new wagon completed and a quick running session ....

finished the second of the flatbed wagons, shown here on the garage layout

mild enough today for a quick running session with the battery loco (after clearing up the leaves outside), to give the new wagon a run round

I expect this will have been the last running session of the year ...

a chance for a short running session ....

With the warmer weather of today,  managed to get the grass cut and had a general tidy up. The railway is now really looking good as a garden feature ..

Took the opportunity to run a small train - with two of my new wagons using the battery loco ....

flatbed wagon with forklift load...

first flatbed wagon finished with its permanently attached load...

work started on the flatbed wagons ...

cleaned up the decks as much as possible...

the wagon that cleaned up the best gets a repaint and wash of dark brown on the deck; will have a fixed load on this wagon ...

 the second wagon is going to have a replaceable load, so a strip of cardboard on the edges has been added, the swappable load will fit in the middle...

wagon ready to roll ...

the first of the new wagons sorted out and now in use on the garage layout

I painted over the company lettering so it would fit in with my other wagons and popped in a spare wagon load.

New wagons ...

nice buy at a local model railway show, some Accucraft wagons - a new open wagon and two used small flat wagons

they'll make nice little 'off-season' projects to work on - and then use them in the garage layout.

A visit from Mr Steamy ....

A visit from Mr Steamy, a steam powered Accucraft Ragleth 0-4-T with radio control. My friend brought round his loco to check it ran round OK on the radius 1 curves I've used in the garden layout.

Prior to the visiting loco arriving I did a quick brush of the track and ran a short train round to check all was OK.

video clip ....

On arrival my friend got his loco ready for running; setup on his improvised 'steam up' platform...

watered, fuelled, boiler lit and steam up, then transferred to the track - simmering before a run round

a quick run round to check it was OK on the Radius 1 curves (video clip..)

after that we ran the loco round with a short freight train...

we also tried it with a couple of carriages as well. Nice to have a little steam train running round the garden railway. Useful to know it coped with the radius one curves, so I could buy one - although I would have to save up for a while 😀

Model Towns ...

A nice little book on model towns,

I'm not going to build one, but have gleaned some ideas to add some bits to go round the garden railway.

A little addition to the 'townscape' ...

A police box, about the right size found in a charity shop for the princely sum of £1..

Track maintenance and first train running session of the year ....

Decided to do the track replacement in rockery cutting today. Nice weather, just right for faffing about outside. So up with the old track section ....

 I laid the track down in position and marked the overlap, to be cut off

after cutting off a inch or so from the end of the long straight, I fitted some new track joiners to the curves

new track section in place, now the bend is better positioned ....

---oXo---

As I worked I was being watched - a robin was keeping an eye on me. He was quite un-phased by me taking a photo of him

having had his portrait taken he flew off ...

 ---oXo---

With the track works done - time to run a train :)

Before I started I gave the track a good sweep and checked for any debris in the points. For a test train I used my Playmobil battery r/c diesel and a guards van.

 round the bottom of the garden through the town ...

up the back towards rockery cutting...

then through the cutting, watched by the engineers ....

nice to get the track sorted,  main pending job is to get the track cleaned for running powered trains.

Getting ready to run ....

Finally got round to getting ready to run trains again.

The trackbed has been weeded and sprayed with weedkiller as a preventative measure. So now ready to run battery powered trains, hope to get to work cleaning the track for electric powered trains.

A bit of track maintenance is required; derailments over the past in rockery cutting have resulted in an inspection by the company engineers..

a new section of track has been recommended - a rummage through the spare track in the garage is needed, plus a bit of use of a hacksaw to get the right lengths.