Photo Album Added

I have added a photo album for the Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers AGM which was held at Peterborough.

I have also received the replacement electric motors for my IP engineering loco kit from MFA. I was warned that the one supplied is not suitable for remote control and the new motor after being recommended by the owner of AnDel models. I will be starting the construction of the loco soon (hopefully this weekend) and will put regular postings and pictures up so you can follow my progress.

The Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers AGM

The AGM and exhibition of garden railways was held at the Peterborough show ground and featured several wonderful layouts as well as most of the retailers, engineers and manufacturers in the country.

I picked up a loco kit from IP Engineering plus a remote control system to go with it, a book on gardening for your garden railway and a station building kit.

Pictures and progress with the kits will be added soon, I havn't had time to do much as other domestic chores have got in the way.

New album and video added

I have added a new photo album about Peters Railway plus a video of a cab ride along the line.

I am still hoping to get the foundation trench dug this afternoon despite the wet weather. The forecast is for it to move away and it does look like it is brightening up out there.

Making a start

I had a nice day last Sunday playing trains at Peter's line again, a photo album will be added soon, and I have now started on the station foundations.

The work so far has been removing the covering fabric, bark chippings and the water barrel from the site, tomorrow should see a hole appear here that will then have a nice layer of hardcore added so that the concrete can go on and finally the cement blocks. I hope to have them in place by next weekend.

This Saturday is the 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers AGM in Peterborough and I hope to come home with some goodies, hopefully a post on the subject will appear on Saturday afternoon or Sunday if not.

Simple pointwork!

This video was posted to Facebook by a railway magazine.

Albanian Lignite Mine Railway

Playing Trains Again

The weather has certainly improved although today we have had a strong and slightly cold wind as well as a few heavy showers along with plenty of sunshine. This should mean that progress will be made on the railway.

I have removed all the old wood after taking off the framing to be used as stakes to mark out the new line plus the grass has been cut and the bricks etc have been neatly stacked ready for use. This has left me with a very large open area just shouting out to be filled with railway.

I would normally have been doing work this Sunday but I am visiting Peters Railway again (see the photo album for details of this line) to have a day of playing trains whilst the Wife goes to see dancing on ice. This means that no work will be done although an early finish tomorrow might enable me to get the station and steam up area marked out and perhaps even a few shovel fulls of earth moved, you never know.

Next week I have the Friday and Saturday off, Friday will be put to good use removing the rubbish down to the dump and I may even get the foundation trench for the station completed. Saturday will see me at the 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers AGM where money will be spent.

Pictures from all these events will appear so keep on reading :-)

Freestyle Planning

I bought 10 concrete blocks today so that I can get on with planning the first part of the railway. The picture below shows a general layout for the station with the blocks arranged to work out how many I need.

The 16mm layout is about right with the station and its loop on the left and the engine shed and coaling stage (aka steam up siding) on the right. The 45mm gauge line will pass through on the extreme left had side behind the station platform.

I hope to get the foundation trench for this first stage dug on Sunday with concrete going in either Sunday or during the week. I hope to get the blocks in and the space filled by the end of April ready to add the track and platform sometime in May.

New photo album added

I have added a photo album of pictures taken during my recent visit to Keith Neat's 45mm gauge line, see the photo albums page on the right hand menu.

The OO line is no more.

The OO line's track and baseboards have now been lifted, the boards will be disassembled so that I can use the wood as stakes to mark out the new line.

Only the concrete walls need to be demolished, hopefully this will happen sometime this week, weather permitting.

The garden at the end of the day.

Demolition

Today I finally started to remove the old OO gauge line, about a half of it is now up.

Start of the job, first section up.

The ants loved the section built on concrete

Extent of the work so far.

The wood was in reasonable condition overall however the ants got between the wood baseboard and the concrete on one section and the wood supports were very soft and wet.

The final bits will be removed over the next few days with the concrete section being demolished last. Once it is all out of the way marking out of the new line will commence with construction starting soon after.

Playing Trains

Had a nice visit to a local garden railway, the sun shone and the steam loco's ran. It was all very nice.
Here are a few pictures from the day, a full album will be added soon.

The garden during a lull in the proceedings 

This freelance railcar happily grinding its way round the layout

Thomas with Annie and Clarabel in tow made an appearance to give the kids something to play with

The big boys toys were soon back

This little steamer ran so smoothly

The day ended with yet more steam

The weekend is looking good :-)

Finally the weather looks like it will be improving. The forecast is for a sunny day with the temperature into double figures, I hope so because I am visiting somebody else's garden railway tomorrow.

Just to celebrate here is a picture taken of my old 16mm gauge line, hopefully it will not be long before this will be repeated.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will see me building a wardrobe for the Mother-in-Law plus visiting the aforementioned railway so the task of dismantling the OO line will begin on Sunday and, if I don't get it done, continue on Monday as well. Next task is then to replace the fence at the end of the garden so that building of the station area can begin.

The new line will be built in stages, the station being the first stage, it will also be the largest part and probably the tallest. I hope to get a station building at the 16mm NGM show at the end of the month.

The following picture shows the state of play at the moment, hopefully the next pictures will show a lot of changes.

More Bl@*dy Snow!

I had hoped to get out and start track lifting on the OO gauge but we have had a very cold wind and snow all day which has prevented me. The forecast is for the weekend to warm up and that should allow me to get a lot done as I have 3 days off.

During these days of inactivity I have been planning what to model  to run on the line. I fancy some bogie coaches and the 16mm Society's annual special on the Leighton Buzzard Railway included plans for some of their coaches. They are nice simple designs so I think they fit the bill nicely. Now just need to get some suitable plasticard and start construction.

Has Spring finally sprung?

It is still very cold out with frosts in the mornings and a biting wind. But, get out of the wind and the sunshine is nice and warm, today we had sunshine most of the day!

I do hope that this means that spring is on its way, once the winds stop coming from the north it will hopefully warm up nicely and I can finally get some concrete in (once I get the station area marked up and dug out of course).

I have been able to tidy my sheds up and the workshop is now accessible allowing me to get on with some essential modelling jobs.

During the tidy up I found my last remaining coach, a 4-wheel open top vehicle, plus the wheels and axle boxes for my remaining kits and a length of fine chain to go across the coach entrances as safety chain.

Work will continue and I hope to have a bit more news by saturday.