Smallest garden railway?

[33C]

From this.......to that!

And then, this!

Edited April 28, 2022 by 33C
added detail

[Michael Hodgson]

Does a window box on a balcony count as a garden?

If it's big enough to accommodate a gnome, I suppose it must be.

[33C]

My planter is 14' x 18" reinforced concrete. With a railway! 

[Nortonville Phil]

That is very neat. My daughter gave me this same train set as a gag gift last year.

 

P.A. Randall

Texas

Edited December 4, 2020 by Nortonville Phil

[33C]

They are great fun! I'm looking for more now because they lend themselves to a plethora of narrow gauge subjects. "Pass the Colin Garrett books......!"

[Nortonville Phil]

I just measured the track gauge of my set and it is 1/2 inch (12.7mm) gauge. In the US a minority of modelers use this for On2 models in 1/4 inch = 1 foot scale. I may have to build something with mine.

 

P.A. Randall

Texas

[33C]

They did not take me long to do. 13 hours for the first and about 20 hours for the second but the fun part was trying to decide which prototype to make until i saw these pictures....

[Nortonville Phil]

I just had the idea that one could build models to 9mm scale using this track to represent Haywood 15 inch gauge.

 

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/heywood/heywood.htm

[33C]

Not a gag gift anymore, now it's getting serious! I'm now thinking Romney,Hythe & Dymchurch, Ravenglass & Eskdale and WW1 trench railway...............!!

[33C]

47 minutes ago, Nortonville Phil said:

I just had the idea that one could build models to 9mm scale using this track to represent Haywood 15 inch gauge.

 

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/heywood/heywood.htm

I'm liking "ELLA" !

[009 micro modeller]

2 hours ago, Nortonville Phil said:

I just had the idea that one could build models to 9mm scale using this track to represent Haywood 15 inch gauge.

 

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/heywood/heywood.htm

 

I had one of these sets several years ago, which was used to model 15 inch gauge in 1:32. I also built a garden railway, but an even smaller one - the track from one of the smaller circle sets was glued to a paving slab, embedded in a rockery.

[Nearholmer]

These are really entertaining - great work!

 

Do they have a battery and motor in the loco, or are they wind-up?

[smiths park]

I've picked up about 10 of them, they sell them for £1.99 out of Home Bargains. What started as a silly gift from my son has ended up with narrow gauge rabbit warren with Shorty type Dapol railbus chassis and a little garden or should that be back yard)  layout around my Belfast sink pond. Great fun. Love your little wagons, I think I''ll give that a go.

 

[009 micro modeller]

8 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

These are really entertaining - great work!

 

Do they have a battery and motor in the loco, or are they wind-up?

 

If it is the same one as I used, they take a normal AA battery.

[33C]

10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

These are really entertaining - great work!

 

Do they have a battery and motor in the loco, or are they wind-up?

An AA battery but i have seen a wind-up mini train set on the pocket money toys rack in my corner shop which could be fun. £2.99 for a loco,tender,2 wagons and a circle of track on a blister pack with a track gauge of about an inch! Now looking for a "Krazy Train"!

[33C]

Slightly larger than the above but super cheap (from a bootsale) and super fun!! Gauge is OO, bodies are O, figures are modified "Poundshop" soldiers and a rerouted headlight! Garden railway for under £3.55! (Set/Plasticard/soldiers)

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by 33C
added photo.

[Ben B]

That is marvellous, really creative rebuild of the toy loco into the D&H tank loco!

 

Quick question, the roughly TT battery train set, how does it fare in the garden? Does the track suffer much from heat-warping? I can't imagine it's terrific quality plastic used.  I've got a couple of those sets knocking around, and have been wondering about a mini garden railway in the raised beds for next year.. 

