curtis
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Rule #1 - your railway
I'd definitely be interested to learn more about why you changed your mind. Always interesting to hear how railways revolve.
Great last photo!
RhB TAS
- Thread starter grizzmo
- Start date
I'd definitely be interested to learn more about why you changed your mind. Always interesting to hear how railways revolve.
Great last photo!
grizzmo
Registered
Why I changed my plans ?
I will try to explain why my thinking evolved as this project evolved and probably the best way is to document what I was trying to do. I wanted a railway that I could watch the trains go round and round in a nice scenic garden setting. Where I could eventually run it like a real railway, with industries to serve , stations to run between and shunt at. Connected to a storage area to represent the rest of the "world". So I thought the only way I could afford this in G gauge is to use the bachmann thomas range. As a British themed 30s-50s freelance railway. I was inspired by the many amazing conversions I have seen here on gsc and on utube.
I started planning this 6 or 7 years ago. I worked out the area I had to use and drew up plans with 3 passing stations plus a main terminus station. I picked up a percy and a few trucks second hand at pretty reasonable prices to start with. Over the years I worked on percy and early on I got a few more pieces cheap. I built a signal box , I put what spare cash I had into getting some track and saving towards the future building of my railway.
About 2 years ago I discovered the RhB and was amazed at the scenery they run in and thought their trains looked fantastic too. It was great to see short trains , rail connected industries, mixed trains, shunting at stations in a modern setting. I was hooked ,so I looked into what was available and dropped the idea of a Swiss railway pretty quickly. Lgb seemed just too expensive, but my interest in learning about the RhB continued and I have spent many enjoyable hours watching cab ride videos. I thought in the future there definitely could be one shiny red loco running around. I am no purist and I am happy to have and run trains I like just for the fun of it, but as I don't have a unlimited budget I have to prioritise funds towards a "core" railway first.
I actually got started building this year as I have shown above. As a part of the building process I would need to sit and rest in between working , usually with a nice cuppa. I would look over what we had done and plan for the future. Daydreaming my wife calls it. Anyway, towards the end of building the walls I started to bring home the rocks, I have been collecting for this over the years. One day looking at the large pile of rocks I had dumped in the driveway. It dawned on me that if a few small plants were planted in the gaps that would look like a nice model of the alps.
Now I had planned all along to have the scenery drop 25 cm below the track level in most places other than the stations and 50cm around the pond. With view blocks rising up behind the stations and a few bridges. Now looking at the railway for real and not on a paper plan, I thought I could take this concept much further. Use these rocks to make bigger mountains , drop the scenery even lower to form valleys. Have longer bigger viaducts and tunnels . Plant even more plants as forests ,this idea seemed made for a RhB model. So a spanner well and truly thrown in the works.
Seeing I was going to build all the buildings from scratch anyway , there is no cost for swapping to a setting in Switzerland. What I learned about the RhB has shown me I could have a working railway in a modern setting, that looks fun to operate. I realise the cost of Lgb stuff hasn't changed, but that's ok, it will just take me much longer to collect less. I have waited this long to start, taking a few years longer to collect the stock I need to run a railway is fine. To give you guys in other countries a idea of costs here in Tasmania. All you see in the photos posted (including buying the plate compactor) cost less than a ge4/4ii and a ABe 8/12allegra are listed for at our distributor here. Now in the mean time my freelance trains, when I get them finished. Will run in the alps and that's the beauty of garden railways , unlike real life, you can just do whatever you want.
As to a track plan, well I am weighing up the pros and cons of a few interesting ideas at the moment. Unfortunately there will be a few changes made to what has been done. It will end up being better for the changes but it hurts to have to pull apart what has been done, luckily it not too much. If it just stops raining I can get back to the pond and waterfall.
Aren't you glad you asked Curtis?
regards Stewie.
I will try to explain why my thinking evolved as this project evolved and probably the best way is to document what I was trying to do. I wanted a railway that I could watch the trains go round and round in a nice scenic garden setting. Where I could eventually run it like a real railway, with industries to serve , stations to run between and shunt at. Connected to a storage area to represent the rest of the "world". So I thought the only way I could afford this in G gauge is to use the bachmann thomas range. As a British themed 30s-50s freelance railway. I was inspired by the many amazing conversions I have seen here on gsc and on utube.
I started planning this 6 or 7 years ago. I worked out the area I had to use and drew up plans with 3 passing stations plus a main terminus station. I picked up a percy and a few trucks second hand at pretty reasonable prices to start with. Over the years I worked on percy and early on I got a few more pieces cheap. I built a signal box , I put what spare cash I had into getting some track and saving towards the future building of my railway.
