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Summer Hampton Railway


ba14eagle
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Im not sure about the railway name, but this is the start of my new OO gauge line.

Unfortunately, my new garden is slightly less than half the size of my last, but I am now the only person who decides its use, so percentage wise, the new railway gets a bigger share of the space :) So, here it is (or here it was, as the next photo shows).

Unfortunately, thats about as far as im going to get for a couple of weeks, as work and life is going to get in the way a bit of progress - no doubt aided by the weather - but the bit is now firmly between the teeth and I cant wait to get the first posts in the ground :)

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Good Luck with the new railway, I take it you'll use the fence posts that are there + additionals as supports and with that area you will, brick / slab / gravel / concrete between the lines as I don't think there is a need for a mower!!

A 20Ft by 20ft Layout should be enough to give you some interest. It looks as though it will be a indoor layout in Style but built in the garden.

I quite like the name, I live near a Somerton, which is 2 miles from Winterton

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Grass is over rated in gardens. Your last garden railway and the videos you produced was a big influence for me to start my layout and to try and combine the garden with small planes with the layout. Looking forward to seeing your videos once you get this new line up and running

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Great start Iain and good to see some more progress on the forum.

I really enjoy seeing how other members set about constructing their layouts. With me I start at one end and work along until I get back to my starting position but here we see almost the whole layout laid out in one go. Is it just me that's really, really slow?

What height will the finished layout be and how do you propose to access the central areas? Will it be a simple step-over?

I assume you're not going to be using the existing fence posts to support any part of the layout? - at least that's the decision I would personally take in your case but I'm sure that's already been discounted. I imagine only one of the two side boundary fences is actually your responsibility anyway.

I like the name of the railway which keeps the theme going and it raises hopes of some nice weather.

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The boards will be approx 18" off the ground, done by copying Duncan's Minffordd railway, using recycled plastic posts with rails between them. At this height I should be ok to step over to gain access inside the layout. This will be a big improvement on the HFR, as cleaning the track will no longer entail crawling on hands and knees through all the plants and bushes - it used to be quite a scare for my neighbour, when all of a sudden, I would stand up, after cleaning the track and suddenly tower above the fence - especially when she was sunbathing :lol::lol: . My Dad is drawing up plans for building a bridge over the line, so watch this space...

The only place where I was going to fix the boards to the fence was along the right hand side. The boards here are 2ft wide (its going to be a through station) and to save on posts and rails, I am going to have one run of posts and rails and the boards will also be attached to / rested on battens that are to be fixed to the fence posts.

The layout will consist of 4 running lines. I wasnt originally going to have any pointwork on the line, but am now thinking I may well extend down the right hand side fence, to the house, with a couple of sidings, where stock can be placed on /off the railway and then driven onto the circuits.

Due to the weather being so much brighter than forecast, I have today painted / treated the fence on the right hand side and across 1/2 of the bottom. I have enough offcuts of the recycled plastic sheet to be able to line the bottom of the fences, so as to stop the soil rotting the wood, when i plant out under the railway.

The big U shape will be gravelled and the garden in the middle of the inner loop may aquire a small pond and rockery (must have a windmill :lol: and possibly a rotary washing line too :| ). I want to build this bit up enough, so that when you get down low, you lose the view of the sharp curve.

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Hi,

Glad to see you've got the bit between your teeth and have started a new layout. If you need any more info - just shout.

The weather's been pretty abysmal here since the end of October, so I've not been up to much - but I'm hoping to start again soon and I'm looking forward to seeing yours and others progress...

Duncan

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  • 4 weeks later...

Its been a couple of weeks or more, so here is an update on construction progress in the garden - and the railway is definitely in the right thread now as the first train has run - even if it was only 3 yards :lol:

There are now 2/3 of the posts concreted into the garden and about 1/3 of the boards are fixed down. The return of some dry weather - hopefully soon - will see this job completed.

No real problems to report other than when digging the holes along the edge of the decking, I was only able to dig down about 12" before coming up against solid concrete, so these posts were cut down to fit.

From the overall photo you can see Ive made a start laying track - this needs doing, along with the joint bonding, so I can secure the board in place for the crossover / bridge. I work quite slowly when it comes to track laying, as I really only want to do it once! It was a bit uncomfortable after a while, so I moved onto to do some more post hole digging instead. Once all the boards are secured, I am going to concentrate on getting the inner 2 tracks (these will be the up & down slow or relief lines when finished) completed. There will be no great hurry to get the other 2 tracks completed, but if the weather allows it, they may get done much later in the year.

