I have several motorized and illuminated Lego trains, and lots of track, have been thinking about doing a garden layout with them, would that count as a garden railway 
Regards
Alan
Alan
Beginning a first garden railway
I hope this will be of interest to people. I have always wanted a garden railway and until recently haven't had the time, space or money. I thought it would be 0 gauge having had a quantity of Basset Lowke coarse scale stock in the past. I sold all this several years ago as it was deteriorating and I was unlikely to be able to make use of it.
A chance buy on ebay about 6 years ago was a Bachmann G gauge 4-6-0 in Durango and Silverton Bumblebee colour scheme. Another club member had some European outline G gauge items. We had a test track at the club for a while so I was able to run locos from time to time.
Being retired and haveing completed most of the projects in the garden I now had time to start. At the end of 2019 we had a sun room extension built and I asked the builders to dump the spoil where I wanted the railway. Last year I built a brick retaining wall using old reclaimed bricks, a lot found in the garden which came from an 18th Century house which stood on this site until about the 1930's. The wall is 2 feet high and the raised bed is approximately 27.5 feet by 13 feet which will be enough for a start. hopefully I will be able to extend further into the garden at a later date.
I spent the rest of the year filling it with soil and compost and left it over the winter to settle, I hope it has settled as much as it will by now.
The line will be US outline and also freelance UK narrow gauge. This is loosely based on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. The US is mostly Denver and Rio Grande Western.
![19993]()
The picture shows the first track laid at the begining of June. I dug a foundation trench about 9 inches deep and filled this with building ballast ( sharp sand and stones mix) which was tamped down with a large block of wood. The track is a mix of Piko ( the point and 4 foot radius curved sections ) and Tenmille ( long length in fore ground ). I preformed teh 5 foot lenght of track and fastend it to treated tile batten which is embedded in the ballast. At present it is temporarily wired without sections just to test the track for reliable running.
More by accident than design I managed to get a small amount of superelevation on the curves whihc looks good. The station area in the background is laid in Thermalite blocks and the track will be screwed to them.
After a couple of weeks I found that some of the curved track had settled and caused a derailment of my Railcar in one direction only. On checking, I found the track changed from having a cant inwards to level or slightly outwards at on joint. This was enough to let the outside wheels lift over the outside rail due to centrifigal force. Repacking the track carefully cured to problem. AS Emily has a fixed wheelbase I can see that she will be a useful test vehicle. Being battery powered I aim to make a track cleaning van to be pulled behind to clean the track before a running session.
![19994]()
This pictue was taken last night and shows some of the planting now in place.
At the moment I am waiting for some more track from Tenmille and some adapter rail joiners before anymore track can be laid.
Christine
A chance buy on ebay about 6 years ago was a Bachmann G gauge 4-6-0 in Durango and Silverton Bumblebee colour scheme. Another club member had some European outline G gauge items. We had a test track at the club for a while so I was able to run locos from time to time.
Being retired and haveing completed most of the projects in the garden I now had time to start. At the end of 2019 we had a sun room extension built and I asked the builders to dump the spoil where I wanted the railway. Last year I built a brick retaining wall using old reclaimed bricks, a lot found in the garden which came from an 18th Century house which stood on this site until about the 1930's. The wall is 2 feet high and the raised bed is approximately 27.5 feet by 13 feet which will be enough for a start. hopefully I will be able to extend further into the garden at a later date.
I spent the rest of the year filling it with soil and compost and left it over the winter to settle, I hope it has settled as much as it will by now.
The line will be US outline and also freelance UK narrow gauge. This is loosely based on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. The US is mostly Denver and Rio Grande Western.
The picture shows the first track laid at the begining of June. I dug a foundation trench about 9 inches deep and filled this with building ballast ( sharp sand and stones mix) which was tamped down with a large block of wood. The track is a mix of Piko ( the point and 4 foot radius curved sections ) and Tenmille ( long length in fore ground ). I preformed teh 5 foot lenght of track and fastend it to treated tile batten which is embedded in the ballast. At present it is temporarily wired without sections just to test the track for reliable running.
More by accident than design I managed to get a small amount of superelevation on the curves whihc looks good. The station area in the background is laid in Thermalite blocks and the track will be screwed to them.
After a couple of weeks I found that some of the curved track had settled and caused a derailment of my Railcar in one direction only. On checking, I found the track changed from having a cant inwards to level or slightly outwards at on joint. This was enough to let the outside wheels lift over the outside rail due to centrifigal force. Repacking the track carefully cured to problem. AS Emily has a fixed wheelbase I can see that she will be a useful test vehicle. Being battery powered I aim to make a track cleaning van to be pulled behind to clean the track before a running session.
This pictue was taken last night and shows some of the planting now in place.
At the moment I am waiting for some more track from Tenmille and some adapter rail joiners before anymore track can be laid.
Christine
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Thanks for your comments Chris.
