More Graft in the sunshine: Supervision

This was more supervision than my actual graft as I was busy in the house going through the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated.

The black stuff represents "no grow" liner.   It's good to see the weeds and "slug reserve" material go.

Until the school at the back has finished (so there is no visibility) and I've dealt with a couple of visibility issues on my side then I can't see me leaving track out permanently at the moment.  Spring 2012 for full working.   And I think it will come down to physically laying track on the garden - without an accurate garden plan then my track planning software is limited usage, and this is very much a project of fit it in with what I have rather than a blank sheet.

Ann did all the hard work, although I do feel that she had encouraged the "slug reserve" in the first place.  Since I had ordered ground clearance some months ago, or else nuclear armageddon would occur with me and my blue anti slug/snail pills, then things had already improved.

The black area to the right of the Yucca is for the "Logging camp" extension.  Full details yet to be worked out but it involves some sort of (temporary) bridge across the path...

Graft and hard work - Track planning in the sunshine

Taking advantage of a nice day and inspired by what I saw on the Continental Garden Trains forum then I got some track out and the proposed bits of decking and played around with a bit.   As always the space seems to get eaten up but it was useful to see how things might look.

It re-inforced that if I'm going to go for a larger curve than radius 2 then I need to buy some of the curves to be able to mock up how they will look in practice.

The curve coming out from behind the mock orange.  Very likely that there will be a lift out section to preserve access to the lawn when operations are not running. 

Considering what sort of siding/station I might get on this side.  Picture below shows the basic single straight passing loop  running across 4 x 500mm boards, although this would suggest that I'll get a bit more straight than the basic 300 mm.

Projekt X - a diversion

Whilst looking for something else I came across a page on a German garden railway forum about modified stainz and otto engines by and large (there's a few others which I assume aren't Stainz although the basic chassis might have come from a Stainz)...

http://www.gartenbahn-forum.de

The following image caught my eye of course:

Although the more advanced amongst you might like to try the following conversion which appears on the page:

Chris

Not quite the Zillertal I expected...

I always said that this blog would be many and varied

Searching for sounds of the Zillertal U class loco and the Massoth sound card came up with the following...

The beer will be excellent I suspect as will the meat/sausages but I'm not sure the music is quite to my taste, at least for an evening of it.  

I can see this as being excellent backing music for any open day though once operations are ready.  It's got a nice catchy sing along tune...

Enjoy

:-)  

I have got the POLA Alpine Chapel (no 331840) marked down as something I want if one comes up cheap on English or German ebay.., although there are also a couple of other churches that would do.  

Chris

Size is important - Part 1

Planning continues at Patio Rails.  I got a full circle of radius 2 (775mm) curves off ebay last week and had them out on Sunday to show off the blue shunter diesel to Ann, and also see how some mock ups looked.  If I'm having an attempt at modelling my fictitious but working railway set in the corner were Germany/Austria/Switzerland meet, akin to the Zillertal and Rhatischbahn then some modern equipment is the order of the day.  So, I mocked up a cardboard Taurus diesel locl (715mm) and Piko Railbus (550mm) and put them on the curves.  I haven't got bogies beneath them and accurately positioned them, but nevertheless it is a fairly salutory lesson to conside size.  I shall now clearly be passing on something on Ebay that is 630 mm long.

Planning - Map 1~1

With a garden that is neither square nor flat then planning is a bit of a nightmare.  Nothing really quite beats placing track on the ground.  That's not always practical though and sometimes I just want to do a 'what if'.

This culminated in the purchase of the Railmodeller software.  It's free to try - and I liked the point and click and drag and drop interface.  Buying the full version gives the ability to print and to save.

I need to measure the garden more accurately and check angles but version 1~1 of the map was produced last night.

Projekt X

More on this as it develops, but I've bought a second hand Stainz to respray and re-modell.  To do this of course I needed to get a model loco reasonably cheap that if I botched it, then it hadn't cost me much money.  More details in the fullness of time but a couple of pictures.

This is the loco as bought.  The nameplates "Finistere" have already gone to a good home as they don't really belong on the Austrian/German/Swiss theme.  

This is a picture of the original loco (L) and the resprayed and slightly tweaked version (R).  

Chris

Second Loco with sound

This is another LGB engine but with the sound card within the body of the engine. This is LGB 27211 - sold as a typical (North) German 0-4-0 engine, which means that many components are shared with the basic stainz that LGB put in the starter sets.  Digital decoder and sound card are both extras and I assume Massoth (loco bought second hand, already chipped) - the soundcard certainly is, and is the European small steam locomotive option.

I should probably have an exercise to have the LGB soundcard alongside the Massoth but that as they say is another day, another exercise.   Not my best video but it is showery down here and I also need to get slicker with the controls (notice the failed coupling attempts).  The driver  and fireman figures got lost out of the cab as well in the aftermath of having the kids around.

(The Spreewald is still my favourite though to date....)

Chris

First train with Sound

The plastic took a hammering in July as already chipped locos that were the right size and theme for what I'm doing became available.  Nevertheless they are second hand to there is some measure of fiscal control.  This is the first one - the LGB Spreewald 0-6-2 and probably my favourite loco.  The sound actually comes from the green wagon which came from the same home as the Spreewald.

The sound is LGB's own European steam sound card.

More videos to come just as soon as I finish editing them... 

Having Fun -Figure of 8 in the garden

Not posted much of late and lots of catching up to do.

First up is pictures of a temporary track that I put down for the benefit of next door's grandchildren.  Discovered that the lawn is not flat and attempts were not far off the previous video of the real train.   Everytime we shored something up we seemed to get a problem elsewhere.   Nevertheless the kids enjoyed themselves  and the wireless control and sound are probably definite 'musts' with children.  Pictures of what I did.