Time to tidy up...

The summer gone and autumn in full swing ...

A few little running sessions since the last post; but now it is time to tidy up, buildings and little people will remain out but the vehicles will be stored away for the winter.

(better get those leaves up too ....)

Evening Out ...

A most enjoyable evening yesterday at a friends garden railway evening ....

my little train on its way round ...

 a couple of the other trains running that evening ....

 later in the evening two steam locos were prepared ...

 a manually controlled one was run light engine ...

and we all got to have a turn driving the remote controlled one...

toot toot ! 😀

Line-side buildings (6) ...refurbishing the shop ..

Of the two shop fronted buildings that I had put aside for refurbishment only one was in a fit state, the other was too worn out - so I kept as many useful bits off it as I could (window frames, moulding and roofing etc). All the bits, ready for assembly etc ...

 Reassembled - the rear - very tired needs a new lick of paint ....

 Front windows re-glazed and fitted, roof re-painted to match the rest of my buildings...

 the back repainted - basic colours with blank black windows made using some plastic offcuts; the back will be obscured by plants so doesn't have to be too detailed

A new base was fitted (an acrylic chopping board), using some fix-it blocks and a couple of screws; then it was off to a position in the town area ...

thats it for linesdide buildings re-vamp; usual maintenance next spring.

Line-side buildings (5) ...town area

In order to give the town area more 'cohesion' I bought some more of the interlocking foam floor tiles to cut up and use as a base for the town area.  The buildings have been re-arranged - overall looks much better...

Line-side buildings (4) ...down in rockery bottom

The halt in rockery bottom gets its signage  (a birthday gift) - now Tidmarsh Halt

the rather scrappy nearby village area has been improved, the area has been flattened out a bit and a couple of old interlocking rubber mats were cut to fit and placed on the ground. These look something like tarmac, and with buildings re-arranged looks reasonably effective

Line-side buildings (3) ...a couple of tired ones ...

Two of the buildings which were in the town area were very tired,  they were starting to come apart and the plastic in the windows was fogged up. So they have been taken off there bases then given a basic clean - they have been put to one side with all the loose bits while I decided how best to renovate them.

 taking their place temporarily in the town area are the Sylvanian family buildings .....

Line-side buildings (2) ... mostly roofs

Today decided to check the rest of the buildings: two were OK, two were coming apart (a job for later) and there were five that just needed their roofs repainting - so a little session in the late afternoon  in the shade to give the roofs a lick of paint....

Someone else asked for a bit of paint .....

  

                                    can you do my hat please ?                       thank you 

 The two new buildings - Sylvanian families Willow Hall and Beechwood Hall....

I bought these for approx £30 each of Ebay;  bearing in mind G scale building kits of this size are £150+ in cost, these two buildings will do for me and they fit in with the toy style look of the garden layout.

Line-side buildings (1) ...

One of the things that has been left un-done for a while is line-side building maintenance.  Usually in spring I get on and re-paint roofs and fix up as needed. Rather than get stuck in I thought it would be a good time this year to improve or replace some of the buildings if possible.

A couple of Sylvanian Families buildings which are nice and robust have been purchased off Ebay recently and await some minor mods before they go outside. One of the buildings came with an extra base part which is used with the building opened up, since I will have them closed the base which is grass green on one side was spare so I had a look at my buildings outside for one which would fit it.

A kiddies toy haunted house was about the right size, so I removed it from its old base and gave it a good clean inside and out (yuk - snails, dirt and creepy crawlies inside). Ready for its new base ....

 I fixed it to the new base with a couple of fix-it bocks and screws. The main and porch roof were given a coat of red-oxide primer (nice and robust weather wise). The figures were stuck on with dab of Evo-Stick which keeps them in place for a good while....

 Building back in place near Rockery Bottom halt...

lots more buildings to sort out ....

Evening running session ...

A hot weekend; it was so hot indoors yesterday evening I retreated out into the garden and played with a small train ....

Rockery Bottom Halt ....(3) - shelter roof

A further check on things stashed in the garage yielded part of a roll of roofing felt. Great for the halt shelter roof. So suitable pices cut up and stuck in place ..

...the halt gets its final engineers inspection

Rockery Bottom Halt ....(2) - platform and shelter

Today had a rummage in the garage for anything else that could be used to improve the look of the halt. I found a couple of smaller ceramic floor tiles, so cut these up and used them for the platform surface.

I took the plastic shelter building indoors for some work.....

 first thing done was to carefully take it apart and tidy up the edges ....

 then stick it back together properly. To help with the finish I used a bit of spare black plastic for the awning roof and part of the old base to cover the gap between the awning and the roof on the front.

 the halt now looks much better

(although I will have to find something to do the shelter roof with - further rummaging for oddments required...)

'In Print' and first running session this year ...

The CVR is in June 2018's Garden Rail magazine...

 So today after finishing my garden jobs (cutting the grass and some planting) I had a celebratory running session (the first of the year). Short train - battery Diesel loco, wagon and coach

 practiced stopping at the new halt ....

passengers in the coach had come to see the dinosaurs which roam on the upper central island...

I spent a pleasant 15 or 20mins running the train round the layout  😀

Rockery Bottom Halt ....

As part of refurbishing the rockery,  after removing some plants I sized up where to put a simple small halt for the railway...

The best place was just after curve before going into rockery cutting, a rummage in the garage yielded a spare split log roll and some brick pavers. So a bit of digging out and a slim trench made with a spade to put in the split logs...

 split log roll tapped (bashed) into in place with mr sledge and a brick paver tried for size ...

 used up the rest of the brick pavers to form the platform surface

I used an old 'Sylvanian Families' toy building as the shelter (needs work on the roof/front); engineers inspect the new halt ....

Alternative battery set for PlayMobil R/C diesel

Tidying out a cupboard yesterday I found a nice battery recharger - which can do up to six AA's at a time.  I have 10+ rechargable batteries which I use for my digital cameras, which are not all needed for that purpose now so they can be re-used to power  my PlayMobil R/C diesel.

Battery pack taken out; needs 6 AA batteries - currently using some non-rechargable Duracell ones

 6 batteries re-charged; good little charger with progress display ....

  into the diesel's battery pack

 it works (well of course 😁 it would, doh !)..

so I now have a backup set of batteries available for the running season. The Duracell ones still have some life in them so I'll use them up first and then start using the re-chargable ones.