The one thing is that the track is plastic and shouldn't be effected by the weather, apart perhaps by some fading.
I know what you mean, back in the day Lego was just several different size and shaped bricks and you used your imagination to create something. Now they have all sorts of dedicated kit parts to create great (and expensive
) representations of things ancient ,modern and futuristic. I am a sucker for large kits that can be illuminated, and have spent a small fortune over the last few years.My latest addition being the Colosseum in Rome, I think their biggest kit to date, haven't started on it yet, but I have the obligatory lighting kit and Perspex display case
Regards
Alan
Latest Progress.
![20035]()
This is not to scale plan of the line. It is built on a raised bed 2 feet high and 27.5 feet by 13 feet. I drew this up with AnyRail software but i haven't really got to grips with it yet hence the passing loop not being parallel! Trackwork is complete around 3 sides but at the top of the diagram the track shown is only a rough idea at present. I will make a small pond and stream in this area and will decide the exact route of the line when the pond is completed. I am not sure if the line will run alongside the water or if there will be enough room to curve the line so that it can cross the water on a bridge which will look more interesting.
I may have enough track to make a temporary straight run along the top so that trains can be run round the complete circuit in the interim. I tested the track yesterday late afteernoon between heavy rain showers using the battery powered railcar "Emily". She ran along the entire length without derailing, so far so good. I will have to leave the top right curve to settle for a few days as this is laid on a foundation of sharp sand and stones so will settle a bit. The station and freight yard is laid on thermalite blocks plugged and screwed.
I have also made the station building from a Pola kit, this is waiting to be installed, I had varnished the station name board which have been printed on the computer and some parts I painted with acrylic paint to tone the "plasticness" look down. This is the roof and the boardwalk platform. If it is dry later on this will be placed by the passing loop.
I will take more photographs soon.
Chris
This is not to scale plan of the line. It is built on a raised bed 2 feet high and 27.5 feet by 13 feet. I drew this up with AnyRail software but i haven't really got to grips with it yet hence the passing loop not being parallel! Trackwork is complete around 3 sides but at the top of the diagram the track shown is only a rough idea at present. I will make a small pond and stream in this area and will decide the exact route of the line when the pond is completed. I am not sure if the line will run alongside the water or if there will be enough room to curve the line so that it can cross the water on a bridge which will look more interesting.
I may have enough track to make a temporary straight run along the top so that trains can be run round the complete circuit in the interim. I tested the track yesterday late afteernoon between heavy rain showers using the battery powered railcar "Emily". She ran along the entire length without derailing, so far so good. I will have to leave the top right curve to settle for a few days as this is laid on a foundation of sharp sand and stones so will settle a bit. The station and freight yard is laid on thermalite blocks plugged and screwed.
I have also made the station building from a Pola kit, this is waiting to be installed, I had varnished the station name board which have been printed on the computer and some parts I painted with acrylic paint to tone the "plasticness" look down. This is the roof and the boardwalk platform. If it is dry later on this will be placed by the passing loop.
I will take more photographs soon.
Chris
Here a few pictures taken with a good evening light yesterday.
![20039]()
No 179 arriving at Honeysuckle Creek. I cloned the smoke from a picture taken at Lakeside Station of an 0-6-0 ST taken in the 1980s, this had a similar background to last night's picture so was easy to blend in.
![20040]()
Similar to the above but slightly more distant.
![20041]()
Looking from the other direction. The very large red leaved plants are annuals so they will go in the Autumn, in the meantime I am gradually going to landscape this area properly and plant smaller plants near the line. I have already planted so camomile further along which has given a "grass" effect from a distance. The only thing is that it is quick growing after peroids of rain so needs trimming back from the track.
So far so good!
Christine
No 179 arriving at Honeysuckle Creek. I cloned the smoke from a picture taken at Lakeside Station of an 0-6-0 ST taken in the 1980s, this had a similar background to last night's picture so was easy to blend in.
Similar to the above but slightly more distant.
Looking from the other direction. The very large red leaved plants are annuals so they will go in the Autumn, in the meantime I am gradually going to landscape this area properly and plant smaller plants near the line. I have already planted so camomile further along which has given a "grass" effect from a distance. The only thing is that it is quick growing after peroids of rain so needs trimming back from the track.
So far so good!
Christine
Hi Christine,
That looks fabulous, well done.
Regarding the pond, I would personally deffo go with a bridge
Regards
Alan
That looks fabulous, well done.
Regarding the pond, I would personally deffo go with a bridge
Regards
Alan
Alan, I think it is a bit of both, that loco is a bit sensitive to the odd bump, I might try a bit more weight on the pony truck. The track hasn't been ballasted properly yet, I will check levels as i do this which should improve running.Hi Chris,
That's great, loved it that the loco picked up some vegetation on the way round.
Also noticed a bit of de-rail on the loco early in the video, is that an issue with the trackwork, or just a one off
Regards
Alan
Best wishes
Chris
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