The Railway from the Air

Here are a few aerial shots of the railway.

A general view. The building site at the top of the garden is where Stoke Prior Station will be situated. The route of the single track branch line is marked by the slot cut in the lawn. The tunnel will be earthed over and turfed.

The branch line will leave the main line at Stoke Prior Station and will descend on a spiral until it passes under the main line. The first part will be carried on a curved viaduct which can be seen on the left of the photo.

Stoke Works Station is still a temporary structure and eventually the Salt Works Sidings will be populated with suitable buildings.

The house end of the garden. The branch line runs in front of the train viewing area and will disappear behind a flower bed before emerging further up the garden. Once the branch line, spiral and Stoke Prior Station are completed the final stage will be a quarry branch running across the lawn and round a pond.

The Railway's Second Birthday

Today is the second birthday of my garden railway.  🎂

It's reached the toddler stage.

It's still not finished but here's a short video of what has been achieved to date.

The Single Track Branch Line

 I've also been experimenting with the route that the branch line will take from the bottom of the spiral to Brookside Station.

Stoke Prior Station - Experimenting with Track Layout

Stoke Prior Station will occupy an elevated location, about 20cm above ground level.

In order to try out different track layouts I have built a wooden frame. I'm now experimenting with the layout. I need to ensure that Emily plus four coaches will fit in the terminus and there is enough space to allow Emily to run round her train.

Also the branch line station must allow Thomas to run round Annie and Clarabel.

The changing design of Stoke Prior Station

This will be the station at the top of the garden where the double track main line will terminate and the single track branch line will begin.

Here's the first design, done before any track had been laid.

As the undergrowth was cleared and the railway progressed around the garden it soon began apparent that the top left hand corner of the garden fell away quite a bit so I decided that the railway would need to pass over a viaduct - see previous post.

I then decided that possibly the best way to lose height would be to incorporate a spiral and design number two was sketched.

I've now completed the bridge and the next job is to decide on the final station layout. To fit in the spiral with a minimum radius of 3 would necessitate building curved platforms. Although this wouldn't be a problem the curves would be quite severe and quite frankly it would look rubbish, so here is design number three.

I can now have nice straight, and slightly longer, platforms at the terminus and a run round loop for the branch line which I think increases operating potential enormously.

First Trains Over The Viaduct And Bridge

The first trains have passed over the widened bridge and viaduct.

Shuttering in place ready for concreting.

Toby heads for the Salt Works pulling a train of empty trucks and Thomas with his faithful coaches heads for Stoke Prior Station.

Thomas', yet to be constructed, branch line passes under the bridge.