Playing trains in church

 

As part of the Bournville Heritage Weekend, Andy Christie had organised a live steam railway in the St Francis of Assisi church, and asked me if I'd help out. It seemed like a nice chance to take a train ride, and have some fun. As a bonus, when I arrived, the Carillon was playing, something I'd not heard before. Although it's a peal of bells, the sound is quite different to that produced by bell ringers. 

The "layout" was a couple of circuits of 45mm gauge track, with connecting crossovers and a bank of sidings. By the time I arrived, everything was set up, we just needed to fuel and fire up locos, and get on with entertaining the public. 

I was a little concerned that no provision was made to protect the Parquet floor, but as this isn't the first time Andy had organised such a display, they were either not worried, or he'd got away with it in the past. As it was, apart from some slightly oily water, which was quickly mopped up once we removed the track at the end of the day, it suffered my ill effects. 

We had three locos, two radio-controlled and one manual, and three of us for most of the time. Pretty quickly, we became slick at servicing a loco, while the other two were running. A certain amount of gas and water topping up took place while running too, so for most of the day, a two-train service operated. 

The public, especially the kids, loved it. The adults always asked if they were real steam engines, and we were happy to explain how they work. Most of the time anyway, while derailments were rare, there were a couple of incidents caused by the track sliding around a bit. We'd stuck some down with tape, but more of this was required later in the day.  

By the end of the six hours we operated, all of us were tired, but the track had to be dismantled, while Andy went off to sort out some of the other bits of the event he had organised. By the time he came back, we'd created piles, ready for him to load in the car and take home. It was fun, but challenging. Next time I'll negotiate a car pass and bring along extra locos, perhaps even something a battery in it to take the pressure off. 

Of course, I'd been tempted by the promise of homemade cake, and the vegan raisin and sparkly topping was every bit as good as it looked. 

 

The golden fishplate

 

With Andy and Louise's BBC Gardener's World Live layout in the current issue of Garden Rail, I should show you this souvenir of the show - the Golden Fishplate. 

Laying all the track for this mammoth project took many days, but by Wednesday afternoon, a few hours before the judges were due to arrive, Andy finally connected up the last bit of the circuit. With a clean fishplate, the golden (OK, brass) one. We all cheered, and then went back to work. 

At the end of the show, we pulled the tracks apart as quickly as possible. There was a lot to dismantle, and while LGB stuff will stand up to abuse, it's probably not going to like having real railway sleepers dropped on it. 

We stripped the layout in an hour, and at this point, I found myself presented with the section fitted with the Golden Fishplate. 

I'm not sure what to do with this next - maybe put it in a frame of some sort as a reminder of a very special event. It's touching that Andy decided to hand it to me. After a couple of days of hard playing trains, it was very welcome!

Llanfair haul

A small pile from the show this year. Most of it comes from the Fairbourne Railway, who were selling Christmas and gift tags that will be perfect for my railway friends in the festive season. Stupidly cheap too, I wasn't going to pass them up. 

They also had a copy of The Narrow Gauge magazine, with an article of Isle of Man trains I've not seen. I didn't buy the other Manx booklet in the box, as I'm sure I have at least two copies already. Best leave it for someone else... 

The big buy was a Plateway Models motorised pump trolley kit. Now, you may remember there was one in the Llangollen stash. So why buy another? 

Simple - I rushed the build and it all went very wrong. Wrong enough for the kit to end up in the bin in frustation.  

But I really want this model, so I'm going to give it another go. With the benefit of hindsight, I hope to produce a working trolley, and series of blog posts this time. 

Llanfair 2026

Wales is lovely, but it's a long way away, and the roads are wiggly. The trip was worth it though, as Llanfair show continues to improve. The atmosphere was great, especially in the gym, where Indian Hill Railways set off the fire alarm with the coal-fired locos. 

I arrived early to drop off the Corris loco with Accucraft after the Garden Rail review. Then, back outside to join the queue to pay to come in, and bask in the sunshine whilst booking another day out on my phone. 

Inside, there were plenty of layouts, with everything working well. The Telford tram shown above really appealed, being meths fired and quite old. There was a matching coach which appeared later .

Trade was really good. As is my usual plan, I chatted a lot, and picked up a couple of items for GR reviews in the future. 

Kes had brought along a selection of locos from here late father's Compton Down Railway, and these always resonate with me. No expensive live steam, lots of make-do and bodge, including one sat on a Hornby 0-4-0 O gauge loco. My favourite was Sampson - live steam, but with stick-on decoration which is wearing/weathering nicely. It's really taken on the look of a working engine that gets a wipe down with an oily rag. 

And there was cake. 

After my early start, I needed a cup of tea, and used it to wash down a bacon butty once I realised they knew how to cook the stuff. No just defrosted meat here!

Lunch was a turkey and cranberry roll, followed by Victoria Sponge. Chosen because a couple of people, knowing my interests, recommended it, and they were right. My only moan was that both the ticket desk and cafe were cash-only, or I'd have brought some Welsh cakes and bonag for later consumption!

