Garden and railway complete re-hash

Hi Guys ,not much progress to report as had to see to other things today ,however got some track fixing timbers cut....  

Davy Mac posted:

Hi Guys ,not much progress to report as had to see to other things today ,however got some track fixing timbers cut....  

Looks great Davy.  I'm a little concerned, however, that all the stone and concrete you used in one place is going to throw off the rotation of the Earth!

Davy Mac posted:

Hi Guys ,not much progress to report as had to see to other things today ,however got some track fixing timbers cut....  

Davey- a little progress is better than none at all!

Bob

WITZ 41 posted:

Davy Mac posted:

Hi Guys ,not much progress to report as had to see to other things today ,however got some track fixing timbers cut....  

Looks great Davy.  I'm a little concerned, however, that all the stone and concrete you used in one place is going to throw off the rotation of the Earth!

Hi Witz,  well sincerely hope the next occupier of this house when I;m gone to the happy train huntin grounds in the sky isn't a vegetable growin  fanatic because he'll have one helluva time plantin his crops....

Davy looking great, and I bet the next guy to own your house is going to be a train lover also! Heck he might even put a small fridge next to the main line for the little lady to put a nice cold beer on the passing train! LOL

Yes he would have trouble growing crops.  Personally, I think it will become an outdoor museum!!

Hi Guys, other unexpected must-do stuff pulling me away from the garden railway project quite a bit for the next while ,so less time with it ,however managed to get those track timbers cemented in place this mornin....,just need to do what I can when possible... really annoying seeing as I'm on the home straight ... but ach well such is life . 

Looking good Davy! Its nothing but time, remember its a hobby and to be fun!

Hi Guys,well I'm afraid I don't have much more to report, am having to do a whole load of work in my old mother's place right now as her dementia has taken a turn for the worse. That ,plus poor weather and gigging has kept the railway project back.However got a wee bitty more done today.Decided to add longitudinal timbers to the track base to raise the track up a bit.Being much shallower in the sleepers (ties) than G scale ,raising them up a bit will improve drainage run off and will allow me to use the same 6mm granite chips that I use on the G scale line. 

hi Guys, still struggling big time to find time for the garden work  ,however managed to get a wee while at it yesterday and actually managed to start laying the first O gauge track at long last. Laying the O gauge is a lot fiddlier than the G .But hey ho I'll get there ! Was going to use 6mm granite chips for the ballast but am trying some finer granite dust . I'll see how it performs in the rain etc., then make up my mind.If it turns out OK it should look better scale-wise than the bigger chips.     

Looks like a great start there Davy! Next thing you know you will be running trains! Quick question, Do you also have an indoor layout?

mike g. posted:

Looks like a great start there Davy! Next thing you know you will be running trains! Quick question, Do you also have an indoor layout?

Hi Mike, N gauge layout in very early stages.... 

Hi Guys, well,again nuthin much to report. This last week's been the week from hell. One of my son in laws had a cardiac arrest, big fit guy, heart just stopped out the blue,not a heart attack though , lucky for him he was in the company of somebody who knew their first aid and CPR and that saved his life. Two grandkids who nearly lost their dad,doesn't bear thinkin about.He's still in hospital but gettin better though they still don't know the cause. Also have my old mother in hospital and my wife also needs stents in her heart .Yesterday I had the three of them in hospital. So its been quite a time. Anyway ,on the garden railway front I've just been curious to see how the granite dust has performed as ballast on the wee bit track I've laid. Its been baked in hot sun  and rained heavily on over the last few days. Its actually turned out quite good. Looks decent scalewise and the track sleepers(ties) have washed nicely against the granite so I think I'll go with the granite dust instead of 6mm chips.Though God knows when I'll get back to doin more with the current state of home-affairs . Ah well such is life....   

Davy,

Praying for you and your family at this unsettled time. Stay strong.

Davy,

Im praying now for your family's health!  We have had some of that with elderly parents ourselves as of late.

The ballast looks good!

Hope all is well with the Family. At least the trains are good therapy if you need something to divert your mind from all of your troubles. That and a nice single malt.

Bob

Davy, sorry for the hard times! My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family! They are more important than any trains. But the trains to give a place for your no d to wonder!

I am sure hoping for the best for you and your family. That is certainly a lot of medical issues all at once and I sure hope they are fully treatable and every one makes a full and complete recovery.  

"Ah well such is life.... "

Davy

I definitely understand that.

I will also send a prayer to you and you family for all of  you to have a big improvement in health!

Take Care.

