| |
|
|
|
As you can guess from the grin on my face, I rather enjoyed my spell playing with Paul Perryman's 7.25" gauge Hudson Hunslet outline loco' at Weeting recently, so much so in fact that i'm hoping to persuade Paul to produce a kit of parts for my very own loco'! I've long held this desire for a "ride-on" train, the trouble was what gauge? After much thought and careful consideration it was decided to opt for 7.25".. It seems to me to be much more stable than 5" gauge, and the models are that little bit nearer to the full size things. the beauty of the Hudson Hunslet shown here, is that it is still small enough to fit into the boot of our car if we want to take it out to run on other railways. |
|
|
|
|
|
THE SITE. The Photo's above and below illustrate what we are up against. I've 'plonked' a couple of sample sections of track just to get an idea of how the line will eventually fit in. Phase 1: This will be a simple 25 yard end to end run from the garage (which will also act as loco' shed and workshops, across some paving (yet to be completed) and along one side of the back garden. the line will terminate in a 2 road island station. |
|
The picture below illustrates the current site which will eventually accomodate the 2 road station. The idea is to completely clear thia area over the next month or two, to build an island platform and construct a wooden shed/station halt on the footprint of the old shed seen in the picture. Outline planning permission has been granted by the domestic authorities (subject to various conditions) and phase two is currently under negotiation. We'll see how we go with phase one, and all going well, phase two will see the line extend from the garage, out into the front garden, to give us a total run of about 40 to 50 yards. Not long by any stretch of the imagination, but hopefully sufficient enough to spur me onto phase three. Keep Watching!! Updates to come. |
|
18/05/2008 Clearance work through the soft fruit border has led to the first section of track being laid utilising a second hand length of track given to me recently. The idea is to get something down to see how it fits into the garden, this will hopefully act as an incentive to crack on with getting track down so that I've somewhere to run my first loco' once it's complete. A sort of 'Test Track' if you like! I must admit i'm very pleased with how it looks and fits in. Ballast is 'Forest Green' chippings from the local garden centre. Whistle sign and speed sign are digits from old car number plates mounted on suitable posts, |
|
Sun June 1st 2008. Clearance begins on the sproposed station site. If you compare the photo's below with the earlier ones above, you can see that we've had a heck of a lot of stuff to clear before we could even get to the shed. The incinerator has been working overtime burning off the huge pile of garden rubbish bit by bit. we are now at a stage where we can get into the shed and start clearing out years of accumulated junk before moving on to demolition and clearance right back to the hedge-line. The new station building will sit somewhere in the vicinity of the old shed, a final plan hasn't been decided yet. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
