Garden Rail

GARDEN RAILWAYS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES We did it again – another successful ‘Layout in a Day’, built for, what was, by all accounts, a very successful National Garden Railway show. Mick Blowfield, and his team of volunteers from the 16mm Association, made sure that the final show at Peterborough would be fondly remembered for many years. Once the doors opened, we didn’t stop talking all day, which can only be a good thing. Our three metre square layout wasn’t the smallest at the show by a long way, nor can it compete with the sheer grandeur of the behemoth that is the 16mm modular layout, but none of this matters. Lack of space isn’t a bar to enjoying large scale railway modelling, neither is money, judging from…

April – the traditional date for the 16mm AGM, and NGRS. We’re right at the start of the garden railway season, with layouts emerging from hibernation and their owners forced to consider a bit of maintenance after the ravages of winter. Gardens are starting to wake up, and this presents me with a little bit of a problem with the Garden Rail display. Plants. Or rather, the lack of them. Last year, I was able to empty my mum’s greenhouse, but that was June. A couple of months earlier, and the shelves are bare. Well, there are some old pots and a ball of sisal twine, but nothing to make an attractive display with. This caused me a bit of worry, but while I was explaining the problem to Chris,…

During the first COVID-19 lockdown, I needed something that would help me entertain my three-and-a-half-year-old son, while ensuring I retained my sanity. After a few false starts, I splashed out and bought one of LGB’s starter sets, and we had hours of fun with the track temporarily laid out on the lawn. While the supplied loco is great fun, it wasn’t long before I was itching for another locomotive. While I could have simply gone and bought another ready-to-run locomotive, buying the starter set (and a couple of straight pieces of LGB track) had used up the majority of my railway modelling fund, and anyway, I thought it high time I tried building another large(er) scale model; I usually model in either 009 or O14, and have only ever built…

It is said that you can never have enough narrow gauge locomotives, and we all share the enthusiasm for these delightful examples of Victorian and Edwardian engineering. But, that is not how it was back in the industrial revolution; they were built to work and their job was to haul goods wagons, mostly filled with minerals. The world was powered and heated by coal, and every lump had to be transported to its point of use. Other materials such as iron ore, building materials such as ballast, road stone, gravel, sand, bricks and cement had to be transported too. Occasionally, it has to be said, that some misguided entrepreneur felt that a narrow gauge railway would be of benefit to farming communities, and of course, the Lynton and Barnstable railway…

THE LINESIDE HUT I was very surprised to find that the owners of The Lineside Hut had retired. There was a brief mention in the April GR, but that was all. I was putting together a rake of their coaches and am now wondering if anyone has taken over the business. Surely it hasn’t all been binned?! There must be others in the same situation, can you as Editor of GR find out for us if there is any hope of some form of resurrection? Martin Carton Editor: I’m afraid it isn’t likely to be good news. When I spoke to them in December, there was no plan to pass the range on to some-one else. As you say, this is a great shame. CARDBOARD COACHES I really enjoyed Brian…

Date: 13 May 2023 Event: Llangollen Garden Railway Festival Venue: Pafiliwn Llangollen Pavilion, Abbey Road, Llangollen, LL20 8SW Times: 10am to 4:30pm Web: www.lgrf.co.uk Date: 26 to 19 May 2023 Event: Aylsham Minor Running Weekend Venue: Bure Valley Railway, Aylsham Station, Norwich Road, Aylsham, Norfolk, NR11 6BW Times: 10am to 4:30pm Web: www.bvrw.co.uk Date: 25 to 28 August 2023 Event: Aylsham Minor Running Weekend Venue: Bure Valley Railway, Aylsham Station, Norwich Road, Aylsham, Norfolk, NR11 6BW Times: 10am to 4:30pm Web: www.bvrw.co.uk Date: 25 to 28 August 2023 Event: The Big Model and Hobby Show Venue: Formby High School, Freshfield Road, Formby, L37 3HW Times: 10.00am to 4.30pm Web: www.modelandhobbyshow.com Date: 30 September 2023 Event: Yorkshire Garden Railway Show Venue: Barrow Hill Roundhouse Railway Centre, Campbell Drive, Barrow Hill, Chesterfield,…