Larry

Hi Guys, thanks for all your kind wishes and support. Could have done without so many things happening at once but hey-ho ,not complaining,...plenty people in this world in a lot more of a pickle and havin a lot more bad luck than me these days.  Things'll come good in time. By now I had been planning on havin some trains runnin and my landscaping completely finished but don't know if it'll be this summer now. Just need to grab some time at it as and when. I have a major garden re-hash at my old mother's house on my hands because of her increasing frailty and dementia. Her quite large pond had to be demolished and filled in ,her old delapidated brick garage demolished etc.,etc.,  generally the place completely re-done and flattened so theres minimum danger . My daughter and her hubby were also in the process of moving to a new house and selling their own when her husband had his health episode.So I've been finishing off tarting up their garden for the house-sale too. So both these jobs require done and dusted before my railway . On the upside of all this, yours truly has lost a good bit of winter-fat, two inches off my waist and also lost a good bit of weight and am now pretty tanned and toned for a 64 year old antique .So every cloud has a silver lining right enough ...ha ha . . Anyway will keep posting any progress with the garden trains as and when.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family Davy. 

Gotta love your attitude Davy , I hope and pray that all will be good in the end for you and your family . We will all be rooting for you to finish your garden when ever that may occur . It sounds like you really have your hands full . That weight loss is a blessing as you need to keep yourself healthy in order to take care of the rest of your family . Jim

Summerdale Junction posted:

Gotta love your attitude Davy , I hope and pray that all will be good in the end for you and your family . We will all be rooting for you to finish your garden when ever that may occur . It sounds like you really have your hands full . That weight loss is a blessing as you need to keep yourself healthy in order to take care of the rest of your family . Jim

Nothin else for it Jim, upwards and onwards. Woulda been a lot worse if my son in law hadn't made it out of his cardiac arrest. Woulda been dealing with my daughter a widow and two grandkids of 6 and 4 years old without their dad. So no complaints here. Some bad luck for sure but a whole lot more good luck in the end .

DAVY MAC , I hope that you and your family are doing better . I know that you have your hands full between your mothers health and your son -in-law  health . Just wanted to let you know that we are still thinking the best for you and your family .  Jim

Summerdale Junction posted:

DAVY MAC , I hope that you and your family are doing better . I know that you have your hands full between your mothers health and your son -in-law  health . Just wanted to let you know that we are still thinking the best for you and your family .  Jim

Hi Jim,you just be psychic !, was just thinkin about you guys here on the forum yesterday. Beginning to see the light at the end of the current life-tunnel (I think/hope!!). My son in law's heart episode remains a mystery however he's doin OK and has been fitted with a de-fib implant incase the same thing happens again.So touch-wood AOK on that front. My mother is currently in  a respite home temporarily. I've spent the entire last couple of months re-doin her entire garden,removed a fairly large pond,demolished the old brick garage etc, have used almost all of 16tons of hardcore,6 tons of sand and about 100 paviors etc.,etc.,  and am still in the process of gutting out her house and having it completely re-furbed .She can't manage stairs any more so we're havin a new downstairs extension built on to her house with new bedroom and wetroom etc., for which the construction work starts next Monday and will take about another month to complete.Then hopefully my mother will be home. My own place remains as I last reported though I'm hoping that I might still get a bit done before the winter. We had a beautifull spring here but the summer was awfull. Even by Scottish standards! . My wife had a major heart by-pass 18 years ago and is due to have another op in the next few weeks which hopefully won't require major surgery this time but that remains to be seen. Hopefully all will go well.Me personally I'm fine, and still pipin away at weekends for a living. I did buy some small trees for the O gauge railway the other day so hopefully will get them planted shortly. The small low growing creeping plants  I planted back in the spring are doin their thing nicely trackside. So hopefully I'll have some progress to report shortly. Anyway thanks for your thoughts Jim. Greatly appreciated.  All the best   Davy

Man I really like your  spirit! I wish more people were like you!

Hi Davey, just had a quick look over your thread. Surprised to find it was O gauge given this folder is not for O.

I would expect to see it in the 2 rail folder. That is mainly where I look on this forum as I have an outdoor 7mm scale layout.

You have certainly given yourself a big task building it the way you are doing it. However, perhaps in Scotland it is necessary for longevity  :>

Wish you all the best with your family health problems.

I'll pop back sometime and check out your progress.

cheers

BobC

Bob Comerford posted:

Hi Davey, just had a quick look over your thread. Surprised to find it was O gauge given this folder is not for O.

I would expect to see it in the 2 rail folder. That is mainly where I look on this forum as I have an outdoor 7mm scale layout.

You have certainly given yourself a big task building it the way you are doing it. However, perhaps in Scotland it is necessary for longevity  :&gt

Wish you all the best with your family health problems.

I'll pop back sometime and check out your progress.

cheers

BobC

Davey's main loop around the garden is large scale. The O scale near the wee hut was an add-on in the garden rebuild plans. He posted some photos of his large scale engines previously in the thread.

