Steve Guckel's 00
gauge garden railway
Below is a picture diary on the
construction of Steve's 00 gauge garden railway (Forum
Member 'Sankey'), He has use the same trackbase
technique as Taw Vale using concrete, and wooden
spacers. The layout is a figure of eight, and will cross
via a bridge. I have to say, this does bring back
memories I look forward to seeing more pictures of this
layout as it's progression unfolds! DE
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01/05/06
- Just some quick pics of the area of
my 'stage 1' project Garden Railway. This is pointing
south toward the house three weeks ago. The rockery, at
the bottom, looks rough because it is! The crossover is
the only point for which the gradient would work, at
all. As I said, it is small growing project. I
frequently look at this picture to learn from the
mistakes, namely the collapse foundations in mid-picture
North of the crossover point. This was due to lack of
prior planning and not enough ballast beneath. Not to
mention having the cement 'too watery'! The rest is
pegging out the general direction.
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01/05/06 - This
is it a week later, looking north. The concrete is now
in place in all the easier to reach parts. The northside
rockery will move slightly south to make the small
tunnel, leading to a small village centre of the picture
just before the crossover bridge.
The southside rockery section at this
point was found to be too high and has since been
lowered. There are many illusions created by a garden
with a slope!
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01/05/06 -
This picture is the crossover on the
figure of eight. This will be skimmed with mortar to
smooth out the appearance. I have since noticed that it
could have been lower than shown here, but it gives me
greater flexibility for type of bridge.
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15/05/06
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I've been working for the past few
weekends and have still only got the viaduct to build,
completing the figure of 8. A general view facing North.
On the near right the gap waiting to be filled by the
viaduct and the small rockery in near view. The gap will
be filled with a small girder bridge courtesy of Peco as
roughly shown below in the second picture. |
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15/05/06
I've chosen this little scene as I
would like to run, like many of you, some North American
locos on some occasions, as is my wont. The bridge will
be built using plasticard and glued with a suitable
external waterproof bonding agent. 'Plastic Padding' has
some user friendly products for this purpose. |
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15/05/06
At the crossover point, in an attempt
to improve the looks of my first bit of concreting I
loosely placed some Wills Coarse stone plastic embossed
sheets against the rough concrete. I think I will put
these here, rather using mortar. Fixing this into place
will be similar as the above. The central pier I'm not
sure about yet. |
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15/05/06
At the northside of the project is a
small rockery that is in the process of being moved
forward, and creating a tunnel, as roughly shown by the
tunnel mouths. This area was named
'Foxwell
Hill' when I had my 'micro' 0 Gauge railway in
the garden. The lineside hut is still visible top right
of the picture. This was a Townstreet product, that is
quickly crumbling away. Not really suitable for leaving
out all year round, despite being painted with outdoor
paints |
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28/05/06
Still haven't got my viaduct built yet,
but have been fiddling around with my main 'crossover'
bridge. Not one for wasting anything, I've used what I
had already lying around, as you can see.
The plastikard was cut to shape to fill
the gap and Peco bridge trusses simply glued. The piers
are from Hornby, of which I had many laying around
gathering dust from over the years. |
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28/05/06
I put a couple coats of undercoat on
and sprayed it with car paint. Before I finally fit this
I have much preparation to do to the 'walls'. This does
look pretty rough at the moment, I know, but it will get
better.....hopefully. - I've tried out the bridge for
space, and it looks okay, but it's obvious I'll have to
use a 'wet skim cement' mixture sort out the ground
beneath bridge as it slopes downward toward the edge but
It's lucky as I can afford the space to do this |
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28/05/06
The bridge will be cemented into place
and I will ballast the bridge. An over view of the
bridge looks quite effective, if not totally correct in
detail. |
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22/06/06
The first is of the crossover bridge,
now tidied, somewhat and being measured for size. The
arches are something I bought for my 0 gauge railway
that I thought looked too small, now I think they look
too big! But I though lets fit them anyway, as they
looked okay in the garden. I painted them with red brick
masonry paint.
The Lima Class 33 posing for the camera
was a loco I bought from a Model Rail Market stall in
Newport S. Wales. I chatted to the chap as I rambled
around in his junk bin and assemble it from an
assortment of rejected parts. He said to have it for a
tenner as "you've done all the work!" Now it
is one of my best runners and being converted into BR
Green, as I spilt meths on the body when cleaning the
wheels. Lesson Learned |
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22/06/06
This picture is the tunnel at the north
end, complete with plants and that class 33 again!
I must confess the track is not yet
fixed but this starts this weekend on this this section.
This where it will all start coming together, which is
ironic as the 0 gauge 'Foxwell Hill' started here as
well! The large bridge section in place of the viaduct
is still under some 'cosmetic' preparation as I' not
proud of the act that I hadn't planned the viaduct
correctly! Soldier on, though! Wish me luck on soldering
the coupling wires onto the track without melting
it..........I need a pint.
Looking great Steve! - I must say -
Taw Vales falling behind in comparison to this! ;)
DE |
