I have kept most of my Hornby 'OO' gauge locomotives since the age of six although I've never really had the space to have a layout inside. I recently discovered whilst trawling through the web that the track is made from nickel alloy-it won't rust! I decided to build a railway to circumnavigate my garden, the result is a rather large run for a small locomotive, with a necessary cutting to traverse Helen's rock garden.
The little steamer moving past the rosemary after the homemade burner, and a diesel about to enter the tomato patch
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The diesel navigating a gentle bend, whilst the steamer ploughs through the cutting narrowly avoiding the rock garden
Pond views
Nearly a nasty collision with a tomato.
I wanted to mount the track so I could remove it if we moved. The carrier that the track was nailed to was scrap wood. Thick plywood would do, with an 8mm hole drilled in both ends for the dowel rod. The dowel was the support, I used a 10mm dowel and tapered the ends slightly to be a tight (hammer it in fit) into the 8mm carrier holes. The rods were driven into the ground to hold the carrier. This contributed one section (around 50-100cm depending on the scrap wood length). Curves were made by cutting a curved section from plywood using a jigsaw. All of the wood was treated with outdoor varnish.
I soldered wires to the underside of the track (surprisingly easy!) and tested it with a lab power supply. My next trick is to power the trains using solar power, watch this space....