Not many trains to show from a couple of weekends ago, partly because they have all featured here recently, but mainly because I was blown away by the railway itself and thats what I took photos of
It was built by hand over a period of about three years and was designed as dual gauge (G1 and G3) track which also could not dominate the garden to support the hosts love of gardening in general. The trackwork is all built from wooden sleepers and individual chairs
The hosts main love was building bridges and he got a fair few in
If we start a circuit of the track, then it has to be at the main viaduct. Its stands about 4 or so feet high and has a set of steps running up one side to allow one to step over the line.
We then run over a plate girder bridge which covers a duck under for the fitter and / or shorter runners. The fire up bay sits behind and is at a good height for getting things prepared.
We round the corner to a pair of loops off the main line, one G1 and one G3 before disappearing into the tunnel
The exit of the tunnel leads across a pathway
and into another loop (dual gauge both lines)
It crosses another bridge
before arriving at a bowstring bridge. This one is counterweighted so it can be lifted out of the way with just one finger - it really is an impressive piece of work.
The line then continues around a reverse curve to get back to the viaduct where we started.
I attempted an overall view and this is about as good as I could get.
Its a fun circuit to run on, I spent my time playing round robin with a friends G3 14xx as there were a lot of runners to get through.
We had a bit of a session getting the 14xx going, the owner had only collected it a day or so before hand and it had run once. Once we had got a lighting technique sorted and dealt with a couple of minor issues we ran it for a good hour on a rolling road before letting it out on the main circuit with some wagons behind it to try and tame its eagerness.
It did did run pretty well for a new engine, some miles under its belt will see it settle down nicely.
It all a bit quiet for a couple of months in the G3 GTG world now, probably just as well as the G1 stuff ramps up, roll on summer
Steve