This Blog describes the ongoing development of a 16mm scale 45mm gauge garden railway situated in the North West of England, UK from 2004 to the present day.
This blog describes ongoing progress in the development of a G gauge / 15mm scale / 1:20.32 / Fn3 scale Garden Railway from its inception to the present day.
NEW (April 2025)
Extracts from a Southwold session - Part 1
Extracts from a Southwold session - Part 2
When I became interested in building my own garden railway I spent a considerable amount of time (and money) on books, videos, DVDs and scouring the internet for information, ideas and inspiration. When I eventually started construction, I used some of the ideas I had discovered, but also experimented with my own approaches. This blog outlines how I have gone about constructing my own garden railway. My aim is to provide the sort of information I was looking for when I was getting started, and also to share what I've learned (or 'borrowed' from others). I've tried to include a few 'How I ........' postings interspersed with occasional 'Progress Reports'. I do not profess to be any kind of expert - what I offer here is an opportunity for you to metaphorically look over my shoulder to see how I have gone (and am going) about this fascinating hobby.
As this is a blog, the various posts are presented in reverse chronological order (ie the most recent first). To see a categorised list of contents, go to the Blog Contents Page.
If you are thinking about building your own garden railway, then why not join the 16mm Association or the G Scale Society - you'll get plenty more advice and opportunities to visit other peoples' garden railways. Alternatively, browse through theG Scale Central website - there's plenty more guidance here and an opportunity to sound out the views of others through the G Scale Central discussion forum or the GardenRails.org forum
The Blog
The advantages of blogging are that it is immediate and uncomplicated when creating and uploading information. The other, of course, is that with Blogger it is free. The major disadvantage is that I have minimal control over how the postings are presented. The blogging system adds the most recent information to the start of the blog, hence the postings appear in reverse chronological order (most recent first, oldest last). Whilst there is a list of postings on the right-hand side, it's not particularly easy to see what is there. This introduction is an attempt to provide you with a contents list of the postings organised into categories so, hopefully, you see if what you are looking for is presented in this blog. To ensure that it always appears at the start of the blog, I update its content and set its presentation date into the future each time I add a new posting.
I had to replace the raised timber baseboard at Beeston Market as some of the boards had rotted (see How I replaced the baseboard at Beeston Market station) and while relaying the track, I decided that it would provide me with an opportunity to find a way of operating the points at the back of the layout remotely. I had tried it previously with Bowden (bike brake) cable (see Progress Report 82), but it proved unreliable as, eventually, dampness caused the cables to rust. Also, squirming around underneath the baseboard to install and maintain it wasn't easy or comfortable. So, with new baseboards and a revised track layout I started thinking of an alternative method for controlling the hard-to-reach points.
Previously, I had successfully used galvanised fencing wire to control the points leading to the storage sidings in the lean-to (see Operating turnouts with simple point rodding) and so, having plenty of wire available, I decided to explore using this to operate the points at Beeston Market.
Initially, I simply had lengths of wire running from the edge of the baseboard to the points with staples to guide them.
While this worked well and was simple to install, I realised that I would need to find a way of protecting the wires when I added ballast to the track. After trying to think up ways of creating covers for the wires, I decided that it would be far simpler to have the wires running through tubes. A quick search on eBay resulted in the purchase of ten metres of 3mm internal diameter PVC tubing.
It would mean removing the first set of wires I'd installed, but that was a relatively easy job. So with plenty of wire and tubing to hand, I set to work.
Firstly, I cut a length of tubing which would stretch from the edge of the baseboard to the relevant point. Where it passed under the platform, a slot was made in the underside of the platform. Similarly, some of the sleepers of intervening points needed to be slotted to allow the tubing to pass beneath.
A length of the galvanised fencing wire was then cut with sufficient extra to allow one end to be bent upwards to slot into the end of the point's tie bar and for the other end to be bent into a loop. The tie-bar end of the wire was flattened slightly with a hammer to allow it to pass through the rectangular hole easily.
The other end of the wire was bent around into a loop.
By the way, before the wire was threaded into the tubing, some 3in1 oil was squirted into the tube. As can be seen, galvanised staples were tapped over the tubing at intervals to hold it in place, making sure they didn't pinch the tubing to stop the wire from moving freely.
All the points at the furthermost side of the layout have now been equipped with rodding, thereby making life a lot easier during running sessions. The next stage will be ballasting.