About 2 years ago I discovered the RhB and was amazed at the scenery they run in and thought their trains looked fantastic too. It was great to see short trains , rail connected industries, mixed trains, shunting at stations in a modern setting. I was hooked ,so I looked into what was available and dropped the idea of a Swiss railway pretty quickly. Lgb seemed just too expensive, but my interest in learning about the RhB continued and I have spent many enjoyable hours watching cab ride videos. I thought in the future there definitely could be one shiny red loco running around. I am no purist and I am happy to have and run trains I like just for the fun of it, but as I don't have a unlimited budget I have to prioritise funds towards a "core" railway first.
I actually got started building this year as I have shown above. As a part of the building process I would need to sit and rest in between working , usually with a nice cuppa. I would look over what we had done and plan for the future. Daydreaming my wife calls it. Anyway, towards the end of building the walls I started to bring home the rocks, I have been collecting for this over the years. One day looking at the large pile of rocks I had dumped in the driveway. It dawned on me that if a few small plants were planted in the gaps that would look like a nice model of the alps.
Now I had planned all along to have the scenery drop 25 cm below the track level in most places other than the stations and 50cm around the pond. With view blocks rising up behind the stations and a few bridges. Now looking at the railway for real and not on a paper plan, I thought I could take this concept much further. Use these rocks to make bigger mountains , drop the scenery even lower to form valleys. Have longer bigger viaducts and tunnels . Plant even more plants as forests ,this idea seemed made for a RhB model. So a spanner well and truly thrown in the works.
Seeing I was going to build all the buildings from scratch anyway , there is no cost for swapping to a setting in Switzerland. What I learned about the RhB has shown me I could have a working railway in a modern setting, that looks fun to operate. I realise the cost of Lgb stuff hasn't changed, but that's ok, it will just take me much longer to collect less. I have waited this long to start, taking a few years longer to collect the stock I need to run a railway is fine. To give you guys in other countries a idea of costs here in Tasmania. All you see in the photos posted (including buying the plate compactor) cost less than a ge4/4ii and a ABe 8/12allegra are listed for at our distributor here. Now in the mean time my freelance trains, when I get them finished. Will run in the alps and that's the beauty of garden railways , unlike real life, you can just do whatever you want.
As to a track plan, well I am weighing up the pros and cons of a few interesting ideas at the moment. Unfortunately there will be a few changes made to what has been done. It will end up being better for the changes but it hurts to have to pull apart what has been done, luckily it not too much. If it just stops raining I can get back to the pond and waterfall.
Aren't you glad you asked Curtis?
regards Stewie.
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RhB in the garden is hard to beat......
grizzmo
Registered
Nice, can't wait till I can do the same here.
When I first saw LGB 50 years ago in the window of the then Sydney CBD HobbyCo shop I was not impressed: the window display featured the original set of the Kraus 0-4-0 and the original two passenger 2 axle coaches all sitting on “O” gauge track! The coaches bore a resemblance to the QGR sheltered display along side the tramline on Countess Street, but not the cane tramway locos of the Howard Smith sugar mill in Nambour, and certainly not the famous QGR A12 loco leading the historicalWhy I changed my plans ?
I will try to explain why my thinking evolved as this project evolved and probably the best way is to document what I was trying to do. I wanted a railway that I could watch the trains go round and round in a nice scenic garden setting. Where I could eventually run it like a real railway, with industries to serve , stations to run between and shunt at. Connected to a storage area to represent the rest of the "world". So I thought the only way I could afford this in G gauge is to use the bachmann thomas range. As a British themed 30s-50s freelance railway. I was inspired by the many amazing conversions I have seen here on gsc and on utube.
I started planning this 6 or 7 years ago. I worked out the area I had to use and drew up plans with 3 passing stations plus a main terminus station. I picked up a percy and a few trucks second hand at pretty reasonable prices to start with. Over the years I worked on percy and early on I got a few more pieces cheap. I built a signal box , I put what spare cash I had into getting some track and saving towards the future building of my railway.
View attachment 333052
About 2 years ago I discovered the RhB and was amazed at the scenery they run in and thought their trains looked fantastic too. It was great to see short trains , rail connected industries, mixed trains, shunting at stations in a modern setting. I was hooked ,so I looked into what was available and dropped the idea of a Swiss railway pretty quickly. Lgb seemed just too expensive, but my interest in learning about the RhB continued and I have spent many enjoyable hours watching cab ride videos. I thought in the future there definitely could be one shiny red loco running around. I am no purist and I am happy to have and run trains I like just for the fun of it, but as I don't have a unlimited budget I have to prioritise funds towards a "core" railway first.
