Wrack and Ruin

Hint, hint

Dear wife,

In lieu of a comfy armchair that we haven't got room for and he'd never get chance to sit in, this Plate Frame Simplex would, I'm sure, be much appreciated by someone coming to terms with turning forty. And if there was any money left in the budget, a proper coach (or even better, this one in green/red) would be great too. (Both in 32mm gauge.)

Love,
Me

Ho Ho Ho!

If you're interested in garden railways, and you've been a good boy or girl all year (or at least, haven't done anything too terrible), you'll doubtless have lots of worthy suggestions for Father Xmas. Here are some of mine. (Hint hint, dear. Yes, I'm going to the Next website imminently.)

• Enjuns! A Roundhouse Millie, please! ...Oh. Oh, you weren't going to spend that much, huh? "The price of a Terry's Chocolate Orange"? Ok...
• Wagons and coaches! IP Engineering have the practical and low cost Ezee range of course, like the cute little guards van. For more squids, the prototype FR quarryman's carriage looks lovely. Or perhaps just a plain flat bed, which would be a good coupling for a Rapier diesel. But Coopercraft have the FR slate wagon, of which any number could be appropriate.
• Buildings! I admired James's Lineside Delights small halt, but even this modest shelter is a bit too formal for what I have in mind. However, the LD032 Corrugated Iron Hut Kit would make an ideal Nantmor-type halt.
• Garden Rail magazine is "not available in the shops", but a subscription is about £46 a year. It's a bit thin, but all colour, all glossy and lots of nice pictures. (If you're prepared to read online and print out only the best bits, a digital subscription costs half that.) However, given that the contents don't tend to date much, you might be just as satisfied by keeping an eye out for bundles of back issues on eBay.
• James I. C. Boyd's two volume study of the Festiniog Railway can be picked up for about £28 together on Abebooks or possibly less separately. Can be a bit of a dry read (ah, if only all railway authors were Wintons or Hollingsworths), but a great reference and a pleasant browse through the long winter nights. There's also his On the Welsh Narrow Gauge, which I haven't seen but given that it's published by Bradford Barton, it's probably quite enjoyable.
• Cyril J. Freezer wrote the definitive Garden Railway Manual, still available new on Amazon.
• There are some nice garden railway DVDs available (if you have time to watch them!).
• The Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers offer a useful handbook, a quarterly magazine (16mm Today) and contact with other members and railways throughout the country for an annual membership fee of about £20.
• Not going to dirty your hands and your image by perusing all this "train stuff"? How about a nice plant instead? Rooted cuttings of Soleirolia Soleirolii, also known by its common name of "Mind your own business" (no, that is its name - but you can mind it anyway) or Baby's Tears, can be bought online for a few pounds from gardening retailers or eBay. And it makes lovely, vigorous ground cover for overgrown rail lines.
• Still stuck? There are always little people.

Strolling rock pt. 1

Motive power

A larvely weekend - incredible to be sitting out in the garden in mid-October, something we weren't able to do for the whole of August. Of course, I couldn't do much else in the absence of track to lay (now at least ordered, from PPS). I guess it might as well be carved in stone that the last week of October will be wet, windy and wild by comparison.

Never mind, let's talk about engines.

There are two main methods of propulsion under consideration: battery power and live steam. (I'm discounting two-rail electrics, which would combine all the hassle of an indoor layout with the vagarious thrill of running power outdoors. I've also discounted clockwork, thanks Richard, as I've long since lost the clockwork engine of my infanthood.) Taking them in reverse order:

Live steam locomotives cost anything from around £150 for the basic "Mamod" (now MSS) to several thousands of pounds for the ultimate in radio-controlled, goes-like-Mallard, this-thing-costs-more-than-a-full-size-car in loco parentis (trans.: get your dad to buy one and inherit it). The Mamods get a bad press for being fiddly and messy, and for only having two speeds: uncontrollably fast or broken (the latter often swiftly following the former). You can spend a lot tweaking and customising a Mamod - almost enough for a decent new engine.

Moving up a notch, decent budget locos start at around £300; the PPS "Janet" for example. (This is a development of "Jane", one of the first budget steamers, which was brought out by IP Engineering and favourably reviewed by Tag Gorton in Railway Modeller almost a decade ago. The review made a strong impression on me, so I am therefore happy to blame all this on Tag.) In four colours with a range of optional extras, £390 all in - job's a good 'un.

Also at the budget end, there's the Accucraft "Edrig" and, at the upper bracket, the Roundhouse "Millie" (gah, it's that horribly persuasive Tag Gorton again - flee, while your wallet and sanity are still intact!). Both also very nice; I suspect the Roundhouse has the edge in terms of brand reputation and quality, but I've seen good reviews of all these locos. However, this is for later.

To get something moving at minimal expense and effort, and keep the navvies entertained while they toil, a small battery-powered diesel outline shunter would be the ticket. You can still find the old Tri-ang/Novo "Big Big Train" toy engines on eBay, in their original brightly-coloured plastic. But they are roughly to scale, fit the track and can be repainted and detailed to look like something less toy-like. I hesitate, because I recently bought something similar from eBay (for er...the JRAs) and it was barely able to haul itself around curves, let alone the train of wagons and coaches supplied; I suspect either the motor or the plastic gears are worn from age. Also, now everyone has cottoned on, the Tri-angs seem to go for almost the same price as something new.

The latter option seems safer for a first time buy. IP Engineering have a basic but appealing kit for a shunter in their Ezee range. Alternatively, they have their Lollypop range for the kids (that'll be all of us then), featuring working headlights! But it looks a little too odd to me eyes, bearing a slightly gormless expression like a VW Beetle. If you really want to please the kids then Shelley the steam tram, who for copyright purposes doesn't at all look like a character from Thomas The Whinging Scouser(tm), is ideal. But perhaps a little over budget for what I need here.

Next time, wagons and coaches, oh my!