More wagons, more problems

Garden maintenance has not been a priority recently, but my housemate and her dad have taken up the track, laid down some concrete, and are in the process of fixing up the main loop.

I also purchased some second hand Hornby wagons - one is a barrel wagon, sans barrels, and the other is nothing more than a flat bed on a set of bogeys. The fantasy is one wagon carries chocolate mini-rolls and the flat-bed gets modified to hold a small, light cup of tea…

Alternatively, it could carry sushi - as is traditional.

Here are some work in progress photos!

Locomotive and three wagons (plus coal wagon) with the pink flowering currant in the background.

Housemate winds the locomotive, with spring flowers in the background.

Three Buffers On My Wagon

One of the benefits of working with a team of geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists is having immediate and nearly daily access to a group of adorable nerds.  So when I held a housewarming party for office folk at the weekend AND it was a sunny day, the adults and children came out to play in force.  The little loco was zooming around the track after some devegetation works by two small children and their railway-professional parents.  Turns out if you don't have any reservations about overwinding your clockwork locomotive, because - for example - you're four, you can really get it going.

Track deveg works

The same family also bought me a new wagon (confusing the three year old, who called me George for the rest of the day):

Coal Wagon! Rubber band coupling is temporary, subject to sourcing some paperclips

Advantage number two of having access to engineering professionals with subtly different skill sets is that when I receive the point cloud and topographical drawings from the 3D Laser Survey I commissioned (for money, from some friendly local surveyors - thanks Malcolm Hughes Land Surveys!) I can get SOMEONE ELSE to manipulate all the data in AutoCAD.  I honestly gave up on engineering drawings after we stopped doing them on graph paper.  We still do sometimes, and those are the good days - with the pens and the little blue squares and the restful process of it all. 

Here's the surveyor with their 3D laser equipment:

Laser surveying (Malcolm Hughes Land Surveys)

You can check out the process here: https://www.malcolmhughes.co.uk/services/laser-scanning/

When I get the resulting point cloud and 3D drawings, I'll get cracking on my desk top study for the railway.  This will be a good first step in drawing up a maintenance schedule for the Little Henbury Railway and you'll no doubt hear all about it here first.

Happy Spring, train peeps!

One Henbury Train

I'm not often in during the day, so it was fortunate I was around today to take custody of an unexpected parcel.  Look at what was in it!

Locomotive, coal tender and wind up key

I didn't know Hornby were made by Meccano, but apparently so. It says so on the back of the locomotive.

It comes with a key so you can wind it up!  It has two gears: forwards and backwards.

And it sits on a 32mm O Gauge track just so.

Train. Viaduct. Moss.

It is Perfect.

No churns, no porter, no cat on a seat - ONLY A TRAIN

Now, if I hadn't mentioned before the previous owner used the track to run somewhat larger trains and the sight of this one - not being 16mm to the foot scale - may cause CONSTERNATION. Here's why.  

My colleague Gill took me aside at work last week and explained carefully, and with heavy overtones of warning, that model railways were a bottomless hole to fall down. Her dad has smaller model railways and goes to events and has recordings of trains and all sorts. I don't need that hassle - you've seen the rest of my website, I have cephalopods to make out of felt.  Yes, yes, I said, but I can manage it. I'll be safe.   So I wasn't worried when I joined the 16mm Association (https://www.16mm.org.uk) as recommended by my railway's builder and the former house owner.  

16mm refers to the scale of the locomotives: 16mm to the foot. This means you get trains which are about the size of a small shoebox, but with narrow little axles.  That's nice and one day I may well get one, even though the name of the scale offends me because it mixes units.  This smaller train that is NOW MINE (and it IS a train, surely, because there are two things coupled together) is O Gauge and to scale, so the wheels are the size they ought to be compared to the size of the locomotive. Its scale is 7mm to the foot (seriously people) or 1:43.5 (which is somehow just as depressing but is at least better than 1:19.05 which is what 16mm is). 

Gill and I caught up again this week and she looked worried. Apparently 16mm people don't talk to smaller scale and O Gauge people and vice versa.  This is not a drill. Apparently it's serious. What? Have I nailed my colours to a mast without realising it? Shall I instead choose to Mix Trains? Is this like when my sister plays Ma Jong and decides to collect all of the suits just so she can win despite the inelegance and corresponding low score?  Is my railway as UNCLEAN as her dirty hand of bamboos, circles and numbers?  Is this like having an opening hand with a hidden Pung of circles and three pairs of bamboos?  Do I have to choose my railway affiliation over my train?

I may be in trouble.

However, I am the new Railway Manager Now and I don't need rules so there. I can have both sorts if I want to and LET THE WHOLE RAILWAY WORLD EXPLODE.

Gill and I decided that if you're going to break the rules, you have to break the rules HARD so I'm going to take her suggestion, throw convention off of the viaduct and next time build a locomotive shaped like a dragon out of parts.

For now, I have the One Henbury Train. And it is Mine.

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All the thanks in the world to my parents, who stealth posted me the train.

Cat Gazing Longingly At Railway

Waiting for the 11:59 to Manchester Piccadilly

Introducing A Tiny Railway

I did not ever plan to own a model railway, but I've bought a house that happens to have one and it would be rude not to make the most of it.  It was constructed with love and care over 22 years by the previous owner.

Look at it!

Triple span concrete viaduct

Single span bridge in the background, little viaduct in the foreground,  junctions and a rock overhang covered in ivy

I'm a geotechnical engineer with a background in geology and I actually work quite a bit on the railways. Cuttings, embankments, earthworks, rocks, soil and the ways in which they deteriorate and get fixed - that's my day to day. I'm indifferent to trains. For me, trains are just what's necessary so you can have railways. These little earthworks are fabulous though.  

I moved in last week.  Here's the railway at the time:

Here's the railway this week:

Snow on the line

Regular services have been suspended due to adverse weather conditions and also due to not having any trains.

I think I'm going to like it here.