I actually got started building this year as I have shown above. As a part of the building process I would need to sit and rest in between working , usually with a nice cuppa. I would look over what we had done and plan for the future. Daydreaming my wife calls it. Anyway, towards the end of building the walls I started to bring home the rocks, I have been collecting for this over the years. One day looking at the large pile of rocks I had dumped in the driveway. It dawned on me that if a few small plants were planted in the gaps that would look like a nice model of the alps.
Now I had planned all along to have the scenery drop 25 cm below the track level in most places other than the stations and 50cm around the pond. With view blocks rising up behind the stations and a few bridges. Now looking at the railway for real and not on a paper plan, I thought I could take this concept much further. Use these rocks to make bigger mountains , drop the scenery even lower to form valleys. Have longer bigger viaducts and tunnels . Plant even more plants as forests ,this idea seemed made for a RhB model. So a spanner well and truly thrown in the works.
Seeing I was going to build all the buildings from scratch anyway , there is no cost for swapping to a setting in Switzerland. What I learned about the RhB has shown me I could have a working railway in a modern setting, that looks fun to operate. I realise the cost of Lgb stuff hasn't changed, but that's ok, it will just take me much longer to collect less. I have waited this long to start, taking a few years longer to collect the stock I need to run a railway is fine. To give you guys in other countries a idea of costs here in Tasmania. All you see in the photos posted (including buying the plate compactor) cost less than a ge4/4ii and a ABe 8/12allegra are listed for at our distributor here. Now in the mean time my freelance trains, when I get them finished. Will run in the alps and that's the beauty of garden railways , unlike real life, you can just do whatever you want.
As to a track plan, well I am weighing up the pros and cons of a few interesting ideas at the moment. Unfortunately there will be a few changes made to what has been done. It will end up being better for the changes but it hurts to have to pull apart what has been done, luckily it not too much. If it just stops raining I can get back to the pond and waterfall.
Aren't you glad you asked Curtis?
regards Stewie.
display.
What impressed me was the price of the set: it was about half that of N scale rolling stock at that time.
Later I became aware of Kraus locos in Australia, first at the Burrinjuck Dam during the construction period then on the wild Tasmania west coast
grizzmo
Registered
That hobbyCo was an ok shop, if its the same one ? I used to go there about 35 years ago when I worked in the cbd for 6 months, never bought anything but was always a enjoyable walk around. lol on the price , now I see kato " n "gauge sets of rhb in the $200 -$300 range on ebay.
There was a branch of the RhB in the Lugano area, I think it is part preserved now. This was disconnected from the main RhB lines and tended to use Railcars with short trains. Your railway no reason why you should not have the odd loco if you chose to represent that part of the RhB in your mini world with a little used link to the rest of the RhB.Why I changed my plans ?
I will try to explain why my thinking evolved as this project evolved and probably the best way is to document what I was trying to do. I wanted a railway that I could watch the trains go round and round in a nice scenic garden setting. Where I could eventually run it like a real railway, with industries to serve , stations to run between and shunt at. Connected to a storage area to represent the rest of the "world". So I thought the only way I could afford this in G gauge is to use the bachmann thomas range. As a British themed 30s-50s freelance railway. I was inspired by the many amazing conversions I have seen here on gsc and on utube.
I started planning this 6 or 7 years ago. I worked out the area I had to use and drew up plans with 3 passing stations plus a main terminus station. I picked up a percy and a few trucks second hand at pretty reasonable prices to start with. Over the years I worked on percy and early on I got a few more pieces cheap. I built a signal box , I put what spare cash I had into getting some track and saving towards the future building of my railway.
View attachment 333052
About 2 years ago I discovered the RhB and was amazed at the scenery they run in and thought their trains looked fantastic too. It was great to see short trains , rail connected industries, mixed trains, shunting at stations in a modern setting. I was hooked ,so I looked into what was available and dropped the idea of a Swiss railway pretty quickly. Lgb seemed just too expensive, but my interest in learning about the RhB continued and I have spent many enjoyable hours watching cab ride videos. I thought in the future there definitely could be one shiny red loco running around. I am no purist and I am happy to have and run trains I like just for the fun of it, but as I don't have a unlimited budget I have to prioritise funds towards a "core" railway first.
I actually got started building this year as I have shown above. As a part of the building process I would need to sit and rest in between working , usually with a nice cuppa. I would look over what we had done and plan for the future. Daydreaming my wife calls it. Anyway, towards the end of building the walls I started to bring home the rocks, I have been collecting for this over the years. One day looking at the large pile of rocks I had dumped in the driveway. It dawned on me that if a few small plants were planted in the gaps that would look like a nice model of the alps.
