Sunday 26 February 2023

New work area

 As part of the railways rebuild and me getting back into my train building again I have recently built a new workstation which I plan on putting to good use to build the large cache of kits that I have. 


I have lots to do both on the railway and on my cosplay projects but now I do have the room, at least once the last few bits have been tidied away.

Tuesday 13 December 2022

Catch up

 So my plans to do more on the railway have been scuppered by, of all things, a new grandson.

I am now well and truly recovered from my operation but spending time with my Grandson Oakley as well as my Daughters wedding in Italy preceded by my new Son-in-Laws stag do in Prague has restricted my time for railway modelling. 

One decision I have made is to remove the current railway and replace it with an elevated one. There are 2 reasons for this, 1 is that the garden had got out of hand and was looking scruffy and 2 is that my health problems showed that a ground level line needs a level of fitness that, whilst I currently have it, might limit me in the future.

I will update the site in the next few days to reflect projects and progress. 

Sunday 10 October 2021

Getting back into it.

 The past couple of months have seen very little being done in terms of the garden railway. The garden itself is very untidy and I haven't been able to get any modelling done mainly down to my recovery from my recent operation and, in the last 2 weeks, the mess and upheaval associated with a bathroom being turned into a wet room. The work is now done and the boxes I had to take down from the loft have been returned to their storage. 

This means I can now get at my workbench again so I will get on with the winter jobs of mending, building and planning plus the portable layout will get more work with track going down so I can work on the baseboards.


Sunday 5 September 2021

All Change

 Several things have been happening with the railway the first being that I have built a set of portable boards to build a garden railway on tour. Track is now being lifted from the garden ready for its rebuild later in the Autumn and then Spring. 

The baseboards assembled in the garden. No joints between boards are done up tight as the garden is very uneven and I couldnt get it flat.

The boards had a coat of matt green.

The boards were used at the North Weald and District Miniature Railway's Model Fest but had an oval of 45mm gauge track on so a friend could run his stock. This was down to the fact that I had my gall bladder removed and they had to open me up so I was unable to do very much. Hopefully in a week or so I will be able to get track down and trains running.

As sitting and leaning forward has been painful for me recently I have not been able to use my down time to get kits built however I can now do so for short periods so I will get on with it and get some videos made of the construction.

I did get trains running at the Model Fest using my test track. Whilst it is not the best to display with I did get things running and it attracted lots of kids who loved it when Wallace and Gromit went for a run.

Dan Foards gauge 1 trains doing their thing

The test track with W&G featuring.


Friday 21 May 2021

Rain, rain and more rain!

 I had hoped to get the spring video on the railway recorded and published by now but a combination of health problems and the horrible weather has put that on hold. 

The garden desperately needs attention as the grass is growing fast due to the weather and the plants surrounding the railway are overgrowing it everywhere.

I am getting on with the kits I have been given for Christmas and my Birthday and I will put a post up about them once they are complete.

Thursday 1 April 2021

Short update

 I haven't made progress on any projects at present as my gall bladder has been playing me up again although I have got hold of some plastic drain pipe for free that will be used for some of the support posts for the railway when I get going with the rebuild.

I have a few days off over Easter and I hope to get some progress on projects and give some of my locos a charge up and run on the new test track.

Tuesday 16 March 2021

The latest from the Workbench

 The Trench Wagon is now complete and a new kit is now on the workbench plus one of my non functional locos is on the bench to be completed. I have also got the base for yet another locomotive.

The Oxford Circus Trench Wagon has been completed although the shell needs more work.

The next kit is this working tipper wagon from Phil Sharples

Wallace and Gromit have had some work done on them as Gromits wheels didnt go round.

Another new kit has come from Raven Kreativ

Its a nice, neat snowplough.

I purchased this little wooden box from The Range which will be turned into a small tram loco.

The tipper is slowly coming together

American diesel, 'Bruce', is back on the workbench to make it opperational. Name and number plates are on order and I hope to get it done this week.