Hello

Hello everybody, just thought I'd say 'Hello' as I have just registered

Hi steve and welcome. Please tell us a bit more about your layout and yourself. WE are all nosey here!!

Mikey

Hello again, as requested by Mikey.... A bit of info about my Model Railway activities.. some will no doubt Know me from other Forums!!

My first garden Railway was in 4mm/ft scale 00 it was built on wooden trestles ran from a shed down one side of the garden it worked well and allowed me to run longish trains with ease,

I built my first real Garden line back in '76, when LGB started to become more easily available in the UK, First loco was a U class + 3 4 wheel coaches, followed by a 2017D ( US style 0-4-0 tender loco which was immediately un americanised!!) then a Schoema 4w diesel and a Stainz, then a 2095 B0-B0 and a 2040 Crocodile,, this takes us to the early 80s when I bought the first 2085D Mallet to be sold in Manchester!!

2 or 3 house moves over the years resulted in quite a few lines being built and I have also 'tried' other garden railway scales such as 0 gauge FS & 16mm.

At the present time I am doing yet another line rebuild, and I have to admit that I buy and sell my stock too frequently, chopping & changing between different sectors of G scale. I recently bought a Live steam loco again my first for many years and there is a Roundhouse CricciethCastle R/C diesel on order! And a US LGB Streeetcar with sound turned up as well recently.

One thing which some may find strnage is the fact that after many years of using DCC I recently sold all my Massoth R/C equipment!!!! Dont get me wrong I think digital is great but feel I want a more simpler less involved approach to control. ( I do have another far less expensive DCC system as a stand by if I need one though!)

I will update as time progresses

thanks for that Steve, it's great to know theres yet another person on here whose brains i can pick !!(so much to learn!!)

mikey

mikeyh wrote:

thanks for that Steve, it's great to know theres yet another person on here whose brains i can pick !!(so much to learn!!)

mikey

Any time I can help, no problem,
Steve

Hi Steve welcome to the group, small but beautifully formed. That refers to the Group not you.

Prompted by young Steve’s address above, I’m also a newcomer here but have a far less experience in ‘G’. For 20 years or so I modelled ‘0’gauge Finescale and could probably have told you which detail part related to what wagon for any given period. Three years ago, I met an LGB collector who was selling part of his collection and was completely taken with the Mallet and brown & cream Pullmans. So I decided to ‘lighten up’, sold everything 7mm (a substantial quantity), and started to enjoy my trains!

I now have, running with Massoth DCC:
Two ‘Caledonia’s with the excellent Accucraft W&L wagons and some coach kits,
Mallet & 0-8-0 with nine Pullmans,
and – thanks to one of Steve’s umpteen changes-of-direction – a Shay with a rapidly growing line of Bachmann Spectrum wagons.

There is, however, a slight hitch to running my garden railway; I have no garden.

My trains have sole possession of the 4x5 metre attic room (called ‘the nursery’ by the rest of the family...) where some R2 curves allow a circuit. We foresee a move upon my wife’s retirement (she is the breadwinner) and I have a hidden stock of track in the hope of a reasonable garden.
Philip

hi Philip. That is really interesting. I sometimes wish that i had settled for an indoor layout then i could have carried on working through the winter. then i think of the 40 degree plus summers we get so perhaps the garden is ok after all!

got any pics? (I'm more used to saying that on other kinds of forum!!)

Mikey

When/if I do achieve a garden railway, there will also be a shed - preferably garage - for those cold & wet days!
Meanwhile, embryo station:


Now the tricky part - the stairwell. Lost two coaches off here, it is now a sturdy 'girder bridge':


New locos have to be thoroughly checked out...


(Got there eventually!)

Don't forget you chaps in the UK (or anywhere) and especially those without garden running facilities.
There is an open day at Geoff Watkins in Deux Sevres in July. See events section.

It is possible to very nearly get there by train. A new 3 hour TER/TGV service to Paris via Tours which goes to Bressuire about 10kms away.

The doors are always open here chez moi if anyone wants to visit with or without trains.
I am 20kms easy access from Paris, CDG airport and main motorways.
House is a mess but can put up a small faimily.

Philip, if you're having trouble with photos let me know. It's not the same as GSM.

Its funny how animals seem to like Shays, As Philip noted that Shay onece belomged to me and while I had it I noticed that our dogs, would always pay it some attention when it ran, totally ignoring anything else!

Two more chaps whose posts I have enjoyed reading in the past.
Welcome from me too!

As a prior owner of one of the nine pullmans, and someone who also started LGB in 1976 - Greetings !

Hi and welcome to all those going CONTINENTAL !

Sante Brian

dtsteam wrote:

As a prior owner of one of the nine pullmans, and someone who also started LGB in 1976 - Greetings !

Hey thats a Coicidence I bought my first LGB mid 70's A U Class 3 coaches an oval of track & 2 points cost me around £160, NEW no discounts then!
Bought from Beatties in Manchester!

Interest in the Blackpool area kicked of about the same time, with the estate sale of a collector. It ended up being shared out between 4 or 5 people. I was a student at the time, and was overjoyed to get a Stainz for thirty quid in 1976. ( I've still got it - but its a bit faggy and needs a rebuild ! ).

Apart from cost, the biggest problem seemed to be supply. Beatties was a bit of a mixed bag, get it while you can. I remember the Magnus(?) models you mentioned elsewhere, as they would eventually find their way to Blackpool.

Although I've always had G scale since then, I threw my lot in with the local model tram crowd for many years, and lost touch with what LGB was doing. When I 'left' in the mid eighties it was still elephant proof track and running in all weathers. 20 years later, its circuit boards blowing up in the wet, peculiar DCC, and no one stands on the track !

I'm still a fan - I always will be.