Garden Rail

I read some scary statistics recently. Eight million men feel lonely at least once a week. One in four has contact with friends less than once a month. Worst of all, one in ten can’t remember when they last interacted with a friend. According to the University of York, loneliness is known as a ‘silent killer’, because it increases the risks of many different life-threatening conditions such as stroke and dementia. Talking to members of my model railway club, we all felt that being part of a group was good for us. For a start, there is somewhere to go at least once a week. OK, we mainly chat and build model railways, but the conversations wander, and simply being in the same room as other people helps. That cup…

Lying in the long grass, one afternoon of heat, gazing up into the cloudless, hazy blue, a Skylark singing, unseen, high overhead, bees quietly humming around Oxeye Daisies, a creak of rails expanding with the warmth, the scent of creosote from hot sleepers; the peaceful scene surrounding a seemingly little used narrow gauge byway hidden in the chalk downland of southwest Wiltshire. Still, the rails have a hint of shine, suggesting something must have passed this way recently. Presently, that unmistakable Simplex burble drifts on the breeze, getting louder, as around the bend comes a 20/28 with half a dozen empty skips, squealing and rattling as they pass. The peace descends once more as they gradually recede. Walking after them in the ‘two foot’, the track can be seen to…

I was five years old when I asked my parents for a steam engine of my own, and they promised I could have one when I was 12. I think they thought I’d forget, but I didn’t, and they kept their word. Beginners’ live steam in the early 1980s meant Mamod, and while I loved my traction engine, I soon contracted that familiar secondary symptom of the steam bug: one engine is never enough. Mamod had recently brought out their SL1 and I pestered and pestered, but mum and dad felt (and fair enough) that they’d kept their half of the bargain. My first garden railways involved Lego. Then life got in the way. Scroll forward four decades, when I decided to follow the dream at last, it seemed logical…

Given our aspiration that our garden railway should be as much a rockery covered in alpine plants, as it was somewhere to run trains, we set about planning the project with an eye towards the greenery. We had quite a decent selection of alpines and ferns from the old house, and also from Ben’s parents’ place in Wales, but you can never have too many plants. Well, that’s what we thought, though, as we type this in the middle of a hosepipe ban, perhaps we were wrong. Still, the constant trips to and from the tap with the watering can help get the old step count up. Anyway, back to the Spring, and the building of the new layout. We’d got the trays and pots of plants ready to install,…

All day steaming Date: Saturday, February 14th, 2026 Venue: de Stafford School, Burntwood Lane, Caterham, Surrey, CR3 5YX Times: 10am to 4pm Web: www.eastsurrey16mmgroup.wordpress.com Midlands Garden Rail Show Date: February 28th to March 1st, 2026 Venue: Warwickshire Event Centre, Nr Leamington Spa, CV31 1XN Times: 10am to 4pm Web: www.midlandsgardenrailshow.co.uk The London Festival of Railway Modelling Date: March 21st-22nd, 2026 Venue: Alexandra Palace, Alexandra Palace Way, London, N22 7AY Times: Sat: 9:30 to 5pm Sun: 9:30 to 4:30pm Web: www.world-of-railways.co.uk/shows National Garden Railway Show Date: Saturday, April 25th, 2026 Venue: NAEC Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth, CV8 2LH Times: 9.30am to 5pm Web: www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk Steam Over Spencer Date: March 4th-8th, 2026 Venue: N.C. Transportation Museum, 1 Samuel Spencer Dr.Spencer, NC 28159 United States Times: 9am to 5pm Web: www.nctransportationmuseum.org/steam-over-spencer All events are…

For many years, I have been a member of the Cardiff Model Engineering Society, whose grounds are in Heath Park, Cardiff. This society has had a garden railway since 1990; at this time, as there was no land available, this first railway was in fact a waterproof portable layout. It wasn’t until the late 1990s and the relocation of one of the society’s larger gauge tracks did any land become available for a garden railway. On the right, you can see the portable layout in use, and behind it the ring of fencing around some trees, which is where a proper garden railway will be situated. This track remained in operation, with a few alterations to the trackwork, until 2017, when it was lengthened and construction of a raised track…