How about those poor little ‘OO’ people just getting to know larger scales?

Before we launch into the wonderful world of model railways in the real world, let me define a ‘Garden railway’. I find it easy to say first what it is not – it is not a train set in the garden. So many people begin by acquiring a ‘starter set’ and place an oval of track on the patio or lawn, and on a sunny day, run a train round.

The ‘railway’ has no purpose, it does not go from or to anywhere, and it completely misses the point why railways came into existence, as commercial enterprises using the newest technology, steam. The ‘iron horse’ replaced the four legged animal as motive power, the iron road added another dimension to road and canal transport of freight and people.

There are garden railways as small as gauge ‘00’ and I would even include five inch and possibly seven and a quarter inch gauges. There are a couple of  famous railways in a garden of course, that are four feet eight and a half inches ‘standard’ gauge. Sir Mc Alpine has one.

Since the nineteen seventies, when G-Scale was launched, this has been the main scale for gardens. Slightly smaller models in Gauge One must come second in numbers and models available. G-Scale is dominated by its inventors LGB who started with narrow gauge Swiss and Austrian or German preserved railways but they have pushed their range of models to include several gauges and newer rolling stock. Gauge One tends to be the province of more fine-scale modellers and realistic live steam – with Japanese Aster producing ‘Flying Scotsman’ and ‘Sir Nigel Gresley’ models. The smaller the scale models and tracks are, the more vulnerable they will be in the open air.

I have said many times, daily almost, that we true garden railway enthusiasts follow in the footsteps of the great railway pioneers such a s Brunel. Our railways may be smaller but we must still overcome natural obstacles, ponds, rockeries, slopes and the weather. Local wildlife will prove a challenge, with birds pecking ballast and pecking reflections in windows. Hedgehogs hibernate in tunnels, badgers eat signals and moles think that red wire in the ground is a worm – supper.

Clearly, the rolling stock, buildings, electrics, must all be weatherproof. Yes we can run trains in the rain – better for electrical pickup. Snow is welcomed – we can hook up the snowplough. There are extra hazards in colder or hotter climes for those who live there, but this does not deter them.

The ‘ride-on’ and commercial railways need to be out of doors because they need the space and have to organise the viewing or riding public. There are extra hazards in train operation here. Fire from loco sparks, and damage to trains from thrown objects intended to derail any passing train are possibilities.

Despite this, the public deserves to be protected from danger, and insurance as well as statutory regulations come into play. Planning consent, building regulations, environmental health will need attention if a larger railway is contemplated. This may affect us all, because a garden railway is seldom if ever finished and many of us have turned round and looked behind us to see the enormity of twenty years spent pocket money and labour building the railways in our gardens.

The smallest practical ride-on railway is usually  Gauge – 1 live steam. These model trains will pull ‘wagons’ seating five or six people but the tracks are best at  about leg height so that feet will not drag on the ground – dangerous for adult and child. Aster in Japan, and now from the USA is an American ‘Big-boy’ locomotive at around six feet in length which will pull a few adults at speed.

Larger Gauge three has been growing in popularity recently, with many new products in this ‘standard gauge’ but G-Scale modelling field.

More usually, a five-inch gauge railway, with a small loco run into a corner of the garage, tracks around even a small town garden, is the preferred ride-on garden railway. This can be live steam or car battery powered. Graham Whistler (of Graham Whistler Productions) – train videos publisher has one such.

The wider interest of railway outdoor modellers is best served by the two major scales. There are level crossings, tunnel mouths (in concrete) station buildings – even villages with churches and windmills – all in Gauge –1 and G-scale.

All these are ‘working’ and can be illuminated at night or have digital sounds added. A model population with railwaymen, passengers and tradesmen is available, inhabiting many countries and at all periods of railway history.

Railways began to take off at the end of the nineteenth century, and by 1900 were well established all over the major industrial areas of the world. Locomotives were mostly supplied from Great Britain – still the crucible for live steam models today.

The railways carried sugar in plantations, coal, iron ore and the produced steel, and always the passengers and smaller freight, milk to market, homing pigeons, livestock to a railhead for onward distribution – by railway road haulage, air or sea.

The open air is beneficial to us all and an advantage to younger people. The railways do not have to represent nostalgic scenes from a bygone and fading era.  The Eurostar and Bullet Train, are both available for outdoors high speed duty. There is a  mountain cable car and rack railway that operates in full size in Switzerland or model form in our rockery.

So long as safety is a factor in the design and construction, with no mains electricity, just low voltages (usually 20 Volts) outside, the danger is non existent even for very young children. There are many toys for children, including trains and passengers, that will work with our G-scale railways. The tracks need never be idle and the youngsters can do no harm. We frequently walk along our track as the only way to reach all parts of the system for maintenance.

The whole family can find interest in our railway works. A whole new world of miniature and Alpine plans will complement the lineside and model buildings. Small leaved ground cover is essential for embankments and cuttings. Overhead we need to be careful of trees that can drop resin or debris onto our small tracks – just as real railways have ‘leaves on the line’ troubles.

Those who are not so agile or able bodied need have no concerns. A proportion of the railway construction follows normal house building practice. This means that with clear plans and instructions we can use local tradesmen for electrics, track base, fence and rockery building, drainage and planting. A railway on a wall is sometimes the only way to get the tracks round a corner to leave a planting space behind. The local bricklayer will give a quote for the job. In the same way the local garden centre may well deliver and assemble the needed train storage shed.

Brunel saw his plans come to fruition with the Great western railway, integrated within the landscape from London to the West.  His vision was just a little larger than ours.

The addition of all the activity that goes with garden railway operations should draw the whole family  into new areas of interest and use unexpected knowledge from friends and visitors.

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