Garden Rail November 2023

A CHUFFING GOOD DAY Through the last year, my local model railway club, the Leamington & Warwick MRS, has been busy turning time and money into an impressive outdoor 45mm gauge line. Mark and his team moved many tons of rock, gravel and concrete, and installed quite a lot of outdoor plywood, followed by many, many metres of track. Along the way, lessons have been learned and some bad language used when exceptionally hot weather has made rails expand more than expected, and exceptionally damp weather has shown the wood not to be as waterproof as it was supposed to be. Eventually, I’ll twist some arms to have them tell the full story of all this. All the problems faded away a few weeks ago when the track was given…

The main inspiration for my garden line was P.D. Hancock’s wonderful Torlum Hill Light Railway, which he described in The Railway Modeller in 1991 and ‘96. I was in Edinburgh in 1996 and visited him. Such a nice man – so welcoming! Unfortunately, in the summer months he suffered from a skin condition caused by a mysterious tiny red spider, so our time in the garden was limited, and I didn’t see his wonderful collection of live steam locos in action. Never mind, I enjoyed a couple of electric locos running, admired his hard work and craftsmanship, and breathed in the character of his railway. Background In 1996, I’d just levelled a patio area at the bottom of our garden with a three-foot brick retaining wall and a 20 x…

Normal service resumes Humble apologies if you were waiting for this article last month. Sometimes life throws you several curve balls, and I was too busy being an acrobat trying to catch them all. Hopefully, I am now back on track. Before I press on with the build of the body, just a gentle reminder that the chassis motion and smoothness have been much-improved by dispensing with the round tube supplied in the kit, acting as bearings and spacers for the cranks and axles. I used some 3mm brass tube instead, which not only will last longer but cause less friction and drag on the chassis than the original Tufnol tube supplied. This is a massive improvement. The eagle-eyed among you may have seen that the original green cylinders on…

I had not intended to provide buildings for Lynton, my modular garden railway (GR337), as storage in the garden shed of quite large buildings along with all the track modules would be difficult. I have built additional track modules, so a clear-out of the shed had become a necessity, and I can now see where a shelf can be fitted for storage of a couple of buildings. As a youngster, my OO experiences of building model buildings were with Airfix kits that came with some little pots of bright coloured paints, and although building the kit was straightforward, the painting was too gaudy and unrealistic. I was saved by Superquick kits made from colour printed card, and became quite successful in building these, including the complex station terminus building. Probably…

The Thin Controller, having just finished a most enjoyable lunch in the village, was now walking down a long, narrow, overgrown footpath back to the Beeches station. As he tore his trouser leg on a rampant bramble for the second time that week, it occurred to him how much easier and quicker his walk would be if only there was a footbridge across the quarry to the station. It would only need to be about 60ft in length, so something quite simple would suffice. But, bridges tend to be expensive, and he knew the directors would be loathed to spend a lot of money on one - perhaps the workshops could construct something suitable? It so happened that the directors (my father and I) were aware of a quantity of…

Date: 12-15 October, 2023 Event: Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition Venue: Warwickshire Event Centre, A425, Southam Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 1FE Times: 10am to 4:30pm Web: www.midlandsmodelengineering.co.uk Date: 28 October, 2023 Event: Exeter Garden Railway Show Venue: The Matford Centre, Matford Park Road, Marsh Barton Ind Estate, Exeter, EX2 8FD Times: 10.30am to 4.30pm Web: www.exetergardenrailwayshow.com Date: 9 December, 2023 Event: Steam at Rowington Venue: Rowington Village Hall, Rowington Green, Warwick, CV35 7BU Times: 10am to 4:30pm Web: www.johnsuttonbooksandmodels.co.uk Date: 2/3 March, 2024 Event: Midlands Garden Rail Show Venue: Warwickshire Event Centre, A425, Southam Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 1FE Times: 10am to 4pm Web: www.meridienneexhibitions.co.uk/events/midlands-garden-rail-show All events are published in good faith. Please check with the organisers before travelling a significant distance as Garden Rail can’t be responsible for changes or…