The UK’s only magazine that’s 100% dedicated to outdoor railway modelling. Expect to see stunning garden railways from the UK and abroad, expert advice to help you create one of your own, show reports plus product news and reviews.
Since this is the December issue of Garden Rail, I feel that I ought to wish you all Merry Christmas, even though you’ll be reading this in November and I’m writing these words before Halloween. However, our lead layout does relate to the festive season in a small way. As a child, one of my favourite toys was a collection of Playpeople. Somewhere in the loft, there are still several sets of cowboys, knights and many other characters. What I wasn’t able to enjoy, because I am old and the stuff appeared long after I moved on to more adult pursuits, was the Playmobil railway range. How I would have enjoyed finding a G-scale set under the tree for my little figures! Mind you, even if I had found a…
I guess everyone has ‘their thing’ with model railways – a combination of scale, gauge, period and geography. For me, its much simpler than that, as firstly, I am not really a modeller. My preferences have always been towards the vintage scene and ‘my thing’ is combining toy trains with slot cars. The inspiration for this probably goes back to all those Tri-ang catalogues that my dad bought in the early 60s. No idea why he bought them, as we were strictly Hornby Dublo, but they sowed the seed in me of an idea that grew and grew. I am no slot car racer either. My interest in slot cars is purely to use them as roadways, which was the vision of a man called Derek Brand, who invented Playcraft…
If you are interested, there is a lot of information out there about fast charging and cycling of batteries. The internet abounds with tales of exploding LiPo batteries and worse. Fortunately, for us railway modellers, it is not as complex as it seems. This is not a technical manual, but the story of my journey into high-tech batteries, and right back again! It all started when Editor Phil was kind enough to send me a model boat hull. My best friend Dave, had taken up model boats and it was a good chance for us to meet up at the boating lake on Sunday mornings and grumble. Even my doctor agrees that old men meeting up to grumble is important therapy and good for their health. Well, I built the…
The Dyfrdwy Tramway is a little-known 18” narrow gauge slate railway in the Berwyns, just west of Llangollen near the village of Glyndyfrdwy. The history of the line has featured in the June issue of Garden Rail and I have written a complete backstory for the tramway, which explains and justifies my various locomotive and rolling stock projects. As with all garden railways, I see it very much as a ‘real’ railway. It lives, it evolves and it weathers with the seasons. Even without a train, it can be enjoyed. That said, as winter approaches, there are a few maintenance jobs I need to tend to, including some new retaining walls and renewed fencing. Over the winter, I hope to add some more lineside details including a water tower and…
My elevated 7/8ths scale ‘Llwynog Gan Bryn’ garden railway is based on a typical Welsh slate quarry tramway. The main viewing and operating area is shouldered by, and liberally scattered with, loose Welsh slate, geologically representing its locality. However, I feel that my running line, again ballasted with loose slate, doesn’t quite look right running through the garden, which has an almost ‘East Asian’ tropical theme; architectural planting of differing varieties of Acanthus, bamboo, Fatsia japonica’s, ferns, grasses, Japanese cedars, and assorted palms. I wanted my running line to fit in better with its surroundings, away from the main ‘quarry’ area so to speak. For a number of years, I have been fascinated with the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway; so much so that I now want my running line to vaguely…
I don’t think I can recall a single supplier with a more eclectic mix of kits like Rannoch Sidings. I reviewed its transfer wagon in GR334 and working tipper wagon in last months’ issue, but this bridge kit takes things to a completely different level. If Rannoch produced LEGO kits, this truss bridge would be its equivalent of LE-GO’s Taj Mahal kit; still one of the largest sets available, with 5923 pieces. The part count of this bridge kit does not quite make that number, but still, with around 480 pieces, I could see this would be a very detailed and time-consuming kit to build. Rannoch suggests 24 hours is around the norm, although as I painted as I went along, as it would be a tough ask to do…
