More garden railways

There is a term 'cheque book modelling' which means that you simply buy ready made models off the shelf, plonk them on the track and your away. This has never really satisfied me...not only because I don't like spending my money, but also because I enjoy making things. A while ago I was captivated by a picture of a Gebus narrow gauge diesel that used to run on the Austrian Zillertalbahn Railway.

It looks like a typical workhorse diesel and I immediately knew I needed to build one. Luckily I managed to get hold of a drawing from a German model railway magazine and with the aid of my school-boy German and Google translate managed to work out most of the details. Armed only with my enthusiasm, I bought wheels, motors, sheet brass etc and began to hack away and solder things together. So far I have a pair of bogies, now wired up and working:

Ken Davidge has very kindly 3d printed axleboxes for me and these are next to go on. It will be radio controlled so then it sorting out the control gear. Sheets of brass then await for the body!

Spending spare time hours

You might think that as chairman I am fully occupied! But no, I still find time to do other stuff as well. I cannot now remember when I first became fascinated by narrow gauge railways, it was a long time ago! The Lynton and Barnstaple being my utmost favourite narrow gauge line. years ago I used to build 009 models, but I was never satisfied by the running quality. Little light things too often stalled or fell off the track.  So now I have 'progressed' on to larger scale garden railways. Its SM32 for those in the know - that is 1:19 scale stock running on 32mm gauge track. I am lucky that my garden is able to accommodate this, but if you read anything about garden railways you will see that they can fit into the smallest spaces. Indeed, once of the most convincing local lines is based in Bishops Lydeard and is in a very small space yet gives a real feeling of a real railway. No doubt I will be talking about my own line much more in the future! For now here are some pictures of what I am up to!