I have purchased some shed roofing felt and will remove my track and lay this before the winter sets in.

I am located in Laceby, near Grimsby, I work as an IT Technician for a local college.

Pictures to follow.

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Hi Simon

Welcome to the forum - good to have you on board.

I may be a little biased but in my opinion, your decision to model in OO gauge was a good one. The whole idea of venturing outdoors for me was to have the use of the available space and choosing a larger scale would have defeated the object. Some of the larger scales are really stunning but I couldn't have modelled the trains I wanted in any scale other than OO.

Gradient's are best avoided at all costs, unless they are very gentle, so any additional work to level the site out will have been worth all the effort and you will be repaid with more successful operation. You should find it possible to ballast the track without the rain washing it away so let us know what you've tried already and we'll come up with some recommendations. Even if you put down a layer of roofing felt beneath the tracks you can still add ballast later if required - it just needs fixing securely in place and there are several ideas floating around as to what's best to use for that.

I'm looking forward to seeing photos and to hearing about the kind of trains you intend to operate. With a location of Laceby I immediately have visions of steel, oil and coal traffic from that area of the country.

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Welcome to the forum Simon.

Nice to see another new garden railway developing, especially in a smaller scale. I look forward to seeing some pictures (and videos?) later on. Dont forget, a lot of us on here have footage of our railways on YouTube - something to keep us all going through the winter, when running trains seemed a long time ago :!::)

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  • 5 months later...

After a little running in winter, after covering up the layout and losing my suspension bridge in the process, I am up and running again. I have added a new power feed to the middle of my existing layout. Thought I would share some you tube videos of running wih you all.

Please visit my You Tube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/simonjjuk?feature=mhee" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Welcome Simon from the Faulconwood and Springbridge railway. I look forward to seeing your railway develop. As Mick wrote he's a little biased when it comes to outdoor OO garden railways. Even Paul Barnard said in putting OO outside that it seemed the natural place to have a railway. Don Neale who's had an O gauge garden railway since 1961 said if you build a model radio controlled boat you take it to a pond or small lake to run it, not the bath tub. If you build a radio controlled aeroplane you take it to a park to show off it's acrobatics not the back yard or the lounge room so a model railway is the same.

Roy.

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  • 4 months later...

Can I firstly apologise for the lack of update on my project. SInce my last update in October 2011, I have completely revamped the track layout and ended a shed to the layout, to be honest wish I had added a shed first then the railway would have been much easier, as the shed was a freebie I still need to make it water tight and block up some holes.

The original plan was to have a straight end to end layout up my garden fence with a turntable at one end to turn locomotives around, however this idea has been scrapped and the railway now runs 30 feet up the garden with a couple of passing loops and sidings through a curve and into the shed where lines are currently terminated, plans are already a foot to add an extension out of the shed and down the otherside of the garden, currently trying to bribe the wife now that the new fence I promised her has been erected the conifers removed. The suspension bridge has gone, didn't survive the winter months and has been replaced with track. I have added 3 stations (not counting the terminus in the shed). The town area at the far end of the garden is complete before a re-added siding, a wooded area with camping coaches and an odd building. Up near the shed we're added the Bachmann Scenic OO Fire station, and I hope to add some more buildings in this area as a second town area before the trains disappear into the shed. Was quite lucky that I managed to get a model fire engine park in the appliance bay.. The branchline then disappears into the shed where lines split into two lines before terminating at the end of the shed. I have temporarily installed a station in the shed, but plan on addeding the Hornby station with canopy and a turntable at some point in the future.

I have numoerous issues with power. originally power was controlled through an external power supply from an outside socket with extensions run up the garden. This was then changed to the power going half up the main track, this worked really well. However when the shed was built I opted to run power from inside the shed, this worked fine for a while but then loco's started slowly down and not moving too well. I then opted to run of car batteries as I was sick of both the dog and wife tripped over my cables. Despite charging the batteries they never really served their purpose so I have gone back to operating power from a half way point outside which seems to be working well again. I used both Analogue and DC control, but as I am an IT Technician I am looking to control trains through my PC and IPAD which would make life a lot easier. Has anyone else had such power issues?