Now I had planned all along to have the scenery drop 25 cm below the track level in most places other than the stations and 50cm around the pond. With view blocks rising up behind the stations and a few bridges. Now looking at the railway for real and not on a paper plan, I thought I could take this concept much further. Use these rocks to make bigger mountains , drop the scenery even lower to form valleys. Have longer bigger viaducts and tunnels . Plant even more plants as forests ,this idea seemed made for a RhB model. So a spanner well and truly thrown in the works.
Seeing I was going to build all the buildings from scratch anyway , there is no cost for swapping to a setting in Switzerland. What I learned about the RhB has shown me I could have a working railway in a modern setting, that looks fun to operate. I realise the cost of Lgb stuff hasn't changed, but that's ok, it will just take me much longer to collect less. I have waited this long to start, taking a few years longer to collect the stock I need to run a railway is fine. To give you guys in other countries a idea of costs here in Tasmania. All you see in the photos posted (including buying the plate compactor) cost less than a ge4/4ii and a ABe 8/12allegra are listed for at our distributor here. Now in the mean time my freelance trains, when I get them finished. Will run in the alps and that's the beauty of garden railways , unlike real life, you can just do whatever you want.
As to a track plan, well I am weighing up the pros and cons of a few interesting ideas at the moment. Unfortunately there will be a few changes made to what has been done. It will end up being better for the changes but it hurts to have to pull apart what has been done, luckily it not too much. If it just stops raining I can get back to the pond and waterfall.
Aren't you glad you asked Curtis?
regards Stewie.
grizzmo
Registered
Not a bad idea at all, I am throwing around a few ideas at the moment , will give it some thought , thanks.
If you remember HobbyCo what about Searles?, in Pitt Street next to the London Baby Carriage Shop, now the site of the Sydney Hilton the building of which forced their move to Chatswood. The now George Street entrance of the Hilton was where George Adams had his Tatterall’s Hotel with its famous Marble Bar (which still exists there as a part of the Hilton), I would wait on the footpath outside, sipping a glass of really cold lemonade while Dad and and old family friend (and SP bookmaker) had a beer inside, knowing a visit to Searles was coming as the toy shop was my father’s old stomping ground as a child on visits to the “Big Smoke” from the Qld Central West town of Blackall. Years later the senior salesman recommended the LGB battery train set based on the 0-4-0 Spremberger loco. My kids loved it as the train went well with their Playmobil houses and clicky figures. The original nickel plated aluminium rails soon gave way to the brass railed track and the electric Spremberger loco. Then in the mid seventies last century my parents after a visit to London (and Hamleys) returned home with the newly released LGB DR liveried NWE 21 2-6-2 loco for the grandkids. By then the LGB play train had evolved into a simple garden railway in the backyard. Now the four kids (scattered around the world) are in their fifties leaving me to play trains alone. Interestingly one set of my grand children always thought I was a train driver! They did not believe their grandmother, a practicing medico, that I too was a medico, and not a train driver!
grizzmo
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Sorry I don't know searles, sounds like a great place thou . Nice bit history thou ,I still have all the model train stuff me and the kids had when they were young , all boxed sitting in my train room. I was born born and raised in sydney , but we rarely ventured into the city. It was a hour and half trip to the city, our great adventure was a trip to woodpeckers at pendle hill or the best was bergs in parramatta , I spent a lot of my pocket money as a kid there,
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Searle's, Hobbyco, Levinson's plus Walter & Stevenson were regular ports of call as a child whenever I convince my mother to take me into Sydney city. This also involved a tram and/or ferry ride so was very exciting.
Cliff Searle later went on to be the initial LGB importer for Australia and I got to know him quite well.
Yes, Cliff was a great acquaintance. He introduced me to the LGB boss Wolfgang and his sales manager in Nuremberg, Baumann ( who was an immigrant child in Melbourne) before returning to the then West Germany. At one visit ,after being the guest for lunch at the famous Bratwursthauslle in Altstatdt-St.Sebald, to the Sarganstrasse LGB plant reception room, following the release of the of the SEG 0-6-6-0 mallet model 2085D (the original version where the superstructure mould produced the funnel with a slight lean forward), I suggested the drive-train chassis would be a good basis for the USA Unitah mallet and the later lumber company tender version: Wolfgang left and quickly returned with books about these railroad locos. So I realised they were under consideration for future models.
