The Garden - Just Add Track

These photographs were taken on Sunday 24th May 2020 before work on the Wychbold and Stoke Prior Light Railway had begun.

The first photograph shows the part of the garden where the railway will run. The shed in the bottom right was temporarily relocated onto the lawn when the building work was being done. That will be moved to the far right-hand corner before track laying. The hose pipe shows the approximate route that the railway will take on the right-hand side of the garden.

The area that the Wychbold and Stoke Prior Light Railway will cover

I intend to start track-laying on the right hand side of the garden. The railway will run between the lawn and the planted border. This will be double track. The Salt Works Sidings will be located where the line veers away from the border in the foreground of this photo. Stoke Works Station will situated be a little further along the line roughly in front of the ceanothus. As the garden is quite large I aim to use curves of radius 5 or larger.

The right-hand side of the garden

Stoke Prior Station will be sited at the top of the garden on the far side of the summer house. This will end the double track section and will be where the single track branch line starts.
The summer house is not long for this world. It will be demolished when the site is needed for the railway. Behind where the summer house is currently situated will be a woodland area which will provide a backdrop for the line. This will be the steepest gradient on the line.

The top of the garden

The single track branch line will meander down the left-hand side of the garden. Midway will be Wychbold Station. The line to the quarry will be located somewhere along the branch line. The exact location will be determined once we've decided on the planting.

The left-hand side of the garden

Those of you who remember the Sandwell Valley Railway will recall that my garden shed had a station makeover. This is where I'm hoping to site my new shed. The shed will be 16' x 8'. Half will be a shed and half will be a waiting room, and yes, it will look like a station building complete with platform and ramp.

Proposed site of shed

I've now started the laborious process of sorting out all of my track and cleaning it.

Track sorting