I have published some pictures of my layout to http://s.joomeo.com/503170dfef1a0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I also have a small youtube clip

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No apologies for any lack of updates required Simon - you're welcome to visit and update your thread as often or as infrequently as you please. There'll always be someone here willing to listen and look at what you've been up to. We are a very friendly bunch and I'm sure you'll get much more from the hobby the more you share with everyone but that's just my personal opinion. I've found there's only so much model railway chatter you can share with your other half :roll:

Good to see the video of the tank engine arriving - reminds me of why I never use public transport :) (please take that as the amusing comment it was intended to be!)

I've had a quick look at the photos on your link and I assume they're all of the current layout? There's the shed in evidence and I notice many of the buildings you mention in your thread. Another thing that caught my eye was the track - what make is that? It doesn't look like the more recent Peco or even Hornby. I just wondered having read of your issues with the power supply whether the track may be partly responsible. You don't appear to have the track joints bonded from what I can see and this will certainly result in an eventual loss of power or at least intermittent power when used outdoors. You should be able to feed power to the track inside the shed and by soldering a small wire across the rail joins at each track joint, feed this power to the far reaches of your layout without problem. There's nothing worse than trailing wires (been there, got the t-shirt) so that's an area that might need addressing.

There are members on the forum who use and/or have experience of PC software and the like and they'll no doubt be able to offer you some advice but I would certainly cure any power feed problems before moving on to another level. If you need help or advice on any aspect then please just ask.

One final thought but again this is entirely a personal opinion. To me there's nothing better than looking back over the development of your layout. I recorded most of the construction of my first layout and all of the current one and my notes contain the generous advice offered by other members as I progressed. I am so glad I did that and have all of it to look back on. It's a complete story rather than just a set of photos. You're more than welcome to use the forum for that purpose and if you do then I'm sure you'll be pleased you did.

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I agree with Mick.

You are losing power at every track join. The track-fishplate-track connection isn't great at conducting power and it will soon start behaving like a resistor when placed outdoors. The way round this is the tedious job of soldering wires to every length of rail. This can either be done through bonding, a wire soldered from one rail end to the next bridging round the fishplate, or by soldering a dropper wire to each rail which connects to a continuos "bus" wire from your controller. Up until this summer bonding was the most common way to do this, but suddenly buses have become all the rage. I mainly bond, but do have a bus (don't ask).

Unfortunately you appear to be using a lot of short lengths of track which means a lot of joins. My best advice to you would be to bite the bullet and spend £60 on a box of Peco Code 100 flexi and use it to replace your short track lengths. Soldering out side is hard work, soldering track that's been outside is a nightmare.

Happy to offer advice on DCC. I've detailed my system with iPhone/iPad control here http://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=114''>http://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=114'>http://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=114

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Thanks for the replies. Could someone explain bonding in a bit more detail and how it is achieved please?? Am I right in thinking you solder a wire to the fishplate, then solder the other end to the next fishplate and so on..... what do you do with the cable when you reach the end, and do you need to solder both fish plates of the track?

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For want of a better illustration, the following photo gives an idea of what you need to do to bond your rail joins. You simply need a short length of wire soldered to the end of one section of rail that spans the rail join and is soldered to the leading edge of the next rail section. Note that this needs to be done on both rails. Some members use fuse wire, others standard track layout wire, some recommend copper wire. The simple fact is that anything will be better than no bonds at all.

IMG_3455.jpgima ... G_3455.jpghttp://www.selbygardenrailway.co.uk/images/construction/IMG_3455.jpg' alt='URL>'>

The metal fishplate that connects the two sections of track together cannot be relied upon to transmit the electrical power. Certainly when used outdoors they don't last very long at all and so it is advisable to solder wires across as depicted in the photo.

Add the power feed to your track in the normal way, perhaps inside your shed where your controller will probably be situated. The soldered bonds are just to ensure the electrical feed reaches all sections of your track without interruption.

There is no need to solder the fishplates to the rails, in fact you really don't want to do that. The fishplates will allow your track to expand and contract as the temperature outside fluctuates. Hope this helps.

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Most things on here have been talked through. Finding the chat can be hard.

Probably best if you switch your bonding questions to here. http://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=248''>http://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=248'>http://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=248

We many add more photos, but we tend to be embarrassed by our attempts at soldering, well I am.

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  • 1 month later...

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