Davy,

I had thought of you recently as well.  I'm glad things are going well for your son and mum.  My wife has health issues that no doctor can explain too.  When you think of it, it is a bit unsettling.  That is a lot of work on mum's house.  We had to go the route of getting my mum and dad into a personal care home in June.  Mum can't stay at home, so Dad had to go with her.  Physically he is good, but he can't handle financial responsibilities or even getting his medication right now.  I pray all goes well for your wife, and she only needs minor procedures!

Hi Mark, hopefully my mother will settle into her newly built place. Me and my daughters are all close-by so she should be OK. Her memory is shot and her mobility isn't quite what it was but other than that she's in decent shape for almost 90.So we'll try and keep her at her own place as long as possible. Any spare time I have in the evenings or on wet days I've been spending workin with my N gauge stuff etc.  

Davy

Wishing you the best, Been there done that with both parents.

We will  send you and your family a prayer.

Take Care

Larry/Nancy

OK my mistake , it has obviously changed in the interim as I only read the first page before coming to the last to comment . Not enough time yesterday to read it all.

The first page info stated the layout was being built with Peco O scale track replacing a former G layout.

cheers

 Bob

Bob Comerford posted:

OK my mistake , it has obviously changed in the interim as I only read the first page before coming to the last to comment . Not enough time yesterday to read it all.

The first page info stated the layout was being built with Peco O scale track replacing a former G layout.

cheers

 Bob

Hi Bob, I originally had a (few!) G scale layouts in my garden over the years. Then I decided to change to O as the choice of rolling stock was better.However as I  already had a whole load of G scale track etc., I decided in the end to do both. The G scale line is now a much simpler single track layout with passing loops which runs round the entire garden. The O gauge line will be a double track mainline with a few sidings.  I've gone for the new PIKO range of German steam engines for the G line which I believe are about 1/26th scale. I have two locos at present all singin and dancing  DCC with synchronised sound and smoke and few passenger coaches and wagons. Very big models so don't need a lot of rolling stock. I still have some Analog G scale locos but I think I'll sell most of them off. In O scale I have quite a variety of American.British  and European models and rolling stock.

Hi Guys, just killing some time here before I head out,been heavy rain ,things just drying up. Bob's comments got me thinkin about the old layouts . My obsession with G was originally focussed mainly on the B&O late steam/ early diesel era. Pretty much based on what was available from Aristocraft in 1/29th at the time.  I kitbashed and detailed a few Aristo pacifics into more accurate versions of the B&O P7 that they were based on. 

Those engines are great, Davy!  And to think, you did all those of the railroad I grew up 1/4 mile from!  I grew up seeing a parade of freight trains pulled by F-units out of Pittsburgh.  My maternal grandfather was a fireman on the B&O for several years before he reenlisted with the US Marine Corps and fought in France in World War I.  He was disabled in the war, tried to go back to work in 1926, but couldn't do it and was given a disability from the B&O.  My grandmother received retirement checks from them clean up into the Chessie System years when she passed on in 1978.

Davy Mac posted:

WOW, I love this shot!

I developed an affinity for the B&O when I was stationed in MD in the Army on a couple of occasions. I hit the B&O museum several times and chased trains all over that area. I even rode the Capitol Limited all the way from DC to Chicago a couple of years ago, over a portion of the B&O, loved it!

p51 posted:

Davy Mac posted:

WOW, I love this shot!

I developed an affinity for the B&O when I was stationed in MD in the Army on a couple of occasions. I hit the B&O museum several times and chased trains all over that area. I even rode the Capitol Limited all the way from DC to Chicago a couple of years ago, over a portion of the B&O, loved it!

Hi P51, love that picture myself I have to admit. Taken a good few years ago when I had a three track mainline in the garden.Got up one frosty snowy mornin to find a sugar coatin of snow which actually looked almost accurate scale-wise and so took the opportunity for a photo. However the three track mainline and that scene is now long gone.

Heres some more old garden shots I;ve dug out from the from the past . 

Davy all the best with your family. I understand as I have elderly relatives with similar issues. Will the new G scale loop be the same 3 track main as your old one? It's been awhile, what will your O look like too?

Seacoast posted:

Davy all the best with your family. I understand as I have elderly relatives with similar issues. Will the new G scale loop be the same 3 track main as your old one? It's been awhile, what will your O look like too?

Hi George, aye ,gettin old is sumthin eh !??. As for the garden railway.The G scale line is now single track with passing loops. The O scale line will be double track mainline . Both have turntables as I have a thing about steam locos , turntables and steam loco infrastructure  Here in the UK steam era infrastructure generally was swept away with very few places retaining turntables ,water columns etc., etc., considering the amount of special steam trains that run in the UK these days retaining more of the old infrastructure would have been a smart move.