Long time no post but I seem to have been able to reclaim my accounts at last.

I seem to be back in business after Google decided to merge everything.....

2014 - New Year, New Start - time for the weedkiller crew

So, June 14 is the bogey date - 3 years in and what to show ?  Time to restart the blog, restart the work.

Well, 2012 disappeared in the sea of rain and 2013 wasn't much better aside from personal issues that meant I had other things to attend to.  Looking back I see my first video was June 2011 although I don't we went round the lawn after expanding off the patio until 2012.

The back end of 2013 highlighted some issues that I hadn't thought off.

Here's a view at the end of October....  The gap in the rails being caused by the removal of the level crossing.  It was performing somewhat poorly but I've discovered what a couple of plastic bits are for in the box... :-)  Basically it needs a straight coming into it from both sides (not a curve, and not a tight curve) and the plastic bits are to support the track and extend the area where it causes the barriers to go down....

Here's the same view in wet January 2014.   October through January I really didn't get out onto it and this wet January shows why.  

Next up are some close up of the wetness and fastwording a little to April 2014 as I got out again.  













First up the track coming up the path.  There's a nasty S bend - slightly uphill that the trains didn't like.  In the revised planning stage this has got to be reduced to half a board width and a straight run into it.   The alternative might be that with management permission we go out onto the law somewhat earlier and that should also improve the future access to the garage.

Same view three months later.  Storm damage
means that some of the track has moved and other I over after slipping on it in the wet.  Definately one to go only half a board on the access, although the orginal boards only went down for the "gathering" picture in August last year.  

       





                                                                                                                                                                            Close up from the front, highlighting that I need to consider my options for cleaning the patio.  It may come down to taking the track up once/twice a year and giving it a good scrub for a few days with the old patio cleaner.  Once screwed to the boards then probably be able to take it up in sections.                                        

Then we come to the vegetation.  Plant tall flowers that will provide a backdrop says I.  That is until the frost etc appear and they start to die off or just get blown over the rain.   Bottom picture shows much the same scene but some months later now in April with the weeds in control  Once dry I'll see what has happened to the weed barrier and gravel.

So little time, so much to say...

Lots to say but little time to put it up and say.  Some new arrivals - both locomotives and rolling stock, a trip out to another garden railway some accessories and track planning.

Brief update therefore on some of the accessories and track planning.

I've mentioned before that one of the Borsigs is to be the "Ann Margaret" and I think I've shown the nameplates.  Female loco crew are another matter though.   I tracked some down to the states and a firm called Just Plain Folk although they didn't seem very interested in reply to my emails.

However, Glendale Junction have imported some of the range, so I ordered them.  £9 each is not cheap but they have been shipped across the great big pond and there's probably import duty on them as well. Besides which, nobody else makes them...

The scale is 1:22.5, so nominal LGB scale.  The lady engineer though is rather short though - so much so that she has difficulty seeing out of some of the locos.  I wasn't aware that the figures would come pre-painted and it seems a shame to hide them behind shut doors.  So, rather than the Borsig I looked at some of the others.  The lady engineer is waving, so ideally suited to an open window.   The clothes are American style too - well, overalls and that train driver cap.  So, I looked at the LGB 2-4-0 tender loco.

The firelady is somewhat taller (although comes without a shovel). 

The LGB Porter was another idea, except it doesn't come with open windows...

The Track planning was looking at the far side.  Back on 20th July I posted how I was an inch short on a join and contemplating solutions.   Following on from a discussion at the garden open day, the idea was to move things around and create a bigger gap elsewhere.  Also, Ann's hammock extension had given me the impetus to feature the extension out to the "ferry" (bearing in mind the Lake Constance model).   Playing around has produced this so far...

The extreme left and right tracks the come down at about 45 degrees will link to the rest of the layout.  

   

Mixed running: the prototype

Ok, so I may not post much, but that generally means that I'm busy with life or reading magazines, books or watching videos.

