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New railway in Scotland?


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No physical progress this.week as I'm away with work but the idea of what I want to do is starting to firm up in my head.

A few of you had said it was hard to get an understanding of the overall layout of the garden so last weekend when I was on the roof doing some maintenance I took a couple of pictures which show things a bit better.....hhere is the best

IMG_2015032613643.jpg.e64378befebce4944588d50bfa0427bc.jpg

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...I am quite excited as I've realised I can now model something I have wanted to do for years........I grew up in Shrewsbury which has.a reversing triangle with a huge signal box in the middle......as as kid I really wanted to build this in model form but the space requirements where massive and it just was not doable indoors....

That's the beauty of building outdoors and I think it outweighs all the disadvantages we seem to come across. Just make sure you get it right from the outset because there's nothing worse than having to rip things up and start again.

Be careful with gradients. You'll be surprised how little additional weight is needed to make a stuttering loco haul a decent load up a gradient. I've had occasions where just resting the tip of my finger on the roof of a loco was sufficient to enable it to climb up a gentle gradient with a train in tow whereas without, it faltered hopelessly. On the other hand you might be surprised to find just how much trouble that apparently decent loco has going up a gradient with just a few wagons or coaches added behind. It will need some serious testing and forethought if you intend having gradients.

That's a great space you have available. It would appear that the pathway can be located anywhere so you don't necessarily have to plan around it. Bet you're itching to get started!

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Mick,

Even my very basic experiment showed that different locos behave very differently on even mild gradients.....wWhile I have no doubt I could operate all the way to the "top corner" with careful loco selection and a bit of faffing about its just not worth the hassle when sticking to the left hand side of the garden and the rockery I can get to an almost level gradient without an excessive height at the garage so I'll stick with that to start with.......There is nothing stopping the addition of a steeper branchline later for short trains and specially selected locomotives. The only downside is that I really need to start at the top of the current path and work downwards to ensure the correct elevation at the patio.......iit would have been great to start with a loop at the patio to get trains running but that leaves too many potential gotchas for my limited civil engineering experience!

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If I can add my 2p here - I have found slotted concrete fence posts to be an invaluable source of pain-in-the-butt free track bed. They are reinforced, the slots when back-filled with earth make them rock-solid and they look great. Dig a straight trench with a hoe and spade and just drop them in!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Firstly Happy Easter to you all!

Took advantage of the decent weather to get out in the garden. Started off with the laser level and took some more accurate height readings......a virtually level run is going to be possible.

Next in a fit of enthusiasm I decided to "cut the first sod"

IMG_2015040518959.jpg.eae54ea01a4b97531a1ed99b641c4b9e.jpg

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Hi garethep, Good to see you have made your first move in a new railway, good move using rubber Crete as a road bed my old design was to have a cutting into the back yard, my wife didn't approve it so decided to redesign my layout, was a pity because I had two modules just about finished , that had a tunnel involved , was scrapped. money is an issue as well, working on a budget, cooling down my side of the world, be able to work during the day

Be looking forward to seeing more pics of the progress of you layout and you could move over the 00 garden railway thread were we all are.

Forgot to tell you my family has Scottish connections I am tracing the family tee where they have come form in Scotland, would love to visit Scotland if I had the chance to.

Happy modelling form down under, Tony

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Tony....yes nearly at the point that I can call it an unfinished railway rather than just a planned one! As your temperatures are dripping we are just starting to get light evenings and marginally better weather so hopefully progress can be made......I'm away for a week or two with work but looking forward to cracking on when I get back.

As for Scotland, I'm merely an English interloper but it's a nice part of the world to live and worth a visit one day.

Cheers

Gareth

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well with typical bad timing we have had 2 solid weeks of decent weather and I have been in Plymouth for most of it!

Luckily today has been good weather (in between the hailstorms anyway....The joy of living in scotland).

so I got some more ground works done.....I've now cut out the turf for the full extent of the main run along the path. The level at the top end still needs dropping an inch or so to give clearance under the tunnel slab. Then it's a case of pouring the concrete cutting and laying some lightweight block foundations for the raised section. These will be faced with lengths of "log roll" to keep the planning department happy!

Here is a picture of the work so far.

IMG_2015042650497.jpg.58f1866ffdc5d5b9f487447a4120f36f.jpg

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