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the Dorking Garden Railway


Andrew
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3 hours ago, Andrew said:

I can't take credit for the cant - it's a bonus(?) of having an ageing timber track base.  Mostly it tilts in the right direction!

😀  I was going to ask whether it was intentional or not because I couldn't see any packing beneath the sleepers. It still looks impressive by the way so I wouldn't worry too much and as you point out, at least it's heading in the right direction.

I introduced a cant when I first laid my ground level section and I have to admit that it does look better than track which remains flat around curves, however, this time I decided against it in order to keep things as simple and basic as possible. There's only so much you can realistically do outdoors and I find the less things you introduce the better it all performs.

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Really enjoyable video featuring trains in the landscape rather than the loco itself. Yes, if only I could recreate that in my garden, though I'd need to add the occasional class 37 at some point.

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Now I do like to see coal trains and those little mineral wagons are one of my favourites - they look especially good behind the 9F.  Have you run these before? I don't recall seeing them or perhaps my memory's fading - if so then I apologise in advance. 21 ton hoppers next please Andrew!

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The mineral wagon collection has grown a bit in the past months.  After noticing that very few new ones were on sale, I decided that this once ubiquitous wagon needed to be properly represented on my period layout, so started buying secondhand ones of almost any make.  The real ones came in many variants, so uniformity isn't needed - unlike more modern block trains.  Then I had a weathering session with acrylic paints.  Absolute realism probably demands more wagons than the current DGR fleet...

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Goods vibrations

 

Quite liked this shot:

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A new feature has emerged on the layout.  Black Ghyll is a large cavern, much visited by serious potholers because of the extensive cave system to which it provides an entrance.  It's very close to Sycamore Manor, but was previously obscured by vegetation, now cut back.  A close look shows what may be ropes left behind by cavers ascending to the lip before going down into the caves...

large.20200517_172033.jpg.5539a2bf45bb9dd3224e4768b92cc720.jpg

 

 

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That's one of the great things about a garden railway - you can always find new viewpoints from which to film or photograph your trains and there's always the possibility of uncovering some aspect of natural scenery that you can use to expand the story. Black Ghyll certainly deserves to be seen as it adds a great ruggedness to the backdrop.

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Return to Black Ghyll

Here's a context shot to set the scene.  No doubt the local residents always knew it was there, but probably didn't want to encourage inexperienced potholers who often get into difficulties, particularly when unanticipated rainfall swells the underground rivers...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Droning on and King Coal

There aren't (m)any drone shots from the 1950s so some of the following may have been taken from a light aircraft with a railway photographer in the copilot's seat.  Here is another view into Black Ghyll cavern, with passing short coal train hauled by a BR Standard 4MT.

 

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The same train was caught again further up the line as it passed Foxdale Carr Hall:

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Later in the day, the loco was seen from the lineside returning with a longer, mostly empty train:

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and, curiously, the airborne photographer captured the train at almost exactly the same moment!

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Over at Throstlebeck looking across to Sycamore Curve there was a lineside shot of passing trains -- a 9F on a parcels train and the inevitable coal trip:

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and presumably on a different day at Throstlebeck the same photographer was lucky to catch the same two workings again:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think it's this:

Mind-your-own-business or baby’s tears, Soleirolia soleirolii (syn. Helxine soleirolii) is a creeping perennial with tiny rounded leaves. Despite looking pretty in cracks in paving, it re-grows from the smallest stem sections and can soon get out of control. It is especially difficult to control in the lawn.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=348

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mixed traffic and mixed fortunes

Today began with yet another outing for the coal train of 16 ton mineral wagons, pulled this time by the elderly Hornby Dublo 8F.  About half the train is Hornby Dublo, as can be seen from the solid brake gear.

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Anyone counting rivets?  Shame about the cab full of motor.

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Then at Throstlebeck, a BR Standard 4-6-0 came past with a cross-country passenger train.  Being the 1950s, there is no provision on the train for refreshments.

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Then, as the train ran past Black Ghyll, there was the sound of wheels bouncing on sleepers, and disaster struck:

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The engine and first vehicle stayed on the track; the following eight didn't.  The occupants of Sycamore Lodge were very lucky to escape harm - and so was the railway, as no damage was done to any of the coaches.  The cause of the accident was the nut on the regulator.  He was away from the controls, setting up his camera to take a video - which is always tempting fate!

 

 

 

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Another video

I decided to follow Mick's example and compile a 'video of the day' rather than just accumulating more clips and getting stuck wondering how to organise them.  Here's the result for that last operating session.  Everything is running too fast, which isn't obvious at the time but becomes apparent when the video is watched afterwards.

https://youtu.be/yJMtLYKqNw0

20200620_162241a.thumb.jpg.a571df454a666ce2b16d269709bb7a5c.jpg

Edited by Andrew
typo, & added photo
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Good to see some more video Andrew. I don't think they were overly fast, certainly not along the straights, but you're right, they do tend to appear faster on video than they do when we're stood watching by the lineside.

Mine's a nice lazy day type of layout anyway so I never run anything fast, in fact often they appear to be running too slowly and I sense people urging me to get a move on and get the trains running. Even with the space available out in the garden our curves are still not sufficiently large enough in radius to allow running at scale speeds to appear anything like prototypical. You can always conjure up an excuse for running slowly.

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Very sad news

One of the great sources of inspiration for many budding garden railway builders has died.  Peter Strange's gauge 1 garden railway was the location for the much acclaimed Cyril and Daisy short films, which can be found on Youtube.

His collaborator has written:

 

 

I'm very sad to report that my great friend and one half of Duck End Pictures, Peter Strange, died suddenly on Sunday 19th April. It was Peter's beautiful garden railway in Oxfordshire, and his ever growing collection of exquisite Bassett-Lowke rolling stock, that inspired the 'Cyril and Daisy' stories. Over the years we had enormous fun together, spending the winter months creating the stories and planning the filming sequences, building sets and filming indoor scenes. By May we were ready to move outside and play with the trains. Together we sometimes laughed till we cried at the absurdity of the adventures of these two little people. We always felt that the fact that they couldn't actually move required extra thought and informed our creativity. The films were a genuine collaboration; we each contributed in our own way. I will look back with great pleasure on the fun we had together. We were always very pleased to receive positive comments about the films - so a big 'thank you' for making the effort to post on here. It was good to know that there are others who shared our whimsical sense of humour. Sadly, there will be no more Cyril and Daisy films. However, I have two sequences nearly completed from our next film which I will edit and post as an unfinished project in the next few weeks.
Paul Rhodes
 
Those final scenes have now been posted here:
 
Many people interested in railways, models, film and garden railways will mourn his departure.

 

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