Tks!!

Standard ply is about £35 a sheet so if I cover it better than I did last time would that last OK? Or are there any other materials now available that could be used?

A few years ago I saw a really nice garden railway in OO which was just two simple lines. The chap had built a brick rectangle (like a raised flower bed) and had sunk the track bed into this raised bed.

I would like something similar. Doesn't have to be complicated. No points, just two continuous loops.

Anyone know or seen anything similar so I can gather some inspiration? I think it was in a Model Rail garden special but was a good few years ago now.

The Summer Hampton Railway is built on, what was, my 15' x 15' patch of grass, in my back garden. This is my second railway outdoors, the first being the Hampton Field Railway (search on YouTube) which was more a garden railway. That went through 3 phases - at the outset it was an O gauge line, then G scale and then OO gauge! A forced change of home led me to my current home and garden, which in all respects, is a lot smaller!

Construction of Summer Hampton started in March 2016 and full running achieved during June 2016

The baseboards are recycled plastic material, supported on recycled plastic posts. I had previously used cast concrete for my trackbed, but that was effectively at ground level and I wanted this railway to be higher - we are all getting older and I didnt want too much bending down!!

The decision to use recycled plastic was made to try and minimise maintenance on this aspect of the build, as I am fully aware that garden railways involve enough maintenance, without worrying about what your wood is doing... There is some linear expansion / contraction with the material, which needs keeping an eye on, during the course of the year.

The railway isnt for displaying my skills at modelling fine detail, but for running scale length trains, of a fairly specific time period, from my youth. This being the 12 - 15 months immediately prior to sectorisation liveries appearing on BR. I have recently started running some steam outline models, but I dont give them the same attention, detail wise, as I do the diesels - they are just run for fun One issue I have experienced with the steam locos is that they cope less well with the steep gradients the railway has. I am currently in the process of retro fitting dcc concepts powerbase to the gradients on the railway. I have yet to see if this completely overcomes the problems - fingers crossed!!

My railways also feature on the OO garden Railway Forum on the web. If youve never looked at this forum, its a very good source of information and ideas, covering many aspects of garden railways, in smaller scales.

Videos of the Summer Hampton Railway and the previous Hampton Field Railway, can be accessed following this link;

https://www.youtube.com/user/ba14eagle/featured

This was how the garden looked in March 2016, before construction started.

This was the railway just 3 months after construction started - and I still have a full time job on the 12" to 1' railway to do too!

14 months later, August 2017, and the plants have matured too nicely in places!

The station and signalbox lighting were installed by my late Father and are solar powered, through an accumulator battery. Dont ask me how it works - I havent a clue

Given that the outdoor section won't be ballasted or scenicked per se, the 'extra realism' of finescale track would be wasted - but am not sure how it would handle the weather.

Obviously whatever I use, it'll need a good clean before use  and all the other extras - but would appreciate thoughts.

The end of the line. Will post some more pictures when I have done some more.

The layout design is a module design, I can't have it set up permanently, one reason why it is taking longer to build, layout measurements are 52ft X 30ft stage one, I will extend more on after the layout is up and running which I hope to run the first test loco in April on half of the layout , from the back of the house left corner module to around to the spiral and all the front modules through to the car port and around to the right corner back corner module.

I am modelling the layout on the GSR route, Great Southern Railway owns the famous Indian Pacific, Ghan, Overlander and Southern Spirit, my Indian Pacific has18 passenger cars plus two IP NR class locos, the station is modelled on Sydney Central station building, my model won't be to full scale mainly the width of the building, the building to scale be over 6ft in width, mine I had to cut back 5 windows on each side but still be a stunning site indeed.  The Indian Pacific starts her journey from Sydney via Adelaide to Perth, the journey takes three days and two nights, on peak time the IP have 28 passenger cars which I have other passenger cars I can use the train has to be split up on two platforms, my layout I will have to await to stage two of the station complex to do that, being on a budget is I can't build the whole layout, doing it in stages, Sydney wont be built to later, I will be modelling East Perth terminal the end of her journey, sure be a fast clock time table indeed. 

And freight train in between passenger trains, hope it's not too long before I switch to DCC

Back to the construction I have built curve sections so they can slot together with ease and not too much on my knees, same with the wiring be plug and play I will explain as I move along how I did track curved joins, the modules bolt together, the first station module is different to the other station modules pics of that to follow

Here is a rough plan of my layout , pic two is of all the front approach modules both ends and three station modules, all the front modules has four legs to make it easy to join up and bolt together, stage two of the front of the layout construction be the car port area which be on a two present grade down to the back corner module onto the cable stay bridge I be building length 27feet double deck bridge., modelled on the bridge between Denmark and Sweden I wanted a modern bridge.

This layout is my dream layout so if I build it in stages she will get completes, nearly there, I got back into the hobby in 1995, I actually have a loco running number NR95, my first Aussie diesel NR class loco to pull my Indian Pacific

More to come keep posted, ozam from down under keeping on moving ahead, enjoy

here is today video

and here is a playlist to the other videos of the series so far

any comment or question please fell free to comment

Richard

Trains in the attic

I has been a long time coming, since I was about 12 when my Dad announced we'd build a garden railway - that never happened... A couple of false starts, two house moves and several life changing events later, I am finally building my garden railway!

I have moved into a remote spot not a million miles from where I used to live and have absolutely fallen on my feet with my new home. First and foremost I had to think of the family and as an added bonus it has a great garden for a railway!

I decided to stick the drone up in the air for a decent over head photograph to draw the rough plans.

Doing a rough pace around the garden I should need approximately 90-95 yards or track to make one complete circuit, there will obviously be siding and loops and other goings on to complete the basic circuit. The next job is to work out the levels, I have a laser level to borrow from a friend and I can then work out what civil engineering needs to take place, excited!

I'm currently building a 00 guage railway in my back garden and was wondering what's the best sort of thing for ballasting the track