Ideally I'd like to run around the lawn and there are some ideas in the works on how to achieve that. Lots of effort, and blood, sweat and tears in the delivery I suspect.
I thought real railroads would be very fussy about track levels but then i found this video...
At around a minute in, the left hand plough starts to dig into the gravel, and the loco and some of the cars look awfully wobbly. Should I have a poor first attempt in the garden I will just point people to this video and proclaim 'realism'.
On my birthday I received a station kit from a good friend, on what was also his stag night. Last weekend I made it up on a temporary basis using double sided tape and sellotape (so fine details like guttering have been left off).
I also made up some temporary name boards with Thomasdorf am Exe. That name seemed a suitable name to reflect my current location. There is a real Thomasdorf in Austria (little village south of Vienna), and there was one in Silesia (Germany) until after the first world war when it moved to Poland, and then after the second world war when it moved to Czechoslovakia. The pictures also reflect a couple more new (second hand) purchases but more on those later.
Lots of news here from Patio Rails and this week should see some catching up on the blog front: have been busy playing with (and understanding how they work) the new toys.
First up is wireless control.
It had always been the plan to go wireless at some stage. The Tangle of wires resulting from putting up an indoor test track for some of the other new purchases proved a bit much and the decision was made to go sooner rather than later. The nice people at Glendale Junction had a second hand receiver in stock, so it was only a question of buying a transmitter new. That should be the last of the technology upgrades for a substantial while, and it works (at least) from the corner of the garden to the dining room (40-50 foot) so will easily work around the garden/patio.
The black box that is the receiver is sitting in the plastic container. There's an aerial that is just visible out of the black box - probably 4-5". Glendale Junction suggested that it be put in a tupperware container to protect it from the weather, and this container is what we have found to date that is of the right size. Ultimately I will see about painting it grey/white as a silo or fuel tank (and cut off the handle).
Snapping in the batters proved somewhat tight into the handset.
At roughly the same time I discovered how to (and the need to) convert from serial operation to parallel operation. Aside from operating quicker now, it also meant that some of the functions on another new purchase worked.....
Been away because of Birthday and a friend's wedding and have a new (second hand) goodie to show off as my birthday present to me. Today however it rained on my day off, so we spent some tome with the brasso and some of the second hand track I've bought.
Notwithstanding that my layout will ultimately be somewhat of a mixed bag, I'm keeping within the general theme of Germany/Austria and it was nice to discover that the goods wagons I'm using were used in real life on the Montreux-Oberland_Bernois railway and there is a fan page of the real wagons here.
The photos are copyright by the author but I've set up the links ready for you:
R Blank Vegetables - GK 502 (this is the new arrival)
Nothing for the Lowenbrau and Leikeim beer wagons found yet but doesn't mean that they don't appear elsewhere, for example in Germany, as the above two examples are swiss firms running, not surprisingly on a Swiss railway.
In case you've been thinking I've been slacking since Saturday or just playin' trains then the weekend saw the excitement of the arrival of some new(secondhand) track.
Not sure what I do with this yet, but it was for a very reasonable price (including delivery to the IK) on Austrian ebay and it must come in useful in a freight yard/siding environment. I have a horrible feeling it may involve getting a second one to pair up with it. Ultimately of course I can dream of a pair of double slips (now only made in electric form) but at £150-£185 each (plus some wiring to work them) then are going to have to wait for some time.
The other pieces were an assortment of curves from Garden Railway Specialists at Princes Risborough whilst their 20% off second hand stuff was still on. What should have been 9 R2 curves, turned out to be 7 R2 curves and two R3 curves. The R number is an indication of radius - the bigger the number the higher the radius and the gentler the curve. Up until now all I have has been R1 curves which can be fairly tight, and I've already commentated about how one engine didn't like the curves and going uphill. This was after reading the comments on "easements" in Building your model railroad and using gentler curves to lead into the tight curves. So, after a bit of work with the brasso polish we had a go at constructing the following curves:
a) Inside is 3 x Radius 1
b) Next is a R2-R1-R1-R2 combination
c) Next is 4 x R2
d) Next is a R3-R1-R1-R3 combination
Next thing is to start trying to build some of these combinations into the layout and see how the engines like it.
I started off looking to create a freightyard for some shunting/switching fun to actually have a purpose to operate (i.e. play) with my trains. The trackplan still has some work to be done on it and my "industries" will have have a strong brewery presence due to what distinctive wagons I've been able to get at a reasonable price i.e. :
Yellow = Cardinal Beer (2 cars)
Black = Lokeim Beer (2 cars)
Blue = Lowenbrau (beer again)
Green = R Blank (Vegetables and flowers)
Misc: two green open wagons, 1 brown open wagon and 1 grey box car
Ultimately it would be good to have some tank wagons and something based around white/red but we've got enough for now.
Reading the various magazine articles plus some searching on the web has brought up a couple of good sites which feature track plans and puzzles:
Large Scale Centralfeatures two puzzles, Riverside and Inglenook Sidings which are computer puzzles where you move the train, uncouple it, move the points etc. (I take no responsibility for any time wasted trying to solve these puzzles online).
Model Railway Shunting Puzzles features Timesaver and Inglenook puzzles, along with a piece about mathematic equations and solving them.
Trackplan is to be looked at in the light of these puzzles, and of course what space I have.
Broadly speaking there would seem to be two magazines on Garden Railways: Garden Railways from the USA, andGarden RailGarden Rail from the UK (There's obviously German magazines as well but they are somewhat in the future), and I've already mentioned that the Hornby Magazine in July had a supplement on Garden Railways with substantial input from the G scale society.