For a couple of years, I had been propping up the baseboards at Beeston Market station and the Copper Mine sidings, which had started sagging. At the start of this year, I crawled underneath to see whether I could make more lasting repairs and found that the rot had set in. Although I had used pressure-treated timber, I hadn't soaked the sawn ends of the boards, and this was where a lot of the rot was occurring.
I bit the bullet and decided to lift all the track to investigate further. As the track had been concreted in several years ago, it would require some effort.
The track had been screwed down, so the first job was to track down the screws, which by now had rusted into anonymity.
Surprisingly, once the slots in their heads had been cleared out with a worn-down flat-bladed screwdriver.....
..... the majority unscrewed quite readily.
A few needed coaxing with Mole Grips and a couple snapped off, but before long I could start lifting the track.
The concrete then needed to be tapped out from between the sleepers (ties) ....
..... but most of the track was recoverable.
With the track lifted, I could now remove the covering of roofing felt (tar paper) ......
..... and examine the boards beneath.
Well over half were still quite solid, but some of the rest were well past their Best Before dates.
I then decided to lift the track and examine the boards beneath the Copper Mine sidings. Some of these too were in a sorry state.
I was now faced with a decision. Should I retain the boards which were still relatively sound and try patching those which had rotted? Or should I scrap the lot and start again?
I decided to go for a complete refurbishment. These baseboards had been in situ for 17 years and I had got decent use out of them. If I kept the half decent boards, how long would it be before they started deteriorating? If I did a complete refurb and get 17 years out of the new boards, I'd be 91 years old by the time they needed to be replaced and I somehow doubted by then I would be able to do it all again.
So, out all the boards came.......
It took three trips to the local refuse tip with my trusty little trailer to dispose of the timber, but I was now ready to start anew.
The first job was to examine all the legs to see if any needed replacement. Two had rotted completely at their bases and two had rotted at the top.
Those which had rotted at the base were replaced entirely, but those with rot at the top were sawn off and a new upper section spliced in.
Some extra posts were also concreted in (using Postcrete) to give extra support where I thought it might be needed.
Cross members were then screwed to the posts to act as battens for the baseboards.
Above, you can see one of the posts which has had its top replaced.
At the Copper Mine, I decided to raise the sidings an inch above the adjacent main line to differentiate between them, and so the cross members had a one inch by six inch section removed from one end.
A quick trip to the local fencing contractors (one advantage of living in the country), and a couple of days later a lorry load of 8ft and 12ft x 6" x 1" pressure treated fencing boards arrived. These were placed loosely on the supports to make sure I had ordered enough.
I could then start cutting them to fit their required locations.
This time, I made sure that all the ends I had sawn were liberally soaked in wood preservative - something I had neglected to do with the previous baseboards, which might have hastened their demise. I also made sure that every joint either coincided with a batten and/or was suitably reinforced beneath.
The one inch step between the Copper Mine sidings and the adjacent mainline seemed to work out OK.
And so, with all the boards laid, I was ready for the next stage.
A large roll of heavy duty (15 year guaranteed) roofing felt was acquired from the local builders' merchant and various pieces cut to size to cover the top surface of the boards.
The edges were bonded to each other with bitumenistic felt adhesive .....
..... and held in place with galvanised clout nails.
Clouts were also used to tack the edges of the felt to the sides.
Once all the boards had been covered, I could start planning the track layout. The first task was trying to figure out where the points would be sited.
The track layout would be similar to how it was originally, with a few slight variations.
The exchange siding at the back of the station would be extended
The bay platform road alongside it would also be extended
The main platform road would be a straight connection to the main line (previously there was a reverse curve)
The cattle dock siding would now become a loop
A double-slip would be used to connect the cattle dock siding to the other sidings
I would try and eliminate all R1 points
After testing this layout and looking at the points I had left over, I decided to add a crossover at the ends of the exchange siding and the bay road, so the locos on ore and mineral trains could run round without having to use the main platform loop. This crossover made use of a couple of R1 points, but I felt they would be fine in that location, as only short wheelbase 0-4-0 locos were used for these trains.
[Awaiting photo]
Once I was happy with the track layout, the track was screwed down - using stainless steel screws this time! I started with the link from the station to the storage roads in the garage. This was an essential fixed point, the relative positions of the rest of the trackwork could be adjusted.
Once all the track was in place, I cut some of the remaining 6" x 1" timber to provide a temporary platform and then did some test running to make sure the trackwork was OK and to ensure there was sufficient clearance for stock around the platform.
Whilst all this was ongoing, I ran a full operating session and made a couple of videos .....
I am hopeful that I will get at least another seventeen years of running trains in and out of Beeston Market station - provided I last that long myself!
Introduction