[33C]

It isn't down permanently, only when the watery shafts of light doth beckon me yonder to the planter and lo! there upon the the naked sod do i place the impermanent way as my whim takes me! Anyway, it's always peeing down since i made it so don't know how it's going to fare on a HOT day! Plus, i need more straight track as the curves are handed and the wife keeps moving stuff about and the bulbs are coming through but i have plans HA HA HA HA! The rear planter is empty and it's the same size so, thinking about a mini Darjeeling OR WW1 trench system. That's what i like about this type of railway, pick up the track and move it to where the work site is, e.g. my Brickworks/sugar-cane prototypes.

[009 micro modeller]

8 hours ago, Ben B said:

That is marvellous, really creative rebuild of the toy loco into the D&H tank loco!

 

Quick question, the roughly TT battery train set, how does it fare in the garden? Does the track suffer much from heat-warping? I can't imagine it's terrific quality plastic used.  I've got a couple of those sets knocking around, and have been wondering about a mini garden railway in the raised beds for next year.. 

 

7 hours ago, 33C said:

It isn't down permanently, only when the watery shafts of light doth beckon me yonder to the planter and lo! there upon the the naked sod do i place the impermanent way as my whim takes me! Anyway, it's always peeing down since i made it so don't know how it's going to fare on a HOT day! Plus, i need more straight track as the curves are handed and the wife keeps moving stuff about and the bulbs are coming through but i have plans HA HA HA HA! The rear planter is empty and it's the same size so, thinking about a mini Darjeeling OR WW1 trench system. That's what i like about this type of railway, pick up the track and move it to where the work site is, e.g. my Brickworks/sugar-cane prototypes.

 

I did have one of my sets permanently in the garden - it lasted for about 5 years before there were a few cracks, mostly around the track joints. I repaired some of these but obviously it will eventually need to be relaid if I still want to use it. It seemed to be more affected by extreme cold than heat.

 

The handed curves are a bit of a pain and are one of the reasons I didn’t expand out to a larger garden layout, along with the difficulty of sourcing extra straight pieces. Similarly, although roughly the same gauge, it will not run on normal TT/H0m track, except on the curves - slightly wider gauge/different wheel profile.

[009 micro modeller]

Here is some of the stock that I built. (I feel like I’ve posted these photos on RMWeb already but can’t remember where).

 

The loco from my initial set was rebuilt in a very basic way, using plasticard to extend the sides and reusing the original roof. This gave it a narrow and slightly top heavy appearance, a bit odd but not entirely inappropriate for a 15 inch gauge loco.

 

 

For the rest of the same set, I used soft wood and card, coloured with felt tips (painted brass corner pieces for the wagon).  The wagon is on the ‘tender’ chassis and the coach on the caboose chassis. The coach was later duplicated by another one, using the caboose chassis from another set. The coaches only seat two each, as again I didn’t make any effort to increase the width when constructing the new bodies.

 

 

 

The track was used to make this layout, on which the water sadly suffered from shrinkage:

 

 

Subsequently, I built the garden line. The original stock ran on this but the lightweight, non-weatherproof materials used for the hauled stock was obviously a slight concern (although light weight is sometimes an advantage given the single driven axle on the loco). My modelling skills had improved and I decided to make a second generation of all-plastic stock, for both indoor and outdoor use. This coach was deliberately built wider (to seat four) overcoming another problem with the original coaches. Again the caboose chassis was used:

 

 

I also attempted to build a flat wagon on a tender chassis (I should have a picture somewhere, the wheel arches make flat wagons a bit difficult though). The inside frames on the chassis suggest that a mine tub might look good.

 

The loco this time was a diesel, based on a US H0 scale body (I think by Model Power?). Originally this was going to be used without much adaptation to build a sort of 00n3 loco on the toy chassis, but I decided to stick with 1n15, so the cab was rebuilt and plasticard plated over the sides and front to bulk it out. The diesel outline meant that I could dispense with the coupling rods, visually one of the weakest aspects of the toy chassis. The side frames, with axlebox assemblies taken from a scrapped 00 gauge wagon, hopefully make it look less toylike. The non-functional unflanged middle axle has been dropped out.

