ba14eagle

#95 "A nicely packed box arrived from Kernow today which I’ve just opened. I phoned on Tuesday as it was 2014" Lucky chap - I ordered 3 in 2012 and am still waiting!!!

An evening keeping the real railway running on Saturday and a nice day out in the New Forest, on Sunday, with my Lady, visiting the New Forest Model Railway Society Open Day. I did, at one point, think I had been teleported to the NEC, when I couldn't get to a view an O gauge layout!

Also, 37675, which had been one of the Laira 37/5's, had been allocated away from there, after being involved in a tragic accident at St Blazey depot on Christmas Eve 1993.

By 1998 i'm not sure any locos were actually "allocated" to St Blazey - previously, there would have been a few 08's but the 37/5's would have been the Laira allocated locos and a few visitors from elsewhere.

Apologies for going off topic, but was it 312204 which was dubbed "the canary" after being painted in WMPTE yellow livery in the mid 80's?

Some Fragonset locos at Swindon, whilst on hire to Wessex Trains for Glastonbury Festival trains. 23rd June 2004. 31452 31454 31601

A few slide scans from my collection. An unidentified 47 (possibly 063) heads for Westbury with a single BDA wagon 10-5-1987 47156 on Westbury depot 11-4-1987 After its collision with 33032 at Frome, 47202 is dumped at the back of Westbury Depot 7-3-1987 47573 at the old Liverpool St station 21-2-1987 47582 shunts onto its train at Norwich Thorpe 10-5-1987 The unique 47901 rests on Westbury Depot

A few slide scans from my collection. 8/5/1987 - 33008 on a Bristol bound train passes Yarnbrook, between Westbury and Trowbridge 8/8/1986 - 33025 arrives at Bristol TM 29/10/1988 - 33033 heads the "Crompton Cornish Swansong" at Truro 7/5/1988 - 33103 at Brockenhurst with the Push-Pull Farewell railtour 14/5/1988 - 33112 at Cardiff Central with an NSE organised railtour from Waterloo to Carmarthen

A couple of slide scans from my collection and a couple of more recent shots. 25/5/1992 - Pathfinder Tours "Solway Scenic Settler" stands at Garsdale, with 37897, 37701 & 37703 in charge May 1989 - 37407 working a Bristol to Weymouth, leaves the Trowbridge suburbs. Unknown date and loco - I am sure it was a Sunday Bristol to Weymouth train, departing Trowbridge. 31/8/2007 - 37410 leads a Past Time Rail charter from Bristol to Kingwear for the Dartmouth Regatta, at Taunton. 9/9/2016 - Bodmin and Wenford Railway - 37142

A few slide scans from my collection. April 1989. 50005 rests outside Westbury Panel Signalbox. Much has changed in this view - The cement works is shut and the chimney gone, the wastelands beyond the car park are now covered in housing and the compound, in which the signalbox stands, blooming with buddleia! June 1989. 50017 stands at Waterloo on what is believed to be the 20:38 to Yeovil Jn. August 1989. 50028 & 50048 stand at the east end of Salisbury station with trains for Waterloo. February 1990. 50044 departs Salisbury, for Waterloo.

Agreed - you wont go far wrong with footings like that

Im aware that most of the railways featured in this section are of the "normal" garden railway scales - ie big! but here is my OO gauge railway - more a railway in the garden, as opposed to a garden railway. 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

I wondered if this project got off the ground? My first attempt at building a garden railway had a cast concrete trackbed, laid within a raised bed. Here is a link to an explanation of how I did it: http://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/index.php?/topic/59-hampton-field-railway-overview-of-construction/ I hope it might be of use