It's everyone elses fault, really it is, if they hadn't built such great garden railways, with great fetchers, big bridges, great scenery, etc, I would have been happy with Lazy Grange Bay Mark 1.
But after visiting more and more great railways, seeing even more on G Scale Mad. and seeing so many in the G Scale Society.
I knew in my hearts of hearts, I needed to re build mine.
I've learnt some valuable lessons along the way.... how not to lay track, how not to mess points up, how to break things....plus I was having more problems getting up/down to the track for maintenance, etc..... then mother nature stepped in and had a storm in my railway, blowing the fence panels out, also took my station out, my buildings,
street lamps and a few passengers were killed in action.....senior upper management (Wify) decided that we would renew the fences, so we got a few prices in..... then after i picked my self up off the floor , and stopped laughing at them, we decided to do it our selves....senior upper
management, trusted me to order the wood , just enough for the fences....can you see a cunning plan?
At this time I had my last running day on the old Lazy...... got my friends round, had a ball... ran everything and then some...it was a great send off,
Das fleet, coaches, steam and diesal, you name it, we ran it...after everyone had gone, I started to remove stuff from the railway...... this was truly the hardest bit, it took me 7 years to build, 3 days to clear...... I was gutted :(
The next morning the wood for the new fences arrived, and helped by some good mates, Ian sharples, Netty, Phil Saint, to name a few, we made good progress i knew i wanted my railway to be different, double tracked , even if it was really a single track squashed in to a dog bone...but how?
As work progressed on the fences, it quickly dawned on senior upper management, that I had over ordered the timber.....amazing really..., just enough, to build a new railway :)
Netty came up trumps, he managed to find a load of galvanised steel bedding trays, these were being scrapped from a large garden center....did I want them? Pope, catholic, bears woods, of course I did, they were ideal, at 3 ft long, 1 ft wide, 3inc deep, upside down they became the perfect base for my new railway.
Now I often hear people say, "I'm planning my garden railway, or i'm building my railway" and it seems years before any track goes down, not me, 4 weeks after the old lazy was removed, the New Lazy Grange Bay, was running trains...... ok, maybe it wasn't all the way round the garden.....but i was up and running
The idea was to create 2 turning circles, a viaduct section, with a big bridge, and a few smaller bridges, a long station area, ....I didnt want it to look like a plank off wood nailed to the fences, but more like a multipull level , with inclines..... yes I wanted a incline!!!
Heres how I went about it.......
The steel trays were clade in wood, ie, a 4x2 beam across the front and back, with 4x1 ribs, to make up seperate boards, the 2 turning circles were made up simillarly, these were then set up on legs, and clad to match the fence, the viaduct sections were laid lower, than the main station area, and its turning circle,
track was supported across the gap by 4x2 beams, these have been covered in a concrete viaduct section I got off my good friend Tom. As it is now I have lots off work ahead off me, but i've got time and good friends to help,so much so, that 5 weeks after we started most off them turned up 1 day for a brainstorming session to help me with the track plan,
Paul Holt, Netty, Ian Sharpless, Chass, Peter, Keith, Phil,Tom and Simon, ( thanks guys.......big time, because thanks to them, i'm where I am today)
2 things worth remembering ......
Rule 8.... (see my top ten tips) and be true to your self, if you like shunting, build a shunting railway, if you like freight build a freight railway, if you like passenger trains ....you get the idea........
Me I like watching trains.......
