the Dorking Garden Railway

[Andrew]

UK FREMO weekend

Yesterday I was delighted to be able to help out as a volunteer driver at the regular gathering of the UK FREMO gang with their impressive and extensive collection of German outline modules all hooked together in a school hall.

The aim is to run trains to a prearranged timetable, complete with pausing at passing stations and dropping off or collecting the odd goods wagon to add complication.

Nowadays, thanks to a certain political event which-cannot-be-named, the UK FREMO lads are prevented from taking their modules to events on the Continent by new customs complications, so they make the most of these weekend gatherings on British (and in this case, Sussex) soil.  Very grateful to them for inviting me along as a non-module contributor!

 

 

 

[Andrew]

Sadly there's been no garden railway action recently - but i have been to Paris:

[Andrew]

Coming home was fairly quick, too:

[kenbrunt]

Hi Andrew, You lucky man, Paris is our favourite city especially all the main line stations. We used to go every year for three weeks at a time. However our age and our passports have expired we just stay in the UK.

 Have you been on Euro Star before? As you stated they are super fast. We found the seating a little hard.

Regards, Ken

[Andrew]

Another enjoyable FREMO day

 

 

Many thanks to the UK FREMO group for an entertaining time yesterday operating the latest configuration of their German outline modular approach to model railways, complete with fully detailed timetabling which drivers and signalmen have to follow.  Some Anglo-Saxon interlopers appeared on the track during the lunchbreak.

Altogether an ambitious undertaking, but very rewarding to be able to share in it.

 

 

 

[Andrew]

The National Railway Museum were having derailment problems with a bubblecar on their 0 gauge layout when I visited...

[Andrew]

A very Happy Christmas

to Mick and everyone here at 00 Garden Railway, hoping for good weather in 2024!

[Riddles]

I’d just like to second those thanks to Mike. Notwithstanding there is now a OO Garden Railway Facebook page, having a proper website presence does show that these projects are practical and worth taking seriously. Sorry I’ve nothing to show pics of. Compliments of the season to all.

[Andrew]

Christmas curiosity

This rather odd laser-cut plywood kit, possibly around 0 gauge 1:43 scale, was completed over the Christmas period after being received as a gift (so I had to take it seriously!).  It all pressed together well, with interference fits on every joint.  Although it's a bizarre model and has no moving parts, it has been very intricately designed and was straightfoward to assemble although took quite a while.  Quite why the boiler sides aren't continuous is a puzzle.  Now I'm wondering what to do with it.

 

[Andrew]

New Year resolution?

 

 

 

Ordering some new track was the easy bit.  Talk is cheap, as has been mentioned on this thread before!

[Andrew]

Levelling Up

I was recently assessing what needs to be done on the garden railway site to reinstate the front part of the circuit and refurbish the rear part where the timber base has deteriorated after eleven years service.  One of the key issues is to keep the whole thing as level as possible and avoid any gradients, to ensure best running.

Although I possess a small laser level, it's not particularly useful in this context as the small size reduces its precision and in daylight you can't see the laser marker light across any significant distance.

Then I went shopping in Lidl and found this:

 

Costing all of £5.99, it seems like an excellent solution to my problem.  Probably easier than trying to use the garden hose (which my friend Philip had found helpful when building his garden railway).

 

[Andrew]

Finally some progress

A couple of weeks ago there was a small step towards rebuilding the Dorking Garden Railway after it was largely demolished to allow last year's landscaping work.  Actually this was a 2.4m span of completed trackbed (which somehow looks a lot shorter in the photo) to form part of the rebuilt Bamboo Curtain Straight. 

 

This week a second span appeared, with the end shaped to lead into what will be the new Sycamore Curve to take the line round through 180 degrees to join the track on the far side of the circuit.

 

 

"About time too", I hear you say, so let's hope things will gain momentum.

[ThomasI]

In any case, a new start has the advantage that you can do everything better than before because you can now incorporate all your previous experience.

[Andrew]

I allowed myself to be distracted by other things today - at the Bluebell Railway:

 

[Andrew]

My dentist has a garden railway background!

[Andrew]

Then there were three (spans).

Need some small adjustments to get things level.

[Andrew]

I had a great time visiting David's superb French outline 0 gauge layout near me in Surrey:

[Andrew]

Interurbans are coming

Some railway people, even in America, don't know what these are.  In Britain they are even more of a niche interest.  But they caught my imagination a few years ago.

 

I now do a short talk called "America's Interurban Interlude".

Anyway, what are the implications for modelling?  There are no ready to run models.  The main option seems to be the HO Japanese brass models of the kind that were very popular for US outline railroads in the 1960s and '70s.  As well as mainstream railroads, there were plenty of interurban models commissioned 50 years ago - and they're still around in secondhand form.  Mind you, most of them are unpainted and unglazed, which is not to everyone's taste.

 

But I was fortunate to get hold of a pair of nicely painted brass interurban cars from America recently:

 

And they look even better when posed on what remains of my railway:

 

 

Here are some useful further sources:

 

[ThomasI]

This is a very fascinating topic.

When you consider how electrified passenger transport in the USA once was.

It's sad...

 

...but of course great for model making.

Just like your pictures.