To the End of the Line.

Here's today's progress on the Garden Railway.

The new section of track is almost complete; the cant (superelevation) on some of the curves needs increasing, and when we have a few consecutive days of good weather, the track needs ballasting. Most of the curves are of 7' radius, a few lengths are 5', and there is a short length of 4' radius. The picture below shows why the reverse curves are needed. To the right of the trackbed in the foreground is a path, to the right of which is a 5ft high earth "hump" between two trees, then the pond. The trackbed (and path) then has to get round the step in the fence, and be in the correct place at each end of the garden seat to allow the seat to stay parallel with the fence, before the track curves right again to avoid the vegetable bed and arrive at the lawn.



An elderly 3F has been taken off shunting duties to assist 34067 up the 1 in 50. The pacific can only manage 7 unassisted.

My interim scheme for "installing" trains on the railway is to use "cassettes". The design I have chosen is a strip of MDF with two strips of aluminium angle attached 16.5mm apart. The second picture shows a cassette on a trial lashup to keep it at the correct height. The "production" version should look a bit more professonal!

The cassette in the photograph uses "Tardis" technology to save space, and as you can see, although it is only about 18" long, it is in the process of unloading a 10-coach train with two locos.

A trial lash-up to support a train cassette at the lawn end of the current line.