Innehållsförteckning för October 2023 från Garden Rail

CALLING MANX MODELLERS! During my recent holiday on the Isle of Man, I visited the excellent Model World shop in Ramsey. Chatting to the owner, she tells me that there are many garden railway modellers on the island. Where are you all? We featured The Lighthouse and Gorsebank Railway in May 2020 (You can see this online here: www.world-of-railways.co.uk/model-railways/the-lighthouse-and-gorsebank-railway/), but that’s the only one I know about. Come on guys – you know I’m a sucker for all things Manx, so drop me a line with a couple of photos and we’ll get you on these pages. Modelling on a relatively small island must present some interesting problems. Since the loss of Trackshack, there’s no hopping in the car to buy bits. Even a trip to a show involves either…

It’s always exciting to find a new manufacturer in our hobby. Red Star Steam Packet has introduced a number of laser-cut kits and components, and supplied a couple to Garden Rail. Here, I’m looking at the four-plank wagon. A very comprehensive set of instructions are available for download. Now, I could follow those to the letter, but like any good kit, there are also possibilities for customisation, so I’m making a few changes along the way. Talking to other garden scale modellers, this is a very common approach. Anyway, let’s let the pictures do the talking. Conclusion Let’s start with the basics. This kit is amazing value for money. Built straight from the box, a nice-looking 32mm gauge wagon will be the result. Everything fits as it should do, and…

Letters are welcomed on any aspect of large scale railway modelling. Please email the Editor: phil.parker@warnersgroup.co.uk or post to The Editor, Garden Rail Magazine, Warners Group Publications, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH GRS PECKETT FOLLOW-UP As some readers may be aware, some of our Pecketts have experienced troubles. As a precaution, we have written a letter to all customers, not just those who have reported issues, to have these changes made to improve the running and give extra detail. Below is the list of modifications, which we carry out on all the Pecketts. All work will be completed in 6-8 weeks. • Displacement lubricator - Move the oil delivery pipe to allow for a better mix of steam and oil before splitting to the cylinders• Gas Burner - Modify the poker…

Trade information on new products for the garden railway modeller… If you are a trader with any new product, then Contact phil.parker@warnersgroup.co.uk Please mention Garden Rail when contacting suppliers THE TRAIN DEPARTMENT 1/20.3 scale Baldwin 6-10D 0-6-0 These locomotives were standard designs for order from Baldwin that appeared on many different railroads. ‘Chas Kohler’, construction number 7362, was ordered in June 1884. Built for Challenge Mills in Yuba County California, it was their first locomotive and was used to haul flat cars of slab lumber and logs. Manufactured by Bowande, The Train Department’s model is available as with or without a saddle tank. Specification: • Slide valve cylinders with a ½” bore• Full working Stephenson valve gear• Butane-fired ceramic burner in a sealed locomotive firebox, needing no draft to run…

The Blackhead Light Railway passed the 40-year milestone at Christmas 2022. How the heck did that happen? Over the years, the railway has moved location once, developed, declined, been closed and lifted, and finally restored and revived. It has been quite a journey. And so it begins… It’s a familiar story, I had been modelling in OO for a number of years, but when we moved to our first house, I did not have access to a large area to continue that layout. I did, however, have around 60 feet of garden. I asked Santa very nicely if I could have a Mamod loco, and one duly appeared under the tree. If my wife had known then, what she knows now, I would have probably received socks. Although I had…

Any modelmaker interested in industrial rolling stock uses a lot of wheels. Many model sets are wellmade, accurate, and expensive, and you need a lot. There are also injection moulded wheels that come in a greater variety of styles and sizes. The same is true for 3D-printed wheels. I have used both types and turned metal wheels from blanks. Wagon and coach axles, in our scales, are commonly, 2mm, 3mm and ⅛”. To run properly, the wheels must be square to the axle and then set properly in the wagon chassis axle bearings, which are true to the track. How can this be done? Well, there are many solutions. The first is to buy the best made-up wheels sets you can afford and design your chassis around them. You will…

Belgium had a very extensive network of metre gauge tramways that carried passengers and freight through rural areas and into towns. The busier lines were electrified, but many rural lines were worked by steam and later by diesel trams. Most of these rural lines were closed during the 1950s and 1960s, but the electrified lines along the coast and some in the Charleroi area continue to operate. At the model tramway event at Crich Tramway Village, in August last year, the team exhibiting the Whiteleaf Tramway presented the largest gathering of G Scale Vicinal models ever seen in the UK. There were 17 trams, plus various trailers and goods wagons, all scratch-built. We don’t have space to show you all the wonderful models, so here is a selection.…

