Blagdon & Butcombe Light Railway (b&blr)

Friday 1st April saw the Blagdon & Butcombe Light Railway's first run of 2016, after a long winter Hibernation. As well as being the first run of the year, it also marked the first Diesel hauled service and the first ever night run of the line.
This gave a great excuse to test out the new lighting, which has been added to the Suspension Bridge over the Winter Months. The loco in action is my new Playmobil R/C Diesel Shunter, with lights and sound. For the price it has to be one of the cheapest G Scale locomotives on the market, and runs and hauls a complete dream! Here we see her in action hauling a small Permanent Way train in the late hours of the evening.
(Apologizes about the camera losing focus at points, was a real struggle to keep it in focus in the low light conditions)
Hope you enjoy!
 
The first Update Video on the G Scale Garden Railway for 2016.
Since late September of last year the Garden Railway has been in hibernation. This has been the railway's first winter, and it's been interesting to see how it has copied over this period.
Thanks to the rain, leaves and frost, a few areas of improvement have been highlighted. Thankfully only a few weeds have surfaced over the past few months, which is a good sign. Again the ballast needs topping up in a few places hear and there, and the only real bit of work needed to get the line operational again a is a slight trim of some of the lineside plants and a good clean of the rails.
As of yet again no more progress has been made on the Pond Side Siding, but progress on it and a few other changes will hopefully be coming up this year. One major addition though, is the new light to the Suspension Bridge, which is seen to full effect in the recent B&BLR - First Night Run video.
Hope you enjoy!
 
Love the bridge! .....and the railway in general. A good simple design.
 
I can see the run-round loop/passing loop getting longer, its the one thing I wish I had done, as I am limited to about 3 wagons if I have more than one train out.
 
I can see the run-round loop/passing loop getting longer, its the one thing I wish I had done, as I am limited to about 3 wagons if I have more than one train out.
Totally agree, though I don't I have room to extend it. Can only get a Stainz and 2 4 wheel wagons or coaches it at the mo :eek: Though hopefully a way can be found, if not I'll have to do a bit of shunting and get around to adding the planned sidings :rofl:
 
First track powered run of the year with a new addition to the Blagdon & Butcombe Light Railway fleet...
A quick running session featuring the new LGB 24140 Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-0T. A common sight on many industrial narrow gauge railways around the world, these little engines could be found anyway from quarries, plantations, to construction sites, moving all manor of goods, minerals and machinery.
Here we see LGB's latest version of the model in Smart Light Green and Black livery, operating on the Garden Railway, hauling a rake of 6 mixed LGB Light Railway open wagons.
Hope you enjoy!
 
Been a bit of a while since I've done a bit of an update on the layout, and there's been a few new additions and some big plans! ;)

Two new additions are a new solar light house, with rotating light and solar windmill. Both fit in very well around the pond side, give more ideas for more buildings around the railway. :D

Another development is plans for a extension! Creating a second loop, branching off from the passing loop, following the concrete path, around the flower bed and joining back on, on the corner section leading into the straight along the lawn. The loop when isolated, should create more room for storing stock (with the possibility of have 3 short trains on the track at one time), but more importantly increasing the length of the line by nearly 2/3! :happy:

I hope to start work on this planned extension, sometime later this summer. But for now, hears some pics of the the light house and windmill, plus the flowerbed in question.

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A much over due update on the G Scale Garden Railway and
since the last update there's been a fair bit of progress, including an exciting new development.
The weeds featured in the last update have since been removed, but news ones have since surfaced, which will have to be dealt with at a later date. I've also sorted out a section of rail which have being out of alignment, causing some derailments. This has been done with the help of some Piko Rail Joiner Clamps, which sorted the problem in the matter of second.
Progress has finally started on the Pond Side Siding, with a pre-fab dockside style wall being created. There's also a few new additions to the lineside too, including a new Solar Powered Light House and Windmill, which certainly look the part at night (as seen at the end of the update).
Plus I'll cover the news on an exciting new development for the railway, hopefully taking place in the not so distant future...
Hope you enjoyed!
 
With some of the lovely weather we have had of late, the Piko White Pass & Yukon Route Mogul has been out on the B&BLR for the first time. She seems to handle the tight route quite well, though there an issue on one of the points (as seen below, seems to be lifting on the little recess for the rail), but that can be sorted. What a machine!
 

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With some of the lovely weather we've had of late, I've finally gotten around to getting the Piko White Pass & Yukon Route Mogul out on the Garden Railway for the first time. She seems to handle the tight route of the B&BLR quite well, though there's a slight issue on one of the points in the passing loop, but that can be sorted in the future when the planned extension is added.
The model features both Sound and Smoke (though I didn't get around to getting the smoke operating in this video). All the sound features operate on Analog DC, with the whistle and bells when running being trigger by magnets on the track.
She really does look and sound the part on the railway and hope to feature her in many more running session in the future.
Hope you enjoy!
 
Finally finished a project!
A full repaint of a Newqida G Scale Petrol Tanker, turning it into a milk tanker. Started off by removing the ladders and gantry, them a full respray into Gloss Cream/White, with black branding. Very pleased with how it has turned out, though the lighting does not do it justice.
Here's an image before and after
Let me know what you think ;) DSC03642 (1024x768).jpgDSC03888 (1024x768).jpg
 
Another update on the G Scale Garden Railway and once again there's been a fair bit of progress.
More progress has happen on the Pond Side Siding, with a pre-fab dockside style wall being installed and the start of the track work being added.
There's also a new addition to the lineside, with the B&BLR finally getting it's very own station, which is currently under construction.
Plus I go into a bit more information with the purposed new extension.
Hope you enjoyed!
 
Been a it busy of late with work and also reviewing a number of 00 gauge items on my YouTube channel. But I found an interesting way of testing out the new planned extension.
I started out by setting up the track plan on the living room floor and took a number of photos from various angles...

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Then I took some images from the same planned angles in the garden. Then with the power for Photoshop, I created what the planned extension would look like in place... ;)
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Please let me know what you think... :)
 
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