Mikey's Garden Railway

Well I wasn't sure where to post this because it covers both trams and Narrow gauge.

Firstly what is a tram? there can be as many definitions as there are trams but for me the one that works is' any light railway of any gauge that travels along the course of the public road and not on its own trackbed'.

This definition fits the trams we all know (us older ones anyway!) in the UK with the overhead catenary lines. Tramways in France have a slightly wider use. In 1865 when the French Government passed a law allowing the construction of Departmental lines they were permitted to be built to less stringent standards than the 4' 81/2" gauge; radii of bends could be as little as 40metres,stations could be smaller,less well equipped and locomotives could be lighter. The first tram locos were the old 'box locos' which had to be built like that in case they frightened the horses (or the local populace). My layout has been built to represent a tramway line in the Dordogne France in the year 1910. After 14 months of modelling we had a nice sunny day today to take some pics of how it is coming along. With the exception of the small building opposite the church,everything has been scratchbuilt from recycled  materials;

 



 



 



 



 

Mikey

 

That looks great Mikey, an excellent use of recycled materials :doublethumb

That's got the new section off to a flying start. Great.

Gorgeous!  I'm going to have to open a bottle of wine and stare at those pictures again lol:

Mikey, you need to update your website !!!  Those photos are great - you've done one hell of a lot since you last put anything on the website which only shows the "site" of the village !!!

Is the rather splendid looking chateau modelled on any particular one ?

I have a large lump of sandstone here which lies a few mm below the ground and covers a pretty decent area.  I had always thought, as nothing will grow on it - not even alpine plants - that it would make a great start for a garden railway.  Your photos have got the old grey matter churning again.:roll::roll:

well at least we have you back on line so somethings working,

Petermac is right  the web site is a little behind but we have it here now.

thumbs:cool:

As Mikey said in another thread, there are none of us on here that model in this scale. That doesn't mean there's no interest, far from it. I find everything to do with this layout fascinating. I love the scale, the scratchbuild approach, the detail present   …   everything. Nice photos, Mikey and many thanks for posting them.

Brilliant pics,Mikey!!! Not so much a garden railway as a model village WITH a railway. Those buildings look great.Most garden layouts I've seen only have minimal buildings,and then only stations,signal boxes and railway-related huts,etc.
   Also like the way it fits with the landscaping…great stuff.Lets see lots more!

Cheers,John.B.

Complete with an alfresco dining area and planter box no less, Wow, this has really come along very well Mikey. As Tim says, gets the thought process churning away.
Keep it coming, the potential is enormouse.
cheers

Great pictures Mikey you have been a busy bee

It looks like you use LGB track do you have to clean the railhead very often or do you find you get good electrical contact even though the brass tarnishes?

cheers Brian

thanks for the positive comments guys. Brian; Yes its all S/hand LGB bought on French ebay. Remembering the problems i had with electrics when I modelled N gauge, we decided not to power the track. Of the six locos i've got one is telecommande (using an old TV channel changer) and the others either are or will be radio controlled.There is a very nice guy one of my other forums who is building me a live steamer. Thanks for suggesting the new categories.Narrow gauge is extremely popular in France (probably because of the vast metre gauge network that existed)

mikey

To follow on from my last;The old trams in france always seemed to have a 'fourgon' (closed wagon) attached to the loco and then the two or three carriages. This makes it easy to put all the batteries and R/C equipment inside the wagon and it can then be attached to whichever loco I want to run (not a lot of space in some of the locos.

mikey

Mikey, I heard recently that LGB equipment has shot up in price and is in short supply due to uncertainties with their parent company Marklin.  In UK naturally, the exchange rate will have distorted prices but have you found difficulties here in France ?

Too true it has shot up in price, but the side effect is that there are one or two new manufacturers so if marklin are able to continue (as looks likely because they are seperate companies) they will have to be more competitive. LEBU/Sunset Valley, and trainline 45 are all slightly cheaper than present day LGB. I buy all mine from french ebay; just look yp the new price and then bid accordingly. Of course with a much bigger scale its quite easy to build your own track,but thats another story!!

mikey

I love this build. You could say its a model of a working village. I love it. Keep it coming. Maybe just a daft idea but open it to the public a few times a year and a small charge for entry will soon fund this wonderful build.

Keep it coming, i love the model ford, we saw that being built and the manor, especially the skulls, well done :pathead

Phill

Why thankyou Phill. i really appreciate comments like that (even if i dont post it on here for praise). Its funny but our local Mayor came by today (being nosey) and he suggested i opened it up to the public. I said perhaps one day but theres a lot more to do!!

well thats a compliment from on high mickey.:doublethumb