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I took a year off from racing for a train set

Discussion in 'Off Topic - All other stuff here' started by museumsteve, May 21, 2020.

  1. museumsteve

    museumsteve Member

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    I sold up my racing rig a year ago to concentrate on a bigger outdoor project. I wanted a garden trainset for my grandson to enjoy, he is 3 yrs old.

    So I bought a G scale trainset and thought I was set.
    20190417_143529_resized.jpg
    It was great for a week or two but I soon decided I wanted something bigger. So after a bit of research I settled on my plans and just a year ago it began.

    I measured and planned and made most of it up as I went along, but soon we had the labour in digging our 6 tonnes of soil to make way for a bigger trainset.
    20190509_110303_resized.jpg 20190509_160739_resized.jpg 20190510_184421_resized.jpg

    The obvious choice for lining the garden section was railway sleepers
    20190509_091321_resized.jpg

    Loose laying track and making curves was the longest job, bending rail using one of my trusty trees saved my around £300 over buying a custom built rail bender.
    20190510_204214_resized.jpg 20190513_184636_resized_1.jpg 20190516_183039_resized_1.jpg

    This all fell in with plans to have a large workshop built so the obvious choice was to have the railway running through the workshop, ideal for security, maintenance and just being pretty cool. The floor chaps were very helpful and we managed to set the rails in the flooring and also have a short maintenance track alongside.
    20190913_162840_resized[12735].jpg 20191017_190035_resized.jpg 20191027_170057_resized.jpg

    The end result is great and with 2 new grandchildren born this year I'm sure it'll get many years of use. I also use it for some gardening duties.
    20191027_160332_resized.jpg 20191124_164955_resized.jpg 20190615_201351_resized.jpg

    I now have 2 locos, both are 24v electric and I bought some rolling chassis and I make bodies from plywood for them so they just lift off and swap around if needed.
    20191226_164546_resized.jpg 20191226_175545_resized.jpg 20200101_190208_resized.jpg



    Now this is finished, I have just re-bought a whole race rig again :D It's a never ending circle.
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  2. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    what an awesome hobby !

    do you have plans to build a steam loco ?
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  3. museumsteve

    museumsteve Member

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    Not really., no, maybe :D
    The gauge I have is 7 1/4", steam is very expensive and I don't use it a lot when grandson isn't here. But I am thinking about adding another rail to make dual guage so I can run 5" on it then maybe look at stea, in 5" gauge.

    It's great fun and not something I had not even considered 14 months ago :D I'm not even a big fan of trains :D
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    Last edited: Aug 3, 2020
  4. cgodwin

    cgodwin Active Member

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    That is great. I had plans to build a ride on train but I never got around to it. Built a spaceship cockpit and then the sim instead. But a train will be a key part of the home theme park I plan to start building in the next year or two. It is nice to see how well yours works in a fairly small space and not a huge budget.
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  5. f1iceman

    f1iceman Why So Serious ? ( The Joker )

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    You do realise when he gets older you will be adding uneven stilts to the track, making it a roller coaster ;-)
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  6. caddyboy0103

    caddyboy0103 New Member Gold Contributor

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    Train Simulator and VR for the 3 yr old would have been cool! But I like what you did here. My Jaw dropped