Garden Rail August 2025

As I type these words, the sun is shining, and it has been for several days. Newspapers are sending staff out to photograph eggs being fried on pavements, and water companies are doubtless mulling hosepipe bans. It is the perfect weather for running a garden railway, and so we feature a layout that will be the star, yet again, of the local open garden festival – Andy Christie’s Olive Branch Tramway. As you can see from the picture, I’ve enjoyed running trains on it a couple of times, and eating some excellent cake. We have also returned to Bekonscot, the oldest model village in the country, and one with a very impressive Gauge 1 railway system running between the exquisite scenery and buildings. It’s a perfect trip out in the…

If you want something doing, they say, ask a busy person. When I catch up with Andrew Christie to talk about his 45mm gauge Olive Branch Tramway, he’s just got in from driving a Cross Country Voyager – the 12-inch to the foot version – back from Cardiff. He was driving the big trains at the weekend, too, at the regulator of a 14xx, giving footplate rides at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway. And more often than not, you’ll see him at garden railway shows behind the scenes of the SM32 Glyn Valley Tramway exhibition layout. He’s part of the team that’s bringing the legendary Welsh line back to life at Chirk. Somehow, in between all of this, he’s built the sort of garden railway that many of us…

The Roundhouse Charles Pooter has an interesting back history, which started in 1980, when Jack Wheldon designed and produced his first Pooter. It was a meths-fired, pot-boilered 0-4-0T with a very efficient firebox and was named after the main character in Charles and Weedon Grossmith’s Victorian satirical novel, Diary of a Nobody. Jack sold the first engine and then built a second loco for himself, called ‘Lupin’ after Charles Pooter’s son. He then decided to offer Pooters for sale, and built another two like ‘Lupin’ with slip eccentric valve gear. An inveterate experimenter, Jack designed a strange reversing valve gear, which he called Wheldon Tayleur, and fitted this to the next four engines. Unfortunately, Jack carried on advertising his Pooters even though he had got way behind with orders, and…

Sometimes, you see a kit and think, ‘I just have to get that.’ It doesn’t necessarily fit in with your plans, the era, region, or even country you model, but it just appeals nonetheless. As our plans for the 32mm layout become more concrete, we’re thinking Welsh slate line, but in the preservation (or at least diesel) era; our loco fleet at the moment comprises exclusively internal-combustion locomotives. And yet, as soon as we saw the Timpdon Models’ Dandy Wagon, mentioned in an issue of Garden Rail, it became one of those kits that we just fancied having. The company had a stand at the Llangollen Show, where we were picking up the various kits to form our test trains, and so we added one of these eccentric little wagons…

Write in and share your ideas with other enthusiasts Letters are welcomed on any aspect of large scale railway modelling. Please email the Editor: phil.parker@warnersgroup.co.uk or post to The Editor, Garden Rail Magazine, Warners Group Publications, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH. Art It was surprising and gratifying to see the picture in the June edition of the artist that was displayed on the Hants. Area Group (HAG) 32/45mm modular layout at the NGRS. This little cameo piece was originally put together by the late Tony Skraga, a very skilled model maker who, as well as proposing the idea of the HAG layout, also made most of the modular baseboards. He also made a number of the buildings that are on the layout and some battery-powered 32mm gauge locos and…

HSBA Garden Railway open day Date: August 9th, 2025 Venue: St. Mary, Jersey Times: 10am to 5:00pm Web: www.hsbagardenrailway.com Welshpoll & Llanfair Light Railway gala with 16mm Garden Railway Show Date: August 30th, 2025 Venue: Llanfair Leisure Centre, Llanfair Caereinion, Welshpool, SY21 0HW Times: 10am to 4:00pm Web: www.wllr.org.uk/events/steam-gala/ Yorkshire Garden Railway Show Date: September 27th, 2025 Venue: Barrow Hill Roundhouse Railway Centre, Campbell Drive, Barrow Hill, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S43 2PR Times: 10am to 4:00pm Web: www.yorkshire.16mm.org.uk Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition Date: October 16-19th, 2025 Venue: Warwickshire Event Centre, A425, Southam Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 1FE Times: Thurs-Sat 10am to 4:30pm. Sun 10am to 4pm Web: www.midlandsmodelengineering.co.uk Exeter Garden Railway Show Date: October 25th, 2025 Venue: The Matford Centre, Marsh Barton Ind Estate, Exeter, EX2 8FD Times: 10:30am to 4:30pm…