Garden Rail August 2024

I ’ve recently dug into the editorial piggy bank, and become the owner of my first Roundhouse locomotive. Bought second-hand as part of an estate sale, it occurred to me that the price wasn’t far short of that paid for my first car in the late 1990s. Fortunately, it was made in Doncaster, and then been reasonably well looked after. I’ve not found the equivalent of sills repaired with a mix of car body filler and newspaper for a start! OK, the model is 25 years old, but everything is screwed together, and the instructions for building the kit version can be downloaded from the company website. There will be work to do, that pressure gauge needs replacement for a start, but the model steams well, so any jobs can…

I don’t have a garden. I live near the centre of the city of Dresden in Germany, where outdoor space is scarce. Instead, I have built a Feldbahn, or field railway, layout to the unusual scale of 1:13, running on 45mm track, which lives on my balcony. Since I did not want to crawl around on the floor, after all, I am already over 70 years old, I had a carpenter make some fittings that allow me to have the baseboards at the height of the balcony parapet. Much easier to work with! My plan had been to build a large circle with two stations. However, this would require me to build a bascule bridge over the door opening. I started with some lattice-girder bridge parts from Bertram Heyn (Modellbau…

I have been building model railways since my childhood, especially field railways in various scales, for 30 years. For the last few years, I’ve been working in 1:13 scale and 45mm track. I know my friends Uwe Menzel and Werner Hänsch from the Internet forum Die Feldbahnsinnen. Together, we operate a 50 square metre modular exhibition layout. I also have a 1:13 garden railway for the summer. It is mounted at a height of 80cm and can be expanded with the modular system. My 1:13 harbour railway is in a hobby room above the garage. I take my trains there in winter. All vehicles are self-built or converted to LGB chassis. There are also 3D-printed materials, kits and work from colleagues. There are ride-day meetings at these layouts several times…

Safety First It must be emphasized that professional quality PPE measures are essential for this type of work: dust and noise protection, eye protection and gloves. Mortar is harmful to the skin and eyes. Diamond sawing concrete produces large amounts of harmful dust, which must not be inhaled. I am a relative newcomer to garden railways, and not an expert in the techniques described here, but I hope my experiences, problems and ad-hoc solutions will be of interest. My plan was to run a single, permanent ‘tram’ style track using plain, flat-bottomed, LGB brass rail with sufficient strength that it can run G-scale trains and be safely walked on, and flush to the surface so it isn’t a trip hazard. The existing straight footpath is made up of typical contoured…

A quick question: What do a gasholder, some windmills, a castle turret, minarets and the Royal Albert Hall have in common? Well done if you got it. They are mostly round. Now, there is not exactly a plenitude of round buildings for us railway modellers to choose from. I suspect there are two reasons for this. I guess for what we want to model, they are not that popular. I can’t see me adding minarets to my layout in the future. They are also a little more complex to mould and bulky to produce and ship, compared with the rank and file of the usual fayre of flat-packed station and lineside buildings, pubs and houses. All that changed for me when John Candy sent me an original picture of a…

Model Tram, Bus and Railway Exhibition Date: 17th and 18th August 2024 Venue: The National Tramway Museum, Crich Tramway Village, Crich, Derbyshire, DE4 5DP Times: 10am to 5pm Web: www.tramway.co.uk The Llanfair Caereinion Garden Railway Show Date: 31 August to 1 September 2024 Venue: Llanfair Caereinion Leisure Centre, Welshpool, SY21 0HW Times: Sat 10am to 4:30pm. Sun 10am to 4pm Web: www.currinnbooks.com/llanfair-garden-railway-show The Yorkshire Garden Railway Show on Tour Date: 28 September 2024 Venue: Barrow Hill Roundhouse Railway Centre, Campbell Drive, Barrow Hill, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S43 2PR Times: 10am to 4pm Web: www.yorkshire.16mm.org.uk/Yorkshire16mmShowhomepage.html G1MRA Autumn Show and AGM Date: 12 October 2024 Venue: STEAM, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EY Times: 10am to 4pm Web: www.g1mra.com Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition Date: 17 to 20 October 2024 Venure: Warwickshire Event Centre,…