The Basingstoke and Santa Fe Railway

After a few years of re-discovering the delights of an HO/OO gauge railway and filling the garage with a layout it took a trip to the Isle of Wight to awaken the interest in large-scale railways, LGB and the possibility of a railway outdoors. I happened to be in Cowes with the family for a day out and went into a teashop only to find that the owner had a small LGB circuit suspended from the ceiling over the tea tables. I think I had heard of LGB before but this was the beginning of the railway in my garden.

This was in the April of 2005 and by the May following some google research I had installed two LGB starter sets (like most of us do) in the lounge and was already realising that only the garden would give enough space for a layout.

Our garden is 20m by 10m and my wife a keen gardener but planning permission was granted and construction began in June 2005 with the understanding that the Head Gardener would supervise movement of plants and the green side of the project.

By the spring of 2006 there were three small loops round the back end of the garden and I had realised that the constructor of a garden railway faces the same issues as a full scale railway pioneer particularly gradients and contours, local vegetation and leaves on the line in the autumn. Utilising a lot of trial and error the railway has changed and developed each season and now consists of two larger loops: the outside larger loop going right round the garden with sidings on the patio and the inner loop utilising space at the back but looping round the deck. Many of the gradient problems were solved by utilising existing rows of bricks in the border around the lawn and decking planks to control the descent from right to left across the garden. There is even a tunnel made out of a section of old MDPE water pipe along the back straight.

Unlike many I have stayed with the analogue approach preferring to keep things simple and achieve a couple of long trains circulating without trouble or derailments whilst we sit on the small deck and drink tea. I’m still not quite there yet as often I sit down to drink the first sip only to see a derailment or other problem but that’s the eventual aim anyway.

90% of the locomotives and rolling stock are from LGB but I have two USA Trains diesels and an Aristocraft shunter with a number of Bachman wagons. At the last count there are 11 locomotives in USA and German styles and the idea is that the outer circuit is mainly USA and the inner circuit Germany/Austria. I have added a number of G scale buildings, figures and vehicles with nearly everything coming from the web and ebay. Jeremy at Dragon G Scale has been particularly helpful with advice and guidance. For the 3 stations and platforms I have used small slabs and spare large floor tiles as well as single bricks with station buildings then sitting on them. The G Scale windmill was constructed in April 2007 and is the centrepiece of the inner circuit with low growing plants now growing up around it.

My current frustrations are the leaves in the autumn, the squirrels and birds and the real solution to track cleaning; I have a track-cleaning locomotive but also have developed a broom style manual track cleaner. I tend to pack everything away at the end of September leaving only the track, stone and slabs so the winter is for landscaping and other work that is best done when everything green has died back.

I think the next steps are to find even better solutions to gradient and track stability and perhaps in early 2008 I may need to redo some of the track beds.

All in all however and I’m sure that many others would agree nothing beats the relaxation of a garden railway and that cup of tea in the garden.

Richard Newcombe