Lots of inspiration in all of them on different things. The supplement featured how to build a Garden railway in a day - much of the preparatory work had been done but some handy tips on laying on concrete slabs across the lawn area. Garden Railways despite being American was packed full of things - I'd managed to have a quick glance through it at the Sunday G scale meet when I saw someone else's layout and I bought the back issue (June 2011) from Glendale Junction because of an article on Freight movements and freight yards. Another article on on an American touring layout could prove equally important though - making portable track supports, which could be an answer to coping with the 4" step and also getting round the lawn. My initial plan once I have a layout plan had been to use LGB track joiners to keep track of 3-4 foot in length connected by track joiners - which is what the Americans were doing, but they then provided the next idea of using elastic bands around the sleepers to keep the track tight on the non joined sections. Simple like lots of the best ideas, but should work.
Moving the "station" to the other side of the patio opening up the possibility to extend it out onto the path that runs down to the step. Potentially this offers the scope for some sidings/spurs that will become the depots for the shunting fun.
Looking at scope for sidings down the path to the steps.
Part of track planning also means considering what trains am I likely to run and therefore what "length" of things. If a siding isn't as long as your longest piece of rolling stock then there may be problems. Likewise, if doing a run around, then remember to leave space for the loco to be able to do it.
The likely longest sensible passenger train - 3 carriages, including the new arrivals (second hand) of the Thier Pils carriage, and the German baggage/Post office wagon. (Total length including loco around 1.25 metres)
The 'goods' train element - the most I've got any matching type is two wagons, so from a shunting viewpoint, then I need some sidings/loops with room for two (total length including loco around 1 metre)
I did try running the long, double bogie wheeled box car I have through some of the point configurations on the freight yard side of things. Needless to say it became derailed on the third set of points. So, is useful as a test vehicle, and should I ever expand into a true garden setting will become very useful.
So, with a couple of days of good weather we had the track out and started to see what I could do and fit on the patio. My working area is a little smaller (angled sides) than 13 ft by 9 ft, with a couple of potential extensions where the path comes in and goes out.
In the Mark I we had the station nearest the steps out of the house. From a health and safety viewpoint this is probably an accident waiting to happen with damage both to people and rolling stock compared with the alternative - the Mark II version of moving it all to the other side of the patio and just having a single line - part of the loop - going in front of the steps. The following article on the web - Model railroad track plans proved very interesting, especially the concept of lapped sidings.
The photos show me trying out various configurations. Part II will cover a couple of principles that emerged.
The original "station" near the steps onto the patio.
Moving the "station" to the other side of the patio
After a couple of sessions with the track out on the patio, a few tool purchases have been made.
Rather than constantly raid my main toolbox, I've now got a railway toolbox. Spirit level, cross head screwdriver, folding (plastic) tape measure and most importantly some gardeners knee pads to ease the effect of the hard patio vs my knees. Am also looking at one of the gardeners reversible kneeling benches: kneel on it one way, flip it over and sit on it.
Ok, so there's perhaps not many people reading this blog at the moment but the Conway Valley Railway Museum and Model Shopsuffered a break in on 15th June and had lots of stuff stolen. Information and assistance sought and please watch for the stuff being offered.
The July 2011 (no 49) Issue of The Hornby Magazine had a Garden Rail supplement, including the build a railway in a day, which in its fourth paragraph warns of the perils of brass track being stolen from gardens if on obvious display (for the scrap value). I'm told cast iron drainpipes from houses are another item that people can find missing these days.
I hadn't intended to get another locomotive so soon. (The DCC ready Stainz (Analogue) that I got a couple of weeks ago was an ebay option that came up, and is some long term planning. It remains to be seen if it send it away for chipping or let my nerdy chum get his itchy fingers on it).
However,Glendale Junction got a second hand Zillertalbahn (The Austrian narrow gauge railway) loco number 2 in that was already chipped for digital. This would match my dining car (from the Austrian State railways too), and was probably amongst the biggest loco that would fit sensibly on my track, given that I only have only a small layout with radius 1 curves. I'd also seen a very similar grey coloured loco on my Sunday G Scale Society garden visit. So, it was going to be distinctive and fitted in (in my broad theme concept), and was at a competitive price (although I'm still learning the ropes on this) on an item no longer in the current catalogue. So, it was out with the plastic again and a couple of days later I had it.
And I'm very pleased with it. Today (Saturday) was operations day number 2, putting into practice lessons learned from the first day. In between I bought a new spirit level, and the patio slopes I calculate at 2-3% down - which is why the locos aren't so keen to go up it, and the S curve just before the gradient was killing the little 0-4-0T with a load of wagons/coaches. The new one is an 0-6-2T, and I don't know if all six wheels are driven, but it certainly has got more "ooomph" in the engine. Track redesign moved the "goods yard" to the far side of the patio from a health and safety viewpoint, and I put in a curve and then straight for the uphill bit, rather than the S bend and then straight that we had had previously. The 0-4-0T still doesn't like the top of the slope where it does 90 degrees (three radius 1 curves for the LGB fans out there) turning. I don't know if putting curve-small straight-curve-small straight-curve will soften this or not (in hillwalking, walking across a slope is always easier than going straight up). New recruit to Patio Rails will take at least 3 coaches/wagons up the incline without problem!
So, here's a video of the new recruit in action (I'm on a steep learning curve with the movie editing software too......).
The two wagons are Cardinal beer wagons that will belong to the "yellow" depot but more on this later.
Whilst looking at one of the Garden rail forums I came across a link to the following video. Probably old hat to most of you but new to me, and it struck a chord with me since the trainset is my reward for keeping to the diet and losing weight following the Type II diabetes diagnosis.
Yet to get the girl flinging herself at me, but Ann enjoyed playing with the new locomotive that arrived yesterday.