The Sarganstrasse factory amazed me the way high precision production machines and methods produced the intricate LGB ”toys” as my mission at the time was to inspect the plants and production methods being used in the manufacture of critical medical plastic disposables, eg oxygenators, blood tubing, as well as reusable devices, eg Heart-Lung machines, intra-aortic balloon pumps, defibrillators: all the critical items used in the then fast expanding medical universe of cardiac surgery/medicine in the last quarter of the 20th century. This toy factory surpassed all the Western World medical production plants I had the privilege of surveying.
The Sarganstrasse factory amazed me the way high precision production machines and methods produced the intricate LGB ”toys” as my mission at the time was to inspect the plants and production methods being used in the manufacture of critical medical plastic disposables, eg oxygenators, blood tubing, as well as reusable devices, eg Heart-Lung machines, intra-aortic balloon pumps, defibrillators: all the critical items used in the then fast expanding medical universe of cardiac surgery/medicine in the last quarter of the 20th century. This toy factory surpassed all the Western World medical production plants I had the privilege of surveying.
All sadly lost.
grizzmo
Registered
So a minor progress report, I have taken a step backwards and removed most of the rocks. Just so I could get a clearer view of what will fit and so i can move some of the dirt to create another valley . All stacked on pallets to make it easier to put back on with the forks, they reach nearly right across.
As you can see on the wall , I splurged and got a stake wagon. Its DR not RhB , but with a respray , weathering and the double buffer changed it should look good. I think it looks the same side on to a RhB one. Its brand new and came with that nice looking scania log truck as well. Now its here I am Pretty happy with it. As it was $150 cheaper than the cheapest second hand RhB one on ebay, I think it was worth a punt.
Now a question to people who know more about lbg trains, is it worth keeping the box if I have heavily modified the wagon? I am hoping not to have sell any trains I buy , but who knows what the future holds.
I have worked out what I want to model and seeing the size of the wagon in person. The 5-6 wagon train max I was thinking of should work ok. I should have a track plan next week. I will post it when I have a clear drawing.
Now its time to get the pruners and find some appropriate sized and textured branches. On one of plants around the yard that doesn't need all the branches it presently has .
As you can see on the wall , I splurged and got a stake wagon. Its DR not RhB , but with a respray , weathering and the double buffer changed it should look good. I think it looks the same side on to a RhB one. Its brand new and came with that nice looking scania log truck as well. Now its here I am Pretty happy with it. As it was $150 cheaper than the cheapest second hand RhB one on ebay, I think it was worth a punt.
Now a question to people who know more about lbg trains, is it worth keeping the box if I have heavily modified the wagon? I am hoping not to have sell any trains I buy , but who knows what the future holds.
I have worked out what I want to model and seeing the size of the wagon in person. The 5-6 wagon train max I was thinking of should work ok. I should have a track plan next week. I will post it when I have a clear drawing.
Now its time to get the pruners and find some appropriate sized and textured branches. On one of plants around the yard that doesn't need all the branches it presently has .
Alan McLennan
Registered
A track plan by next week 
, that isn't going to help me sitting here looking at the outline of what I have to work with, our themes are similar if I real that correctly.
Oh did I mention I grew up in Toongabbie, I don't recall Woodpeckers in Pendle hill but Berg's at Parramatta I do remember .
, that isn't going to help me sitting here looking at the outline of what I have to work with, our themes are similar if I real that correctly.Oh did I mention I grew up in Toongabbie, I don't recall Woodpeckers in Pendle hill but Berg's at Parramatta I do remember .
grizzmo
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Hi Allan I grew up not too far away from you then, at Seven Hills. Woodpeckers was near the station and was around when i was a teenager. Bergs was the best model shop near us by far. Ok i am interested to hear what you are planning. I have decided to throw caution to the wind and take on a ambitious project. Chur - Arosa , well probably should be called inspired by Chur - arosa. with langwies and st peter- molinis too. That's why i grabbed the stake car and truck , log traffic seems to be a big part of the line. This is a long term project for me, still have a decade till i can retire. Now to get a shortened version of Arosa to fit i will have to add a few more metres to the raised bed, but thats the beauty of stacking blocks not to much trouble to change.A track plan by next week
Oh did I mention I grew up in Toongabbie, I don't recall Woodpeckers in Pendle hill but Berg's at Parramatta I do remember .
Gizzy
A gentleman, a scholar, and a railway modeller....
If you have space to keep the box, then do so....
Software Tools
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Grizzmo... we are currently in your neck of the woods, so where in Van Diemens Land are you located?
grizzmo
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Just out of devonport , is that west coast wilderness railway?
If you ever sell it will be so much easier to pack in original box for posting. That of course then brings the issue of where to store them, if the shed is goon and dry a slightly out of the way but accessible place is a good spot to keep all them boxes that you will have.