James Hilton Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Well things evolve and it's worth sharing how a carpet based trainset morphs into a scenic garden line before any sod is cut, well I hope it's worth it! The EJ&KLR was started at Christmas with basically Version 3 purchased - previous versions had been based on the siding track pack or second hand track purchases. Version 3 gave us a decent run, at least for indoors, but I had a desire to add a shed and stock storage area and the loop wasn't long enough so things stretched a little in January to Version 4. However whilst track was purchased to get us to 4, the plans and ideas continued to evolve - taking the track plan of the station and shed area and building it into a more scenic garden setting. This plan, the first of these garden based ideas (5) was designed to give a long run, and make use of existing shrubs as view blocks - however it was designed before the garden had been surveyed and was aspirational. Interestingly, when I did measure up the proposed flower bed location I found it smaller than I imagined, or at least the LGB turned out bigger than I thought. The existing trees and stumps were thought best treated as datum 'immovable objects' hence why the line tries to weave around these in plans 6-9. Starting with 6 it was obvious that I had taken some aspect of 5 and shoe-horned it in without thinking about the flow of the line. I was unhappy with the geometric feel and thought it looked too much like a big trainset, not helped by exclusive use of R1 curves. Trying to incorporate more flow led to 7, which also used R2 curves to give gentler more eye friendly curves at each end. However it still felt a little too perfect geometrically. This stayed as it was for some time before a conversation I'd had with Dad about transition curves popped into my head. Version 8 of the plan doesn't quite fit (notice the small track gap) but I figured this could be easily sorted with a short length of extra straight track (it's about 40mm), however I used the R2 on the ends of the straights to give a transition and less perfect layout and I was happy. It wasn't the world's largest or most operationally interesting lines, but would give a scenic run, and some continous running, whilst maintaining the station area along one edge for maintenance purposes. However I was still not happy with the curves so tinkering continues - and as you can see in 9, by ditching the R1s, and mixing R3s as well things start to become much more natural. Will I find a balance between them? I don't know - the price of track is such that I need to find a comprimise I am happy with - and recognise that even if I build Version 8, it will only be the start of a lifetime of garden railways that can evolve as my tastes, experience and wallet develops! (lifted straight from my blog http://ejklr.blogspot.com for your interest) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brixham Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Hi! One thing I've noticed with your layouts is the way you place points, so that there are always reverse curves, which is quite twisty with R1 sections. Using your diagram 3 as an example, if you swap the two points around, so that the curved portion completes the 180 degree curve, and then add a curved section after the straight part of the point, you then end up without reverse curves, and with parallel tracks ( at reduced centres ). However, the down side of this is that the geometry no longer enables use of standard 300mm track sections. By now you will have researched track prices, and found that the 41, 52, 75, 82 and 150mm pieces cost almost as much as a 300mm straight. When acquiring bundles of second hand track, I've kept the odd lengths together to make make-up pieces, as I temd to make temporary layouts. I've also sawn up 300mm sections to make my own short pieces. LGB sell the brass fishplates/joiners as spares at a reasonable price, soldering them onto code 332 rail requires a really big iron. You'll also need some power isolation, unless you're going digital. happy planning! Malcolm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brixham Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 One more thing.....your railway will eventually have visiting locos, so plan sections where they could run. Generally R3 will accomodate virtually anything, as well as looking better than R1 and R2, which you can use in the sidings. Soon be warm enough to spend more time outdoors sorting out the Brixham branch line. Malcolm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Thanks for the advice Malcom. I had toyed with doing what you suggested to the points, but in version 10 (below) the points are moving away from the ends of the curves now anyway. It's a good thought though and one I'll explore... Version 10 has evolved further after further 'planning and costing' meetings where sanction for more space and a larger budget was granted - it still uses R1 and R2 in the end curves, but also R3 and R5 - along with a bridge! The grade has been set at about 2.5%, but version 11 is already in the pipeline, which stretched the loop slightly to allow longer trains (2 bogie coach and loco - the longest I'll ever plan to run where I need to loop a train out) and removing the R1 curves from the layout altogether. I have in mind that the bridge will be a large girder affair, I'd love the LGB massive 1m long one, like the one on the Steyralbahn in Austria, still in use on the preserved section! I've been keeping my blog up to date with more developments on the line, planning, repaints, sketches and building construction! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon020 Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Ah ha, here's where you've been hiding James. That plan is looking interesting.. just wondering how that fits in with flower beds and lawns...? Glad I found you over here... will keep watching here and on your EJ&KLR blog. All the best... Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Hi Jon - yes I've not bothered updating my 4mm blogs on here for a while as there has been no small scale modelling since before Christmas Funny you should ask about interface with the garden, I was just pondering if I could 'morph' a 3D view (like above) into photos I've got of the planned garden location, to see how it looks... that's a job for this evening Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 As promised... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveBedding Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Very nice! It puts all of your planning into perspective - I'd better not let SWMBO see this as we have a loft full of of LGB and a promise that it'll go in the garden 'some day'... ...this might just remind her of that plan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PaulRhB Posted February 22, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 22, 2011 Now all you need to do is add a second station nearest the camera so you can operate a railway in miniature Then there's a branch off the new station . . . . ( By the way, whasis all this planin' stuff? I thought our excursion into the garden were meant to be slowed by suddenly realising we were the one critical piece short and having to send off for one last piece!) If you do cut down LGB track it leaves the rails to slide around so consider either drilling and tapping a small brass screw through the web into the base of the rail or aralditing it to hold it there if it causes any problems. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon020 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 As promised... James, excellent.... just enough space on the patio to sit in a relaxing chair on a summer's eve watching the trains go by. I presume there will be an inaugral run at the opening ;-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brixham Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Hi, interesting plan! I like the morphing of the schematic onto an image. The beauty of sectional LGB track is that it is very strong, and with just supports at the joints, you could mock up your proposed layout and run trains. The supports? Old bricks, lumps of wood, rigid cardboard boxes ( unless wet! ), planks, empty beer cans etc etc. I don't know how possible it would be to hide some of the route behind the bushes on the left hand side by extending a loop and some pruning, so trains dissappear for a short while. I've not read your blog ( yet ) so don't know what your proposed control system will be, analogue or digital. Malcolm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 Thanks guys, the layout will be fully scenic'd with new trees and shrubs to give view breaks. Jon there will be an opening train in the summer, with beer! I can't wait! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted May 1, 2011 Author Share Posted May 1, 2011 It's been some time since I posted on here... I've been spending more time over in G-scale Central and EJ&KLR blog (http://ejklr.blogspot.com) however it seems worth sharing my more recent progress on here So the plan changed - the idea of 2 level railway with gradients seemed a little difficult so it became a level oval, with the same station track plan, nice sweeping corners - but keeping a bridge It starts with... a big delivery from Wickes. In total we used this plus some more to equal 20 bags of top soil, 2 bags of mortar, 12 bags of sharp sand and 13 bags of sand/ballast. Start building the wall (after demolishing it and lifting the patio the weekend before and chopping a HUGE conifer down the fortnight before that). Then use the sand to build a nice level road bed... ...and start the tracklaying. So then this weekend I've finished the roadbed, the track laying and then added the topsoil to build up the scenery. Ballast to be sorted asap! I'm particularly pleased with the bridge and the river bed. I'll be sorting the ballast out in the next few days - and will share more on here when there is some stuff to show! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon020 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 James, how's the back? Must be aching a little after all that work.. . looking very good.. you must be very pleased with this! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanks522 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Very nice James, great to see some progress, I'm very interested to see what you use for ballast. Graham Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted May 1, 2011 Author Share Posted May 1, 2011 Thanks chaps... It's been a physical pair of bank holidays and I'm glad I'm a young man and have done manual handling awareness at work!!! I think ballast will likely be some horticultural grit or spline decorative gravel. It needs to be small (less than 5mm) and sharp, so it locks together and functions as ballast does in real life, to lick the trackwork together and locate it on the ground, whilst allowing it to flex a little. Thanks for the interest and kind comments! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
77philg Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Hi james great to see the start of a garden empire. Out of curiosity are you not concerned that the track bed will be washed away with heavy rain? Do you plan to fix the track down in anyway? phil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanks522 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 i wondered if you were going to add concrete with the ballast to make it more permanent? Graham Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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