What's new on Andrew's Garden Railway 2009

I made the fatal error of walking past the Lightline stand at this year's Stoneleigh show. In the middle of the stand was a fully lined out and detailed Taliesin. I'll leave the photos to show the difference - the original unlined loco can be seen in the 2008 section below.

Taliesin is a very smooth runner, which makes her ideal traction for my slate train. Being plastic, the slate wagons are vulnerable to derailment if the couplings are allowed to snatch.

Taliesin drawing a passenger train off the bridge that carries the main line over the fish pond. The working headlamp is from Garden Railway Specialists. I modified the lamp irons to fit it, and added one to the rear of the bunker.

Taliesin blows off while hauling a passenger train under the bushes.

Like many modellers, I am very good at buying kits; I am quite good at starting to buid them; and I am very poor at finishing them! I have recently put some concerted effort into completing a couple of Ffestiniog Quarrymen's Carriages which were started back in 2007. The completed but unpainted bodies sat on a table in my office for the best part of two years, but a few weeks ago I finally took the bull by the horns and decided to get on with them! I started by designing a new coach lighting circuit which uses reed switches in the roof of the vehicle for switching, so instead of groping around trying to find switches under the coach, I can now turn on the lights on and off by waving a magent over the roof. The lights are held on by a latched relay which has the advantage of automatically switching off as the battery voltage drops, thus avoiding complete flattening of the rechargeable batteries. A second coach is a couple of coats of paint behind this one - the major outstanding task being the manufacture and fitting of the 6 droplights.

Brandbright have just revamped their Quarrymen's kit with much better laser cut wood sides and some absolutely fantastic detail. My kits are the old ones, so I have had to put in a lot of detail myself, including the seats! Just visible in the photo above is a gentleman sat in the corner reading his book. As this photograph shows, the problem with putting lights in coaches is that the light tends to leak out in embarrassing places. I now remember why my other coach roofs have strips along the sides just inside the body! The quarrymen's coaches will provide some real Ffestiniog vehicles for Taliesing to haul.

Some progress, 2008

The biggest happening in Andrew's Garden for some time happened on 9th October when the latest irresistible addition to the locomotive fleet arrived and made her first test run under the cover of darkness. Taliesin is the latest steam locomotive to be built in Doncaster at the famous Roundhouse Engineering works. She is a model of the replica single Fairlie locomotive built at Boston Lodge in 1999 for the Ffestiniog Railway. The test run showed her to be a very smooth and stable runner. Taliesin has all of the good looks of the prototype. At the end of the test running Taliesin had successfully hauled a train of three carriages, 3 vans, 3 freight wagons and a brake van. Running light engine Tal successfully negotiated the fiendish south west curve into the garage in both directions. Articulated locomotives definitely have some benefits.

Having been under construction for longer than I care to remember (see the mention below from 2004), a burst of enthusiasm saw some progress on my Atropos Schull and Skibbereen Railway carriage, which is now the proud owner of a rolling compensated chassis. Late one night in July 2008 it was taken for a successful test run behind "Connie" with passenger brake composite carriage no.1 bringing up the rear.

Andrew's Garden Railway has had a track gang for many years, but they were noted for spending almost all of their time hiding in the nice warm garage. They have now been ordered to get out and do some work, so they are now posing by the lineside next to a newly installed point lever.

Track relaying, 2005

After a long period of prevarication, I finally took the plunge and began the wholesale relaying of the remaining original track. Easter 2005 provided the ideal opportunity, mainly because it just happened that I'd invited my parents to stay. All of the original track was lifted, the trackbed dug out and a new formation constructed from half breeze blocks, this technique having proved very successful on the section of railway relaid following the house extension works. Day 1 (Good Friday) - the formation coming off the girder bridge has been exposed and the existing breeze blocks raised about 2cm to the new track level.

The formation passes under an escallonia bush. The digging out would have been less painful if we'd trimmed more of the dead branches before we started.

The view from the other side of the escallonia showing the trench for the breeze blocks and the string used to try and get the whole thing level. The new formation is a lot straighter than the one it replaced on this side of the garden, and passes a lot further from the cotoneaster.

As the formation extended along the garden some major bush roots were encountered. It was decided to leave these in position, so a short section of the trench was filled with gravel.

While I was laying breeze blocks (and pausing to take photographs) my father was following laying track, using open wagons to carry essential supplies. The track is screwed to the breeze blocks using 25mm no.6 brass woodscrews into yellow rawlplugs in the blocks. Care has to be taken that the holes in the breeze blocks don't wander too far when they are being drilled.

Day 2, and the weathermen's predicted doom and gloom failed to materialise, with just a hint of rain in mid afternoon. Just under half of the track laying was completed on day 1, but we had started with the most difficult section. On the right hand side of the garden, a section of the flowerbed was raised, partly to use up some spare half-log edging, but mostly to provide somewhere to dump the pile of soil which was rapidly filling all of the available buckets.

The completed formation in front of the holly bush. This is quite a steep drop from left to right, and with the old track loose on the ballast it was difficult to maintain a good alignment at the bottom of the hill, with some spectacular derailments as a result.

"Get your eye down and look along it" - a cry often heard at our school model railway society, and good advice for anyone who wants their track to be genuinely straight.

The view down the straight and level track on the right hand side of the garden. The newly raised flower bed can be seen in the distance. It is hoped that the daffodils will be less likely to lie across the track now they're up in the air.

Tea time on day 2, and the track laying and earth works are all complete, apart from disposing of the last pile of spare soil. Time for a test train.

Grandad hauls a freight train on the relaid track in front of the new raised bed.

Traction & Rolling Stock developments, 2004

2004's big investment was in loco 6 - the Roundhouse "Vale of Rheidol" tank with all the trimmings. When I get nameplates drawn up, this loco will become "Mary Pearl". Initially disappointing performance has now been cured by a return to Roundhouse's Doncaster Works (see below). Following the relaying project this piece of track is now level and the curve has been eased very slightly.

2004 also saw the introduction of a tank wagon. No.84 is built from an IP Engineering kit.

Following accident damage, wagon 72 went into the workshops to have a new door hinge strap fitted - the original is somewhere in the bottom of the fish pond! As well as a new strap, fabricated from cardboard, 72 has gained lettering and its number.

Wagon 71 is my original Mamod open wagon. It came into the shops with a broken coupling hook, and emerged having had the body repainted, lettering and numbers applied, and brand new sprung buffers. It is my intention to gradually fit sprung buffers throughout the fleet to reduce the risk of damage when shunting. However, I'm still trying to work out how to fit a Brandbright sprung buffer to a Roundhouse loco.

I took my cheque book for a day out to the Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers convention at Stoneleigh. A few cheques even survived to fight another day. One acquisition was this waiting shelter from Brian Chenery. G J Aston has gained a removable headlamp from Garden Railway Specialists.

I have fitted a lamp bracket to G J Aston's cab backsheet so that he can carry the headlamp at the front when running cab first. I also ordered a brass dome for G J Aston from Cheddar Models, which has now arrived - pictures soon. The passenger train, seen here making its way out of the garage, could soon be a carriage longer - I'm making good progress assembling my Schull & Skibbereen Railway carriage kit from Atropos.

In this "only a camera can see it" view of G J Aston the new permanent way hut can be seen in the background - another Brian Chenery product.

G J Aston poses with his shiny new dome.

After a lengthy stay at Doncaster Works (Roundhouse Engineering), Mary Pearl has returned and the difference in her performance is apparent. She has now received her nameplates and handles a passenger train with four extra vans with ease.