YK 50A

I got the email yesterday, you beat me to posting about it. It looks an excellent set of transfers and better than I imagined when I first contacted Railtec. Unfortunately, I have changed scale, gauge and era since then, and am now 16mm live steam in the garden. Hopefully, they will still be available when my back gives in and I'm forced to return indoors!

This is something I've thought about too. Locomotives in sidings manned by train crew with their ears pinned back vs driverless locomotives in the steam age. I've avoided train crew and passengers up until now, but I've just acquired a coach with a couple of figures glued in. In my scale, figures are available from the comedic to the lifelike. I'm minded to see if I can remove the passengers. I have enough of people in my daytime job.

An absolutely remarkable railway and I've enjoyed watching it's development over the 10 years or so I've been following it. I can only dream of having the space and for that matter skill, expertise and patience. While I was aware of the Great Western Railway's Great Way Round, how your GWR fits with the track plan now makes a lot more sense. Keep it coming, I never get bored.

I'm looking forward to it already!

I'm still marvelling at this simple but ingenious solution. Hats off!

That's wonderful, thank you for the very full and helpful description. I've got a lot to go on there. Coincidentally, I picked up the March edition of Garden Rail from the Vintage Carriage Trust magazine room yesterday (I cancelled my subscription a little while ago as I rarely got round to reading it). Funny what you wrote about MYOB. For some it seems to take over the garden, most of mine died this winter as well. I'll say hello at Peterborough. Again, much appreciated.

I saw you at the Midlands Show today, absolutely remarkable and by far the most interesting layout (to me). I wondered if you could give me a rundown of what you planted? I know there were a lot of Thymes and some Pratia Pedunculata, but then my memory fails. Many thanks.

I was at the Snowdon Mountain Railway last week and asked. Nos. 2, 4, 7 and 8 are unlikely to run again and have been cannibalised for parts to help keep the others running. The frames, tanks and cabs all exist, in the case of 7 and 8 at least, stored off site. The boilers have either been scrapped or are in use on 3, 5 or 6. No. 6 is even more non-standard, of course. We had no. 3 for our trip, the only locomotive in steam. No sign of the Clayton's, but they might have been hiding somewhere.

10 months after starting the thread, I thought it was time for a postscript. I've finally ballasted the first section of track and also built a platform. It took more time to get there than I hoped as the expansion joints failed over the winter (bad design), and I needed to lift much of the track to remake them. Based on my experience of running trains, I took the opportunity to remodel the through station and alter a couple of alignments. I went with a method not far from what @Sturminster_Newton suggested. I laid a dry mix of 2:1:1 3mm chippings, building sand and cement, brushed and tamped into place and wetted with a fine rose. I then doused with 50%/50% diluted outdoor PVA and the proverbial drops of washing up liquid. It will weather quickly and I will do my best to encourage moss growth (without the peat or compost). The ballast has dried rock hard. I'm still considering Rowlands Mix for some areas of the track which get more sunlight. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with the results.

Funny you write that, I found this particular blog post via a Google search! Although UK Standard Gauge O Scale (7mm to the foot or 1:43.5) trains will run on my track, I am actually Narrow Gauge SM32, which is 16mm to the foot or 1:19.05. I had problems with my expansion joints, so I redid them before the winter set in, but I now have work to do to reinstate a complete loop. A target for 2021 is to make at least one of the stations not look like an apocalyptic wasteland. Great advice and I have read about DIYers struggling to get slate to adhere to concrete. If I get the time, sunshine and slate, you'll see some Flickr progress in a month or 2 (or maybe 3 or 5). Likewise, keep cosy and stay safe! Alun

Hi Ray, I've just come across this researching the size of platform paving stones and copings, after finding a supplier who will cut reclaimed slate to order. Narrow gauge stations could be earth or gravel, or if posh, a few flags to step onto from the carriages, but my railway welcomes tourists. It looks like even contemporary UK narrow gauge rarely use larger stones, so I will probably go 3' x 2' (or 48mm x 32mm in 16mm to the foot scale). Maybe my railway reclaimed some paving stones from a nearby disused standard gauge station. The height of the platform doesn't want to come much over the railhead. My plan is to use slate for the copings and then fill the void with either concrete with a dust of sand, or small stones or sharp sand set with waterproof PVA. It's going to be a slow year for my railway because of work, but small steps... Alun

Thanks @dan_the_v8man, Funnily enough, my Father-in-Law is bringing his angle grinder on his next visit, although it is mostly to deal with a couple of expansion joints which haven't quite worked as I'd hoped and some remodelling of the through station, from experience of running live steam as opposed to "diesels". It's my first time working with concrete (other than a labouring job when I was at college circa 30 years ago) so it's inevitable there would be some teething problems. As an aside, I am using plastic coffee stirrers to help bridge the dips and was similarly expecting the ballast to hold everything in place. A bit of remodelling and repairs aside, I've moved in doors and looking at rolling stock jobs. It's a bit wet in the garden! Alun PS Mine's a TD5