It was back in Garden Rail in April 2022 that I first shared the results of my experiment to directly measure the power of a model locomotive using a dynamometer. I was inspired by those trail-blazing Victorian engineers from the Industrial Revolution. The development of steam power and locomotive power, in particular, was actually the first time in history that the new discipline of science had been applied to real life. That new skill of applied science was to be called engineering. It is fascinating to follow the development of engineering from the founding of The Royal Society in 1660, with its polymath prima donna, Isaac Newton, through time, identifying historic names such as Newcomen, Watt, Trevithick, Stevenson and Brunel, to Robert Fairlie and the Sainted Charles Easton Spooner, in…

Lazy Sunday afternoons are great for getting trolleyed, don’t you think? Only last Sunday, it was time to crack open, not a tinny, but five new bags to reveal three station trolleys and two packs of crates from Coach & Wagon Works (C&WW). Firstly, there are two sets of crates, with four crates in each bag. One set of slightly larger crates, labelled ‘TNT’, and the set of four slightly smaller crates labelled with one of each of the following drinks: rum, whisky, brandy and gin. These make perfect accessories for the three trolleys as well as quite an explosive combination! All the kits offer the same slot and tab assembly method and are very easy to put together. The sack trolley is the smallest of the three trolleys and…

As a very small boy in the early fifties, my indulgent mother read the Rev. Awdry stories to me at bedtime. It launched my obsession with trains and in particular steam locos. My favourite was Edward; with hindsight, a rather elegant pre-grouping 4-4-0. Nowadays, engines with faces aren’t really my cup of tea, but they do bring back childhood memories. My own G scale interest in British locos started with buying a second-hand Bachmann Emily, and immediately setting about to create something closer to a Stirling Single. GNR number one, being a loco my father saw steaming in the thirties, and we both saw when it was steamed at the Great Central in the eighties, not long before he passed. This was the first step on a journey of building…

Our property, with a significantly sloping garden, presented a few difficulties in designing a garden railway. After much deliberation and a conversation with a landscape builder, a plan was formulated to construct a shunting yard, which set the tone of the developing railway. Whilst three live steam locomotives lead the current stable, a 2022/23 winter project was formulated to build a diesel shunter for those days when a quick railway operation is needed. A Roundhouse diesel chassis kit, HBKD2, was chosen for the build, as the electric motor is set below the footplate between the frames. This configuration leaves maximum space for radio equipment and batteries in the bodywork above the footplate. The hunt was then on for a suitable, but unusual locomotive design to fit the inter-war years character…

At the end of 2020, I was the proud owner of a completed, dog boneshaped garden railway. Since then, we have had a very snowy winter here in Norfolk, which was not wasted as my wonderful wife, Janet, had kindly bought me some lovely locomotive and rolling stock kits for Christmas. This was, of course, her attempt to keep me occupied and out of her way during the winter, and it seemed to work until the weather started to improve slightly and I reappeared in the garden again. There, I wondered what could be done to the Midsummer Railway line to make it ‘better’! Once more, I settled down with my trusty AnyRail computer program and started to wonder what sort of extension could be made to the line. I…

The prototype Peckett number 2050 was a one-off locomotive built for the Harrogate gas works in 1944, when both of its current locos started to fail. It was originally built with a very squat cab for its limited tunnel clearances, which gave it a very distinctive look. The long saddle tank covers the smokebox, the front section being dummy, presumably so the water space didn’t encompass the chimney and heat the water space. The Peckett was the sole working locomotive on the line until 1949, when the line acquired a Drewry diesel, and it last steamed in 1955. in 1957, it was acquired by the Ffestiniog Railway (FR) and stored, work was started on the loco in the 1980s to make it suitable for the railway. By this time, the…

GARDEN Rail NEXT MONTH On sale October 12th Inspired by P.D. Hancock, we visit the Conegra Road Garden Railway, built by Alistair Ross. Also, in our NOVEMBER issue: • An automatic signal kit• A goods shed for Lynton• G scale train, in under 6ft plus, much more……