 

 

 

 

The rear coupling has been modified to cope with the larger overhang compared to the original body. I also had to make a frame on the chassis itself - the body is a friction fit over this but possibly sits at a slightly wrong height:

 

 

Annoyingly, it turned out that the diesel is out of gauge for the garden line. It should work on the indoor layout and anyway, I’m planning to build another indoor layout at some point. This time I will be using the trick I use when using N gauge set track in 009, of removing alternate sleepers to improve the appearance.

[33C]

Loving your work! The red loco could benefit from chopping off the chimney and an extension up from the smoke-box and then re-gluing the chimney to it to give a paper mill vibe. I have since acquired a 1980's, larger set that has the same loco, the stock is hollow(?) but it has a longer oval AND 2 points (L/H+R/H!) Fun time once i finish this Chad Valley project. (see "Cheapo train sets-get creative" thread.)

Edited December 26, 2020 by 33C
added detail

[009 micro modeller]

9 hours ago, 33C said:

Loving your work! The red loco could benefit from chopping off the chimney and an extension up from the smoke-box and then re-gluing the chimney to it to give a paper mill vibe. I have since acquired a 1980's, larger set that has the same loco, the stock is hollow(?) but it has a longer oval AND 2 points (L/H+R/H!) Fun time once i finish this Chad Valley project. (see "Cheapo train sets-get creative" thread.)

 

Thank you! Yes, if I was building the red loco now it would have a lot more done to it I think. Somewhere on RMWeb someone has used one of these sets to build a beach railway for the cake box challenge. I’m quite interested in finding a set with a more conventional track gauge as the track (with the handed curves) seems to be a limitation of this system.

 

 I have wondered whether it would be possible to bash two wagons to make a bogie chassis but that might be taking it a bit too far.

 

Edit: for anyone who wants to join in the fun, a version of the set is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Funtime-3901-PL2800-Train-Tin/dp/B014ELPSB6

 

This seems quite expensive compared to when I bought one. There used to also be card-backed blister-pack versions without a tin and only with the six curves to make a circle (no straights) marketed as My Toy My Little Train or Roadsters Cutie Train (among others). These were under £2 but don’t seem to have been available more recently (it’s the tin that makes the larger set expensive, I suspect). Obviously it may have just got lost in the multiple search results for ‘plastic train set’; difficult to search more specifically. At one point there were also packs of additional straights being sold separately.

Edited December 26, 2020 by 009 micro modeller

[Ben B]

1 hour ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

Somewhere on RMWeb someone has used one of these sets to build a beach railway for the cake box challenge.

 

That would be me

 

 

 

Way back, I started building a micro layout using components from these sets, cutting and rebuilding the rails and points to try and solve the limitations of the system (I bought ten of the sets when my local Poundland had them in stock).  It only needed to be a photography prop, and the brief changed rendering it unnecessary.  Probably for the best, as the gradients defeated most of the locomotives...

 

 

[009 micro modeller]

30 minutes ago, Ben B said:

That would be me

 

It looks great! Are you able to run yours?

[Ben B]

2 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

It looks great! Are you able to run yours?

 

Alas no; the Cakebox build was done in a hurry, only ever intended to be a scenic diorama...  The motors in the locomotives would have stopped me fitting drivers, so I used two dummy chassis (that had formed the driving trailers for a pair of the sets that had bodies modelled on the Eurotunnel electrics).  I wouldn't mind doing something more permanent at some point, or at least a full roundy-roundy layout based on the concept, so making the locomotives work is very much a problem for Future Benjy.

 

I do like how long these sets have been around; I got one for the princely sum of £1 back in the early 1990's when Poundland first opened, with a chunky tank loco (that looked like a knock-off of the Hornby starter tank engine).  It had rather better quality track than the newer sets, with moulded sleeper bases.  I'll try and find a pic of it at some point; the sets got talked about in an article in the Train Collectors Society mag, so I thought I might send in a shot of my old set.