Steve Cook
Flying Squad
Its been kicking around as an idea for a while this one, last year I'd even got as far as laying out prospective diameter circles to gauge its impact on the garden, then the weather and work took over and I got no further. This year I decided to have a go before getting distracted, helped by the fact that Peco had introduced a 38" radius curve in SM32. The 30" radius curve always struck me as a little on the tight side and therefore a bit limiting, albeit a lot easier to package in my garden. The previous scoping out had showed that a four foot radius curve was simply too large and that something around the 3 - 3.5 foot mark would do the job nicely...indeed the inside curve of the border had been set for a 3' radius curve on the off chance about three years ago.
Peco's set track made the decision easy, no need to buy a rail bender, radius in the right ball park and through Hattons, a cost of £112.
So what am I going to do with it? Its principle aim is to give me a continuous circuit to run my live steam engine on, hopefully when I've got home from work and I can sit on the new bench with a brew on. I'm also up for building at ground level, trying a new track laying method and using the two lines to compare and contrast with a view to establishing what type of garden railway suits me best. The scenic side also appeals with more of a chance to submerge and integrate the line into the garden but I'm getting a bit ahead of the game here, best start at the beginning...
To be fair, I doubt that this is the most interesting 'build' thread you'll ever read, but its more or less the steps I took (in mostly the right order) and serves as much to show what I did as to jog my memory later...
I've skipped the chemically blackening the track bit - it wasn't much fun as the rail can't be removed from the sleepers - so the whole cleaning process is a bit drawn out and awkward, worthwhile but not exciting.
The basic circle of track was then laid out to try out various positions:
In front of the border
Through the border
And what I eventually went for, out the back of the border.
The last route minimised the gradient changes of the garden making it easier to keep the line flat. It also increased the distance between the garage and the track which is a bonus given how much I walk around that area, plus it avoided having a border on both sides of the track - no doubt it would look good, but more difficult to maintain with raised narrow borders requiring more frequent watering.
The centre of the circle was marked with a steel tent peg, which when combined with the strong magnet on the end of the tape measure makes marking out nice and easy. Spade in the ground at the inside (35") and outside (41") diameters, move the tape measure around a bit more and repeat. With the lines joined up, remove turf and mock track up to check for tight locations.
When happy, dig down to the depth of the edging strip (165mm in this instance) and realise you haven't got enough room to store all the mud thats appearing! Lay the edging strip in place.
The edging strip was leveled at the highest ground point, this then acting as the reference, marked with two tent pegs.
Part two on its way...
Peco's set track made the decision easy, no need to buy a rail bender, radius in the right ball park and through Hattons, a cost of £112.
So what am I going to do with it? Its principle aim is to give me a continuous circuit to run my live steam engine on, hopefully when I've got home from work and I can sit on the new bench with a brew on. I'm also up for building at ground level, trying a new track laying method and using the two lines to compare and contrast with a view to establishing what type of garden railway suits me best. The scenic side also appeals with more of a chance to submerge and integrate the line into the garden but I'm getting a bit ahead of the game here, best start at the beginning...
To be fair, I doubt that this is the most interesting 'build' thread you'll ever read, but its more or less the steps I took (in mostly the right order) and serves as much to show what I did as to jog my memory later...
I've skipped the chemically blackening the track bit - it wasn't much fun as the rail can't be removed from the sleepers - so the whole cleaning process is a bit drawn out and awkward, worthwhile but not exciting.
The basic circle of track was then laid out to try out various positions:
In front of the border
Through the border
And what I eventually went for, out the back of the border.
The last route minimised the gradient changes of the garden making it easier to keep the line flat. It also increased the distance between the garage and the track which is a bonus given how much I walk around that area, plus it avoided having a border on both sides of the track - no doubt it would look good, but more difficult to maintain with raised narrow borders requiring more frequent watering.
The centre of the circle was marked with a steel tent peg, which when combined with the strong magnet on the end of the tape measure makes marking out nice and easy. Spade in the ground at the inside (35") and outside (41") diameters, move the tape measure around a bit more and repeat. With the lines joined up, remove turf and mock track up to check for tight locations.
When happy, dig down to the depth of the edging strip (165mm in this instance) and realise you haven't got enough room to store all the mud thats appearing! Lay the edging strip in place.
The edging strip was leveled at the highest ground point, this then acting as the reference, marked with two tent pegs.
Part two on its way...
Time for a celebratory brew to warm up, there was still snow on the ground at this point...
If not, I'll be going down the tip and seeing what ballast I can order on the net, I'll update tomorrow.
Definitely not the steed of choice Dave 