Hi, I don't know what happened to my original post, I'll try again! E3457 is a fictitious number, in-between 1975 built Mk2F First Open (FO) M3439 and 1953 built boat train Mk1 Second Open (SO) S3500. The model looks to be a Tourist Second Open (TSO) and if the number doesn't bother you, either bogie is correct. As @Trainshed Terry says, the bogie on the left is a Commonwealth and the other a BR1 (or BR standard). It's a complicated business, but Mk1 TSOs were built with both, Commonwealths from the late 1950s. Mk1 coaches were built or retro-fitted with BR1 (single and double bolster), BR2, Commonwealth, B4, B5, Gresley and several experimental types. Double bolster BR1, Commonwealth and later the B4/B5 were by far the most common on passenger rated stock. If you want to give your 2mm scale passengers a smoother ride, the Commonwealth bogies are best. Many are still fitted to Mk1 coaches on the national network. Alun

The only genuine reverse curves are around "Pool" and they do have straight sections between the changes. In other news, I've realigned the flexi which eases into the Setrack section and I've got the 38" curve round the Birch Tree again (reverse loop). There will be no curves shorter than 38" and most are 48" or greater. I am using laser cut templates to help form the 48" curves, there's pictures on the link I posted. I've had fun on the IoM and many other railways, but I intend to run slowly. Evening up any camber just makes sense, from a reliability and safety perspective. Unintended camber is a no no! All model railways are train sets and toys. After that, it's degrees of experience, expertise, skill, patience, accuracy and resources (money, time, space - see money). I am comfortable with what has been achieved and what is coming next. Until two months ago, my only experience of concrete was wheelbarrowing many tons of it across the Leeds University Chemistry building roof in 1994. Labouring was a summer job between my first and second years. We don't have land and what there is needs to be shared with a 10' pool, a 12' trampoline, a chalet, a shed, a BBQ, chickens, an aspiring gymnast and several sun worshippers. Their garden's been ruined, hopefully temporarily! I've been a member of the Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers for several years and I am grateful for the input of a few members with the trackplan, which is an adaption of one in their Guide. If times were different, I would have had more on-site help. I've learned a lot from the mistakes already made. My railway will never be the work of art that some people own and was never intended to be. I will hopefully have many lonely years of retirement for that and I am not wishing my time away. Rule one applies and I am happy to be modelling something, somewhere at some point. It could be the Lynton and Barnstable or Leighton Buzzard or Chattenden and Upnor or Ebbw Vale or anywhere else. Sometimes people fixate on the "rustic", much like 4mm scale attracts the GWR branch line. I get it, it's pretty! However, this ignores the industrial, military, rundown and complex. If I want to play with real trains, I work on the big railway and I've been a volunteer at 2 standard gauge and 1 narrow gauge heritage lines (currently second man and signaller, standard gauge). I would like to include signals, which are an obsession, but again I have to be careful with everything else the garden gets used for. Permissive might have to do for now. I completed a loop today and could have watched toy trains go round in circles all afternoon. But it rained. Click here! I am still wondering about ballast... Alun

Thank you for the encouragement and wishes! I remember the LGB elephant ad, although I have seen LGB track bent by a horse! Regarding knees and ground level, it seemed the most sensible under the circumstances. If I want a loop, there's inevitably "level crossings" which can be stepped over. I have wondered about Ready Mix or some other recipe (micro-concrete?) on the main thoroughfare, to create a couple of feet of hard standing. The camber I wrote about is corrections where the trackbed isn't absolutely flat. I've been using plastic drinks stirrers, having read a tip on a 16mm Association members website (I can't find it now). I have no intention of introducing a deliberate camber. The greenery is my wife's responsibility. The vague plan is to plant around the outside of the track and between the terminus and reverse loop and avoiding line/chord, etc. The reverse loop itself will be hidden. There will be quite a bit of concrete to hide too and an operating day will no doubt start by clearing creepers. It's all gone remarkably well so far. That said, I have just been out in the rain with new track and I might have to introduce a piece of 30" Setrack to the reverse loop, which I wanted to avoid. The shortest curves so far being 48" with the intention of using 38" on the reverse loop. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it, it won't be seen, although it will limit the stock that can be run. That said, I'm told a Darjeeling Garratt will go smaller than 30". We will finish laying the loops, level the track, ballast (still thinking) and then we can get on with "beautifying" as best we can, while I move onto the Terminus. Alun