Here are 2 photos, taken today, of work so far completed and 33025 (soon to become 33056) about to perform the first movements.

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The old H&M controller was in use as the power cable on my Hornby Elite has broken at the transformer, so I will need to get a replacement 

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I think it would be really neat if you could take a photo with the same camera,from the same window, one photo portrait one landscape each time you do some work, and once a month.

That way, when the railway is looking really good we can go from grass, to destruction, to progress, to amazing layout like a flip book.

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Great progress Iain and I agree with 'pppp' that the progress photos from above provide a definitive record of what you done so far. Did you get rain yesterday? If so, I bet the surrounding ground is not such a great place to be right now, although at the rate you're going you'll soon be in a position to lay some gravel down.

Keep up the good work - the forum needs some working layouts! :)

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Very little progress today :x due to the inclement weather - typical Ive a week off and the weather turns rubbish...

Anyway, here are 2 pictures - the first was taken on Thursday 31st March and the second was taken this evening - most of the work happened on Friday.

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The weatherman says it will be drier tomorrow, so 2 of the last 4 boards will be secured and more track laid and bonded, which will allow the last 2 boards to be installed - this will involve some supporting brackets - watch this space!

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Thanks Ian

Sporadic bouts of work this week have seen the final boards secured in place. Now for some serious track laying :D and joint bonding :(

In the second and third photos, you will see our engineering solutions to the supports for the flyover section. The metal rod support was needed due to the board not being flat and the trackbed sloped outwards in the corner - its now a lot more level - if anything, the curved board has a nice cant to the inside now.

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Despite the annoying weather, I have managed to complete a whole circuit of track. :)

The inner line now features a second platform line and 2, short, through sidings, where I am planning to put my fuelling point. Neither of these were in the original plan, but I had some spare baseboard space and it gives me the option to have a couple of extra locos out ;)

My Dad, who helped me with a lot of the construction, has finally called it a day with N gauge and has now purchased a handful of Hornby TTS steam locos, so he can come play too. I just hope they manage the inclines :|

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Saturday 16th saw the first full circuits operated by several light locomotives, after I had installed the power feeds to the completed inner circuit.

Happily, they all performed impeccably, without any dramas - phew!

Fine weather today has allowed approximately 12 more yards of track to be laid on the second circuit, leaving about another 15 yards to do (I resisted the urge to go to the local toy & train fair :lol: ). My self imposed milestone was to have 2 full circuits up and running by the end of this month. Weather allowing, this should be achieved - but maybe not all the joint bondings :lol: . Some of the track I have used today was recovered from the HFR and was cut in quite long sections, with all the bondings still in place, so I have saved a little bit of work ;)

Once this is up and running I will need to focus away from the railway itself and start to dig out and lay the pathway around the inner part of the layout and then edge up the borders under the base boards. We can then install the wooden footbridge that my Dad has nearly completed and install it toward the bottom left hand corner of the layout :) Some additional screening added to the top of the fences would also be beneficial in keeping out prying eyes 8-)

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Fast work, I am enjoying watching the progress.

 

ba14eagle said:

) Some additional screening added to the top of the fences would also be beneficial in keeping out prying eyes 8-)

I agree its best to keep things private . Actually a few years ago I could see a garden railway layout over a fence when I visited my friends flat. It inspired me to go and do one.

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ba14eagle said:

Saturday 16th saw the first full circuits operated by several light locomotives, after I had installed the power feeds to the completed inner circuit....

I bet that felt good. If it was me I'd have been well chuffed. You've made really good progress in a relatively short space of time and two running lines by the end of the month would be excellent work. I'd certainly spare some time to sort the groundworks out as soon as possible.

It's good to hear you've now got your Dad involved and that he's seen the light and crossed over into the OO zone. I'm sure that your mutual interest will see things moving forward more quickly and there'll be added enjoyment too.

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Hi Iain, great news you are back so quickly, have to agree what Mick has said, pure awesome, be looking forward to see what you have planned for your stations. Did you draw up a plan before you started work on your layout, like the adjustable brackets you used for your spiral.

Spirals take so long to build I am working on mine half way there, can only spend a couple days a week on my layout, will get there, hard having a disabled son, wife can't do it all.

Keep the good work up and lots of pics and video.

Tony form down under ;);)

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  • 3 weeks later...

3 weeks or so from my last photos, I thought it about time that I posted another.

Not a huge amount to report - mainly down to work and the weather, but I made steady progress :)

Im a couple of yards off finishing the 3rd line. Ive been busy digging out the path and as a result ive created Ben Nevis inside the loop! And there is the pond to go in there yet!!

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