The thing about Llanfair, is that it's part of a bigger event, and I really wanted to make the trip to Welshpool for the narrow gauge railway show before it closed at 5pm. It can take half an hour to drive there too, especially if you get stuck behind a steam lorry as I did a couple of years ago...

Held in the shed at Welshpool station, the show is a bit of fun, but there are always a few quality layouts to be seen, and again, good chat to be had. I'll be photographing Andy's VoR layout seen about later in the year, so it was handy to catch up. 

The layout that really caught my eye though, was Little Knittington. 

I'm sure many people will scoff at it as a silly knitted model, but look closely, there is so much detail in here. The time and effort taken to create it must have been immense. As for the imagination, more than your average fine-scale layout I suggest. We need a bit of this at normal shows, if nothing else to appeal to the general public who will probably see it for what it is - fun. 

Anyway, another good show. There are plenty more photos over on Flickr.  

Kenversions coach kit

You know I love a weird, vintage kit. Well, under the table in the The Tram Junction, Laxey, Isle of Man, I found a couple of envelopes, claiming to contain bits for a coach kit. It was too complicated to go through in the shop, but a fiver secured both, so I could enjoy a proper look later. 

What we have (I think) is, a six-seat brake coach kit. 

It's made up of good-quality cardboard sides and ends, various guillotined tinplate parts, and a rolled roof. More an aid to scratchbuilding than a kit, this is one for the modeller. There are lots of bits, and I'm not entirely sure they are all required. 

No chassis parts are included, I have a feeling that a Lime O gauge wagon chassis could be used, but when I get around to this, I'll make my own.  

I've been digging into Kenversions, and found this interesting article (PDF) by Derek Wiggins, covering the range of Mamod bodies the firm sold, with a passing mention of the rolling stock. There is also a catalogue, also in PDF form, which shows the coach I have. Hat tip to HGLW for hosting these. 

Buffer dilema

 

As supplied, the kit comes with a split pin, a bit of wire and a plastic hook. This will produce a realistic Ffestiniog coupling, but one that will be incompatible with everything except Cooper Craft wagon kits. Even then, the things will be a fiddle to use, which is why I prefer a bit of chunky chain. 

Digging in my spares box, I find some rather nice whitemetal buffers. There is a bolt thread on the back, so with a bit of bodgery, there is a strengthener that runs along the reline of the wagon to cut away, this fits into the bufferbeam, nice and strong. Especially with loads of superglue.  

All fitted well, but I didn't like the result. Too large, and more importantly, too complicated. This is a very simple wagon. It wouldn't be fitted with anything so fancy. 

Removing them was a bit of a mission. That superglue had done its job, and eventually, I had to cut down the back of the buffer casting, through the bolt, with a piercing saw. Two blades later, it was done, but hardly a relaxing job. 

The replacement is a block of hardwood (we always keep stocks handy for this sort of job), roughly shaped, and superglued in place. Since I don't trust the glue, despite the effort it took to remove the old buffers, a couple of pieces of brass wire fit through the block, and into the bufferbeam, where they are bent over. 

A hook, made from bent paperclip, is fitted in the top so I can use my chunky chain for coupling. This setup looks, to me, far more in keeping with the wagon. Which means I can move on to paint. 
 

Upper body building

 

The slate wagon body is simple, and ingenious. First, the sides are dropped into holes in the floor. These needed to be drilled out, although I just waggled a tapered reamer in to make them larger. Lashings of MEK softened the plastic so they would push in. 

Then, three slats are inserted into the ends. For the middle two, you ease the upper and lower side slats, and then the new one is grabbed by bumps on the end. Again, the holes in the end slats needed to be opened up - a 3mm bit sorted this out. One in place, loads more MEK to bond everything together.  

All that is left to do, is fit the couplings. Some very accurate ones are supplied, but they won't couple with anything else I own, so time to come up with a plan. 
 

Slotting the wheels in

I like being able to slot parts of a kit together without glue. In this case, the glass-filled nylon solebars and axleboxes can be slid into the floor with a little bit of a wiggle. Handy, as there has been a change to slate wagon kit since it was introduced. 

Original kits were designed to take finescale wheelsets. Now, a set of 16mm Association standard wheels are included, and these are slightly different. 

No problem, the modeller just needs to remove some plastic from the inner solebar. The photo in the instructions isn't that clear, and neither is the view above, but hopefully, this will help. 

I started with a coarse half-round file, and then carved away with a sharp knife. The plastic cuts easily, and I quickly removed the material. Probably too much if I'm honest, but we don't want to risk the wheels rubbing on anything. 

Once done, the solebars and wheels go back in. A quick check to ensure the chassis sits flat on a mirror, and then lashings of Plastic Weld, hold it all in place.  

Binnie slate wagon

 

Here it is. The kit that launched the Binnie empire. Moulded in ABS, and glass-filled nylon, a kit for the Ffestiniog 2-ton slate wagon. 