Two recent videos really caught my eye.
Both are "prototype" (i.e. real trains) Rhb (Rhatische Bahn) sessions.  What I enjoyed was the mixture of rolling stock and trains.   I think I have said before that I doubt I have the money to "model" the RHB in a pure sense.  But from a Narrow gauge - anything goes - view then these videos are wonderful.

There's almost everything.   I love the last wagon in some of the shots with a single car on it and wonder, where is it going and why ?  

OK, so not so many steam trains but then Iscatalbahn has a reasonable diesel roster as well.    

Trains are back: on a hot, hot Sunday

Last weekend was birthday boy's special day and whilst I had dropped hints about a "red box" (aka an LGB something) to unwrap, I ended up with a panini press in red wrapping paper... :-(

Also, SWMBO demanded that we have trains run on the birthday.  Now, if you remember, a few months ago I took everything up to clean, inspect and check - in part because of the perils of buying second hand track and also because last year's running season was so poor that it just didn't happen.

So, we start off like this:

Not a single piece of track to be seen.  

After about 2 hours we get to this...

This is the most difficult bit - given that it actually goes through the garden and has to cope with the bushes.  Previously I'd put some bricks down and the track was on decking boards on top of those.  There had been some weed barrier beneath but I'd not got around to putting stone chips or some other coverage on top.  Now we have stones to keep barrier in place.  The front piece is weed barrier with larger parts of the ex shed roof to keep in place.   Laying this was much quicker than I thought because of the previous work.  

A couple of hours saw me reach the far side of the garden and the "station".  Given this is "Summer 2013 and possibly beyond" layout then it's all R1 points and nothing fancy like double slips, three way points, all of which are part of what I need to check work properly.   

I found I could work in around 45 minutes stints and then have to go into the shade and drink fluids for 15 minutes.   Coming round the right hand side and nearest edge of lawn then this time (compared with March) I had enough track to go on the concrete path rather than have to short cut across the lawn with all those attendant problems.   In this respect I think t was the purchase of a second box (12) of 60 cm straights from ebay that speeded things up and helped.  I find the 60 cm length to be good versatile size for what I have.   

So, after 4 hours we are finished and have the first train of the day.  Number 13 gets chosen yet again for all the dirty work in case it all goes up in a puff of blue smoke....   And it goes round first time without much in the way of complaints.  There is a slight stutter on "murkey corner" - the first corner between the two bushes you see but a gentle prod and off she went again, and a slight upping of the power meant no more stops on later circuits.  So, seems reasonably flat - I laid everything quickly by eye without the use of the spirit level - although that was used last year on putting some of the bricks down.   

And here's me a the end of 4+ hours in the hot sun, running the first train of the day.  Sharing it with a Belgian blonde (beer) that a work colleague bought me for my birthday.   Loco went round with the (empty) beer bottle in the truck without it tipping over which is good.   

Whilst I cleaned myself up ready for evening festivities, there were some unauthorised extensions laid...... ( I think for delivery of cups of tea or glasses of ginger beer....)

The evening festivities were supposed to be fireworks (well sparklers - and I discovered we had one left in the tube) and the light faded fast as I was trying to get organised.  Earlier in the day I watched the you tube video of Mallard opening up the festivities at the York Railway museum, and anything they can do, we can do better.....   A couple of years ago when we went to the Llanfair steam gala (and railway show) we discovered that there is a bit of "railfan photo shoot" in taking pictures of locos by night, steaming up just outside the engine sheds.  I suspect the yard lights plus the steam and ambient warmth of the engines themselves make for reasonable photo shooting conditions.

All I therefore got of any quality was a couple of still photo (with no sparkler...)

In the following days I went back and got a photo of the "station" area.   The arrow indicates where I'm around 25mm short of a join.  I think its going to be a hacksaw job on a piece of track to make the join.  

So, all in all a worthwhile exercise.  I still need to spend some time finishing off the "station" area and dealing with the right hand and near edge of the line where it is all just single track and there is scope for some passing loops etc.  The whole thing though is much neater and better proportioned than we had in March 2012.   

Magazines - this month's reading

Once again it seems to be a bumper month on the magazine front.

