Wrack and Ruin

A mid-life crisis in narrow gauge

A Cunning Plan

This doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere at present - a lack of commitment. Either you’re building a railway in your garden, or you’re merely skulking in the shrubbery, thrusting a track plan behind your back and muttering “Who, me?” when accused. I need a plan.

  1. Buy the track. Really, I can’t realistically go further in any way without this. Review the monthly budget, complete some eBay sales and then place the order.
  2. Lay track around the two outer edges of the lawn, including the curve. This will give an end-to-end run of approximately twenty feet, which isn’t very interesting but is a clear indication that this project is happening. It will also prove (or not) my chosen tracklaying method.
  3. Buy some sort of vehicle, even if it’s only a secondhand wagon from eBay. Then I can test the track and at least see which way it falls. (Come to think of it, I already have a secondhand O gauge wagon, even if it is in bright yellow plastic.)

I’ve got a week off at the end of October, an ideal chance to really break the back of this (or at least someone’s back). Note that the eldest JRA is on half-term hols too so it’s not exactly “free time”, but there ought to be an opportunity to work outside at some point. If I then get no further until next spring, at least I can spend the winter indoors building wagon and station kits, knowing there will be somewhere to put them.

The salvage operation on eBay is going particularly well, already showing a profit over eighty pounds which will go a decent way towards track costs. Most of what’s left to sell is odds and sods, but I think we’ll make the ton.

Onward! And upward! (Literally.)