Garden railway photos

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mugman
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Garden railway photos

Post by mugman »

A handful of pics of my railway...

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The scale is 16mm:1ft (or SM32) representing 2' narrow gauge. Steam locos are gas fired. 'Diesels' are battery powered. All radio controlled. Loco 'Beddgelert' is the latest acquisition, based upon the prototype which operated on the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway.

Pete
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by crfriend »

mugman wrote:A handful of pics of my railway...
*boggle!* Wow!
mugman wrote:Steam locos are gas fired. 'Diesels' are battery powered.
Gas as in compressed gas operating the cylinders or gas to fire a boiler?
mugman wrote:All radio controlled. Loco 'Beddgelert' is the latest acquisition, based upon the prototype which operated on the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway.
Very, very impressive. That's a beautiful collection, sir!
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john62
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by john62 »

Looks very very good, how long did it take to build?

John
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by Happy-N-Skirts »

You have an incredible hobby. Good photos of your creation too. That is a sharp looking skirt.
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mugman
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by mugman »

Butane gas from a canister fills a tank in the loco. Fill the boiler with filtered rainwater, then remove a little to allow for steam. Steam oil goes in a small lubricator which mixes with steam to provide oiled action in the cylinders. There's a pressure gauge and sometimes a water gauge. The gas always gets used up before the water so no chance of damage.
The radio control provides forward, reverse or neutral gear, and acceleration.
The railway started life at ground level in 2010 but I raised it all up as I'm not getting any younger and my back aches bending down too much nowadays. The current line has taken about two years to reach its present state with plenty still to do on the scenic side. Now retired it's my main occupation when the weather is cooperative. I have two more steam locos arriving sometime this week which will make a collection of four, four diesels and a couple of oddities...a railbus and inspection
buggy.
I also make some of my own rolling stock. The fourwheeled coaches on the trestle photo use the front sections of clearplastic CD cases for the sides, then laminated with card sides with the window apertures cut out. Sprayed with rattle cans. I use glossy photo paper as a finished surface as it gives a much better look. The clear CD case provides the window material, and the dimensions are always of course standard. All good fun.
I'll look out some more photos.

Pete
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mugman
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by mugman »

Here's the track layout...
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...and a few more pics...

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Pete
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Fred in Skirts
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by Fred in Skirts »

You have one great looking railway! I am no longer able to get up and down so my garden railway is no more. Sadly no pictures of it. :( I have instead mad a small table top railway on my back porch with two loops and on siding. I will have to take a few pictures and post them.

Fred
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by Gordon »

What a wonderful set up. Looks like a lot of work and fun.
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Gordon
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Kirbstone
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by Kirbstone »

....and not a TGV or Bullet train in sight!

Not just a wonderful layout, Pete, but quite stunning photos as well. Thank you for that feast for sore eyes.

On another forum (nautical) someone started a thread about 'the perfect boat' My reply to that was the boat which was bought and maintained by someone else, who invited me on board at times.

Your layout is the result of years of planning and execution and is deservedly the best I've seen.....The 'perfect' layout.

Tom
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oldsalt1
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by oldsalt1 »

Wow this is a tremendous setup I can just imagine the work that goes into maintaining such a set up . do you have people coming in to see it

How do you deal with the weather. are you constantly covering and uncovering it. It would seem that one good gust of wind could do a lot of damage.

My experience with trains consists of about 12 feet of track around the Christmas tree.


Just one thing I see many figurines in the layout are any of the men wearing skirts :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by mugman »

Thanks for all your kind responses guys. The line is still rough around the edges but I'm slowly getting there. This weather doesn't help a lot though. I sometimes have a few buddies around who help run it which makes for a happy social scene. We're all retirees going through a second childhood (though I doubt they'll care to admit that) and the reason why I've added an avatar, at last, of me at about age 1 with a ridiculous hat probably intended to make the neighbours giggle. Parents can be so cruel.

Everything is nailed down (apart, I hope, from the hat) so chances of stuff flying away are slim. All the figures are 'off the shelf', so unfortunately no skirted characters.

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Pete
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by crfriend »

I am seriously impressed with the layout -- and thanks for showing the layout in plan-form. I especially adore the notion of live steam.

As far as skirted characters line-side, you do seem to have at least one, but she's a she and not a he. Oh well, such is the price for doing things "off the shelf". :wink:

The P&WR is perilously close to one of my local roads -- the Providence and Worcester.

Magnificent!

Don't worry about parents and hats. As you mentioned, at least it wasn't nailed down.
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by Fred in Skirts »

Pete you are very brave to use a photo of your self. I thought it was that sailor fellow Popeye as a child at first. :lol:

Fred
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by moonshadow »

That's a mighty cool layout! I myself love model trains. I have a very small Lionel set that I'd like to start expanding on again someday. Perhaps if we stay at our present residence for an extended amount of time I might be able to put together something or another. But I don't know if I'll even come close to the masterpiece you've created here!

Well done!
-Andrea
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mugman
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Re: Garden railway photos

Post by mugman »

I don't think blowing one's own trumpet a little when you're proud of something achieved is too much of a crime. I'll just add that all the model buildings on the railway are created from my own invention...a modelling system still on the market called JigStones. This system allows users to cast their own components in a rapid set cement, and to build pretty much anything they fancy. A sort of Lego for adults. If you google JigStones and pull up the images you'll see a massive amount of creations that have been achieved around the globe. That is extremely satisfying to me.

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Pete
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