July Continental Modeller with a nice article on a Dutch urban setting (Hoe) which is exactly the sort of thing suited to being modelled in the Garden in G scale.  A (real) Tramway from Switzerland which again matches the LGB small sightseeing cars.   Swiss Z gauge layout (which I feel I've seen) which are always good to see, given how much Rhb stuff LGB make (even if most of it outside my price range).   Interesting articles on (real) Japanese Trams, American inclined railway with a couple of other layouts (French & Sicilian) of interest rounded off by a couple of scenery articles and the usual reviews.  I don't buy Continental Modeller every month as a matter of course (although I have been following the recent series of scenery articles) and July 2013 is to me a bumper issue of things that interest me.  

July Garden Rail.  Headlining the Linz Gstadt Bann in all its Austrian inspired glory - I'm not quite so Austrian themed but a good look at an interesting railway.  The Roundhouse Darjeeling B loco improved - which is a live steam loco that I really like the look of.  Rest of it is the usual fare of reviews, articles etc.  

Real trains.  I bought this for a chum who had been in/out of A&E a bit and wanted to have a quick flick through it before sending it on. Ended up that there was so much I wanted to read - the A4 Pacifics, really nice picture of the Ffestiniog four  George England Locomotives lined up, the Birmingham New Street renovation, Keith and Dufftown railway (aka the Whisky line) and lots more inspiring pictures and articles. 

OK, so this is the quarterly magazine from membership of the society but ... "fame..." I'm in two photos of the show at Stafford on page 25 - third row down. Both scouting out the bring and buy.  The left hand one is my back and rucsac, whilst on the right were looking at things.  Can't remember what Ann seems interested in unless it was the Hartland Mack (which had gone by the time we returned after a complete circuit) or the box in front.  

Finally, Narrow Gauge World no 88 (July- August) is a bumper issue for me personally.  Again, this is an irregular purchase with with a headline article on the Silverton-Durango and other main articles on the Snowdon and the Mariazellerbahn (Austria) then lots for me. 

Of Sunny Days and Station platforms

Well, today has been hot and sunny and I've used to explore things in the garden and consider a new arrival.

Over the past couple of years I've been buying some of the POLA and PIKO G scale building kits as I've come across them cheap and ultimately they will be assembled and make it into the Garden.  But, on the Mark 1.1 layout (which is get something down reasonably quick) then such niceties will have to wait - especially as today has shown that I need to consider space and clearances.

The recent purchase was most of a Playmobil Station.  Incomplete which meant an attractive price via Ebay - £20 and it included some other bits.  I'd not seen one "in the plastic" though and was a bit concerned about how it would fit in.

The track is an R1 point with a 300 mm straight, and then the R1 curve followed by more straights.   Experience will determine if I should use a shorter straight before the curve which will then reduce the distance between the two tracks.                      

    

This is a distance view and also the first appearance of the Orange RHB shunting Tractor (recently back after being equipped with sound) and the Santa Fe Tank wagon.  

This is a close up of the station with some Prieser and Bachmann figures on.  The Canopy needs to be high to ensure clearance for any passing trains. OK, so its not fine scale and some people will dislike the mix and match approach, but whilst I'm learning and moving forward then it is a station model.





This an end view showing how high the canopy is - needed because of the clearance.  

This is a top down shot showing one of the "clearance" issues I'd been talking about.  Basically when the curve becomes the straight then the straight can abut the platform - which is something I need to work on.  Steps down on the end of balconies are one thing to watch out for, as will be the ladder on the side of the pig snout bus.

 This set me looking at what other Playmobil etc platforms I had acquired.   This is a picture of what I now know to be a "western - as in cowboy - stable or barn, sitting on some LGB code 50340 platforms.

This I think is somewhat older - it looks more basic - Playmobil code 4370 "Neustadt" shed and some platforms - incomplete set as there should be more straight and ramp sections.   At the back is a wooden ramp from G scale designs that I acquired at Llanfair show in very early days.   









Finally I got out the platforms from the PIKO 62004 covered platform set (4 baseplates, each 172mm x 267 mm) and there's some steps etc in the set, along with the canopy.