Getting some track down ...

First thing done was to get some edging added, up through rockery cutting and towards the top of the garden....

 With that done, trackbed was added to rockery cutting then the track put down ...

 down towards the bottom of the garden ...

 round the bottom of the garden ...

and ending up by the signal box ....

Engineers start their inspection of the newly laid track

trying to recover some more gravel ...

I'm trying to recover more of the gravel left after the old layout was taken up to use in the new trackbed;  managed to get some together today by using an old brush - a small pile - better than nowt.

will have to try a different technique as the gravel has sunk a bit into the soil.

I had removed the smaller gravel from by the garage to use in the trackbed, leaving it looking rather bare.  A small collection of materials - already recovered gravel and edging materials await my next session of trackbed laying...

Went out today to get some gravel to match the rest of the paths in the garden and a good quarter of an hour's work had it all down and now it looks much better

New Guards Van and more progress on the trackbed ....

Firstly a guards van has finally arrived for my goods train (this item has been on pre-order since Nov 2012 - waiting for a new production batch run to me made). Well worth the wait, lovely model - must add a guard leaning on the rail at the back if I can find a suitable figure.

 Also today with a lovely sunny (but a bit cool day) continued with laying the trackbed - have now got round to the signal box.

The next phase of the trackbed laying will be up the back stretch and round the top of the garden - I'm leaving the station area for last.

More trackbed laid....

The weather cleared nicely late this morning ( a bit blowy but dry), so I went out to do some gardening - a large buddleia needed a prune. After that decided to lay some more trackbed for the garden railway - about another 10ft done....

will continue from this point to curve round to go past a signal box (just out of shot to the the left). The weather held till I was just tidying up the gravel - then back came the rain..

Crane and match truck

The LGB Toy Train crane and wagon have had a little re-paint, now looking less toy like and ready for work in the engineering department.

Trackbed started ....

took advantage of some nice weather today to get the first bit of trackbed down - about 6ft in length.

I used some old ceramic floor tiles for edging; I'm using up some old gravel for the base of the trackbed - will get some new for when the track is laid.

some digging and work on the RC locos...

I've been digging over where the railway will run at the bottom of the garden, and delineated where the edging will go to conatin the track bed.

---oXo---

Meanwhile the loco works have been busy and modified the two battery RC locos to use chopper couplings to pull the Accucraft rolling stock I have

 engineers inspection of PlayMobil one

 working well - but has to wait for traffic

LGB one, new couplings works OK 

but needs some adjustment

Playmobil RC train - on the layout ....

A quick check on the instructions  ....

Then down to garage to have a play; first a check by the railway engineers to approve the new arrivals....

 Then off around the layout ......

Playmobil RC Train

Another new arrival; a Playmobil radio controlled playset - which includes and RC Loco and a container wagon

The diesel will be a really useful addition to my 'loco' stock. Have got some batteries so can finish unpacking it and give it a try.

New crane ..

The engineers check out a new arrival, this time for the works train - a nice little crane from the LGB ToyTrain range...

track cleaning loco - new 'grinding' wheels

Little maintenance job this weekend, fitting new 'grinding' wheels to my LGB track cleaning loco; its a fiddly job to get the cleaning motor section out, but once done it is easy to swap out the 'grinding' wheels

A quick ziz with some power to make sure I hadn't pulled off a wire - all was ok

New Toy Train...

My new toy arrived today - a LGB Harlequin Toy Train starter set, I bought this set as it has a battery loco operated  using a remote control - ideal to plonk on the tracks with a small train of an evening when you don't fancy spending time cleaning the track. The remote control can trigger four sound effects including a chuff and a whistle.

Out of the box and a quick play to get used to the remote control

 couldn't resist trying it out on my garage layout for a short while

The new items will be repainted and have new couplings so they can be used with my existing rolling stock. The two wagons will become part of the permanent way train - in the same range there is a small crane - will have to put that on my future purchase list :)

Back on track ...

Quite literally 'back on track' - had a blitz today on track refurbishment, cleared off my wargame table and setup for action.

After a couple of hours finished cleaning about 40 track sections and added new track joiners, hoorah finally finished - all the track stacked up on shelves above my garage layout - ready to be laid outside.

Not idle outside either - engineers arrive to check progress on clearing the site of the first part of the trackbed...

Placing the buildings ...

Managed to get a little extra planting done this weekend, and did a first placement of most of  the buildings - which helps the garden look less bare too.

---oXo---

Plan to have the main town by the path with the railway running behind the houses, the main station will be one the right of the town.

The railway will run in front of the windmill and house, then loop round past the signal box and into the main station

 On the other side opposite the rockery, ther will be a small village and a little station there as well,

I have a few station buildings and bits of platform in store which will go into position later; as I lay the track down I may have shift the planned location of things a bit.

Rockery initial planting ...

Not much progress to report on the track laying front (due to me having some muscular problems in my shoulder and neck over the last couple of weeks), however recently have got some initial planting done in the rockery. A nice little Acer in the middle at the back and some alpines round the front.

'token' track in place ...

This weekend, spent a little time finishing off the rockery, I got a spare piece of track out of the garage and placed it (temporarily) in the trackbed trench, nice to have some track in place....

 

A nice splash of colour in one of the borders - the iris's are out and in full bloom,

the rockery railway cutting completed ...

The main ground works for today, adding more soil to the border down by the shed, and re-organise the rocks;  the border is now ready for extra planting  ...

but where did the soil come from - the spoil from digging the out trench for the garden railway's "rockery cutting", the rockery now has some more stones too ..

a bit more digging ...but to some purpose

Managed to get a session in at the weekend; moved two small conifers over to the proposed 'rockery area' - then did an initial dig of the trenches where the garden railway will run at the top of the garden - just really to loosen the soil so I can get it done properly later.

hard at work in the garden again ....

After two sessions this weekend, all the old weed fabric has been taken up. I haven't dug everything over, but just given it a rake in some areas. It feels like I've got a back garden again - even if it is a bit bare. Work can now start on the garden railway - hoorah !

With the lovely weather on bank holiday monday -  I got the garden furniture out of the garage at last and in place, with a newly assembled garden bench ....

 

One of the azaleas have started to flower, the gnome has been looking after them...

working on the track ...

The wargames table has been co-opted to provide a workspace for track cleaning and maintenance

Things are getting there, lots of track sections to sort out, each one has to be brushed to get the dirt off, the rail ends cleaned, new rail joiners added and the rail tops cleaned with a track rubber.

I've about 90+ rail sections to do and I'm about a quarter of the way through - keep me busy for a while.

still digging ....

Another session of work on the bottom part of the garden has seen the last of the old weed fabric removed and the area mostly dug over

 Also for some relief for my back from digging a bit of wood working has been done to make a small work surface/table out of decking parts in the lean-to; just the right height to assemble track sections or fiddle with rolling stock.

Still more to do, next planned job is to get the old weed fabric off the top half of the garden.

The hard work begins ...

First job was to save as much gravel from the old trackbed from the area to be worked on, this was put in an old container - quite a bit recovered which is good.

A couple of plants were saved and moved up towards the top of the garden, this starts a border area off - the intention is that the garden railway will run by it on the right

The main area where all the work was done this weekend, all the old weed fabric removed and the area dug over. Then a gravel section put round the inspection hatch with a couple of pots added.

The next stages will be to remove the weed fabric from the rest of the garden, dig over and start work on a small rockery - digging the trench in places for the new trackbed.