The Old Railway
The New Railway
The GGR started as a childhood dream while reading a series of stories by a well-known member of the clergy. The stories featured a locomotive called Duke, the lost engine, and from that day forward I was hooked on narrow gauge railways. I spent hours playing in the sandpit with a loop of old Hornby track, using my imagination. Things stayed that way for a while until I acquired my first Mamod live steam engine, which came with a loop of track and some wagons. I gradually added to that over the years until I bought my first house, when I made my first attempts at building a garden railway. A few years later, a chance trip was made to the now closed Cheltenham Garden Railway Centre, just to "have a look." Before I knew it, my wallet was much lighter and my car boot was full of shiny new garden railway paraphernalia. That was back in 2009. Since then, I have built and dismantled one railway (see the gallery) due to a house move, and I'm now building a new one, as a railway is never truly finished - though don't tell my wife!
November 2013
New house new railway with big plans
December 2013
Plans are drawn up and approved by the resident planning officer (wife)
January 2014
Site clearance and first foundations laid
Feb 2014
Building has started plenty of concrete, hundreds of thermolite blocks and plenty of hard work.
March 2014
First section of track laid and the first train has run (from nowhere to some where, stations as of yet un built and not named) but that is all work in progress
April May and June 2014
Lots built with the railway arriving at its first station Shady Nook and not a radius tighter than ten feet any where to be seen.
July
The railway arrives at the (engine)shed
August
It rained a lot mixed in with holidays, every thing ground to a halt.
September
Platforms built electrics installed Shady Nook is starting to look like a station with almost 100 feet of running track things are on the up
November
loads of work done on foundations ect
December
Lots of concrete blocks laid and track as well, the first train has now gone right round the garden, still lots to do from ballasting,signals, buildings ect but as far as the permanent way department is concerned the railway is basically complete.First railway open event held with several visiting engines making there debut on the GGR a great day with plenty of sun shine but freezing cold. the BBQ went down a treat.
Spring 2015 Loads done on the railway. mostly little jobs involving alignment issues and the odd lump and bump, several new buildings have been added as well as signals tunnels fences and level crossings, also a foot bridge has been added to shady nook station. a coaling stage was built last weekend plus a water tower. Almost 200 fencing posts have been cut and drilled ready to add to the railway this evening. out line plans have also been drawn up for an additional station "dukes Station" construction due to start at any time.
Summer 2015
Lots of playing trains new buildings added water towers ect lots of detailing at shady nook station, work has now started on replacing the decking section of the railway down the side of the garden, if your thinking of building a garden railway, build it out of bricks and mortar it so much better.my decking section is only 2 years old and its twisted and warped despite me rebuilding it twice.
Autumn 2015
Again another busy period on the railway with lots going on new sidings built at Shady Nook station , new buildings built a post office a couple of houses and a new signal box plus some new signals.
Christmas Steam up
A new steam up area ha now been added and was tested on the Christmas steam up and worked a treat
Easter
bridge building the ground works for the new viaduct have been started, steel work has arrived, plenty of concrete ready to go just need to build the shuttering.
New boiler and building added to Shady Nook Station engine shed
June 2016
Its all go on the railway adding all the little details that make a railway , fences signs signals people ballasting and a new lift out bridge. and the plants have gone mad with all this warm damp weather, keeping on top of the under growth(over Growth) is taking a couple of hours a week. the key is to stay on top of it, plants prefer to be lightly trimmed as appose to being hacked back. it sounds like a lot faffing but its worth it, the line looks really good at the moment.
18th of June summer steam up
A great day plenty on sunshine with a good number of visiting steam engines.
2 nd of July photo of the week on the 16mm association web site
August and September have been spent building new bridges laying more ballast, loads of little jobs that you don't really notice but massively improve the overall detailed effect of the railway.
Ok so winter is almost here the leaves have mostly fallen off the trees and i,m trying to get the railway sorted out ready for the Christmas steam up.the job list seems endless.
2017 loads done on the railway new buildings new sidings more concrete and a bit of an extension along the side of the house plus the normal Christmas steam up and bbq, the railway is defiantly getting there.
Ok its been a while since my last update its now may2018 and fair bit has happened new bridges have been built a new halt has been added as well as a new terminus station. Plus the new 45mm railway is now functional but a little way of finishing
Its now december 2020, covid 19 is still causing chaos and very little has hapened on the railway other than regular running and the odd tweek here
September 2023 Parts of the railway built on wooden posts have started to rot and the decesion was made to remove this section and replace it with concrete blocks.
December 2023 with neary 200 blocks laid the section is almost complete.