Don’t even think about touching my decking! Is the reply if I say that the railway needs to expand and expand it has, thanks in part to my father in law Walter, who it turns out is as mad as I am about garden railways-every time we went out –we had to come back with something for the railway-it didn’t matter that I got in trouble off upper senior management ,(the wife) as Walter would say - ”She can’t tell me off!” – sadly Walter passed away last month. We miss him a lot but when we look at what we created between us, I feel as if he is still about messing around some where in the garden.

I started by reading every thing I could find -Garden Rail, G-Scale Journal, going on the internet etc.

Then the very next day – straight out to the garden – well no point waiting till you know what you are doing! I started laying down the track that came in the starter set, that didn’t go far, my next door neighbour came over to see what I was up to – Kids toy?- No its MY garden railway, he just smiled and walked off.

It was about this time that my late father in law Walter took an interest. “You need more track!” So off we went to our local model shop Arcadia, the first of many, many visits. Tim and Stewart were very helpful, full of good advice, and plenty of tea.

We started to lay decking boards down. These are supported by 2 ft spikes driven into the ground every 2 ft or so. The boards are joined together by steel straps on the sides. So far every thing has stood the test of time quite well. Track is pinned down lightly every 2 ft ,wiring is a doddle, as we us LGB’s M.T.S system. The street lights are fed off a 2.5 amp Gaugemaster transformer, via an infrared motion detector, this turns on the lights when a train goes past at night, saving you having to turn on and off the lights. Signals are where I think they should go –possibly not where they should go. Again these are fed off the track. The water feature is there so I could have my bridges

Why do you need a bridge? Well when your railway is called Lazy Grange Bay, you need a bay, if you have a bay - you need a bridge!