So, here I am a few years later in another garden. A different setting in many ways, but one that I feel could benefit from a little garden railway activity in 1/32 scale.....
Something that would fit into the new garden and most important of all not compete with or even be comparable to what has gone before. It also needs to be interesting and entertaining and worthy of the likely huge effort required, especially given my mad methods and painful predilictions.
So, the plan is as per this sketch, the conceit being that is a junction, possibly just north of Falmouth, on the Southern and the route of the "APE". It has verticality, water - lots of it, and it has to have signals that will work, a small station with working lights, shunting interest, and scope for a very minor twig wandering off into the greenery, suitable for Rustons and obscure railcars..... Also, Dave has specified that you have to be able to change all of the points without resort to wooden chocks, dubious clamping arrangements or curses, not even muttered ones.
The following pictures should hopefully give a better idea of how it might all work.
First off, looking "along the line" towards the shed, Dave is very tall so you can get an idea of how much the ground drops away from how little of him is visible in front of the shed. The BR brake van on the "siding" gives an idea of the scale of the whole thing.
Looking up the garden from the other side of the new build shed, I am just here working on reinstating the "garden" shed that I dismantled when I started work on the project. The railway level is on top of the stone wall you can see through the open door glazing.
Inside the new shed, lathe yet to be moved in, fiddle track to be built above lathe, exiting through gap in insulation to left. Actually I need to move the hole a bit away from the corner to suit the track geometry as it is panning out. As you can see I don't like chucking timber away and have managed to recycle all sorts of rhubarb into this project, in addition to purchasing quite a lot too.
Here is the "water feature" set into position after Dave welded up the two halves it came in. I had it fabricated by a very helpful local engineering firm, in two pieces on account of weight but also because I needed to be able to get it through the quirky house attached to the garden, the only access to the garden being through the house.
Here's an action shot of Dave welding up the two halves.
Older readers may remember Dave's Collie Tess, who was a keen participant in earlier fabrications in another garden. Tess is now pretty venerable and spent most of the say under the kitchen table, only coming out to see what was going on a couple of times during the day.
She is still a very lovely dog!
So with the water feature welded up I am now committed to this project, no more sensible than the last one but it will have to be realised much more quickly.
Thankfully I am blessed with the two Daves and other friends too who will all help to get 1/32 trains running once more on the eastern side of Bath.
There is nothing like a Dave.....
Simon