Reintroducing this kit has involved 40-year-old moulds and many burnt fingers from the manufacturer. As a piece of history, I felt that with my Garden Rail Editor jacket on, I ought to buy one and have a go. Despite being a limited-production kit, my parcel arrived in under a week, so I'm putting the canal boat aside for a couple of days to put the thing together. 

The instructions say "Trimming of flash will be required before assembly" - a legacy of those old moulds. My photo shows the worst bit, the one that would show up on camera best, and indeed, the first job is to clean things up. I don't think this is any worse than kits in the old days. Modern plastic manufacture means we rarely see excess material, but once upon a time, modellers just took it in their stride. 

A sharp scalpel blade and an abrasive stick took care of the worst of it, so I could move on to assembly. 

A chuffing good time with the Merlin

You may remember that at the BBC Gardeners' World show, I had an issue with my Merlin Mayflower. A cab full of flame made the RC wiring a bit crispy. 

My assumption was that this would all need replacing, but out of curiosity, I switched it on during the week, and it worked!

Next stage was a trip to the club track for a proper test. The evening was warm, high 20s rather than last week's 30+. The loco fired up quickly, with all the fire staying in places where the fire should be in a model steam locomotive. 

Pressure took a while to build, and looking in the cab, I could see why. There was a loose bolt on the back of the boiler. Hot water was coming out, and if there is water, there will be steam escaping. 

I nipped it up with a spanner, and all seemed well. The loco trundled off around the track, making five or six circuits before running out of gas, in the steaming area. 

After a few minutes cooling, I regassed and watered, and off we went again. Sweet as anything. 

I lost count of the number of circuits this time. The goods train is at the limit of the model's power, although it would help if I lubricated the axles, and there is some squeaking from under a couple of the wagons. That should reduce the rolling resistance a bit. 

I can't complain though. For the moment, the RC gear stays in place. I might wrap some tape around the receiver, which doesn't have much of a cover now, but for the moment, if it ain't broke, I'm not going to try to fix it! 

 

Saturday Film Club: Bekonscot Model Village, a ride around the full route

I'm not sure why I haven't seen a locomotive point of view trip around Bekonscot's extensive Gauge 1 railway system before, but here we go. 

Steam on the Arrow Valley

 

One of the fun things with the garden railway scene, is being invited to run on other people's lines. I recently had the opportunity to try the Arrow Valley Railway, a 45mm line about half an hour from me. 

My railmotor was first out. Being electric, it's perfect for this sort of thing, and allowed me to the explore the track, which you have to move around to see properly. As you can see, Little Phil and Brian were waiting at the station. 

It's bad form not to bring a steam loco, or at least I think it is, so my Lady Anne came out after its recent run at the club. It promptly embarrassed me by refusing to light up. However, removing the gas jet isn't too hard, even for someone as clumsy as me, and within ten minutes I'd fixed the problem. And yes, I am stupidly proud of myself for doing this. 

On the track, the loco was sprightly. Regulator half open was sufficient for running, even a little fast at times!

 

Melted Merlin

 

There was a casualty of Gardeners' World - My Merlin Mayflower. 

 

Normally, a very reliable locomotive, I fired it up to put on a show while the judges did their thing. It had run well earlier in the day, but now it was backfiring, there was burning happening in the cab, around the area of the burner. I turned the gas out, and tried again. After a couple of goes, all seemed well, and steam was quickly raised. 

 

Off we went, and about 10 feet from the corner the judges were occupying, the loco stopped. I sprinted around to it, and the cab was full of fire again. 

 

Trying not to make a fuss, I turned the gas off, a bit of a toasty job, and whipped the loco back to the yard, where I left it to cool. 

 

Back at home, I can see that the electronics are not in the best shape. The cover has melted off the receiver, and all the servo wires are crispier than is ideal. It looks like some time will need to be spent replacing a lot of this, although there is some life in them, maybe I can save the receiver. 

 

Of course, I'll need to investigate the cause of the backfire too. A chat with my steam loco guru beckons when I'm back home. 

 

While I'm at it, the O-rings in the cylinders have been asking for attention on cold days for a long while. Perhaps a more comprehensive service is called for. 

 

All this will need to be marked down to being part of the "fun" of operating a miniature live steam loco.  

 

Wild flower turf

The area of the Gardeners' World railway that fascinated me more than anything is the planting seen in the photo above. 

It's all created using a product I'd never heard of - wild flower turf.  

Just like normal turf, it arrives rolled, and you simply spread it out on your soil, or even lawn, apparently, but unlike turf, there isn't any grass.  Instead, it's a mass of native wildflowers. 

Our turf instantly provided a nice rural look to one end of the railway. I'm told that we were possibly a couple of weeks early, as later in the season, more of the flowers would be on display, but I like the texture it gave to this end of the line. 

While not cheap, the results are pretty much instant, ideal for show gardens, and probably why Alan Titchmarsh uses it on the telly, I'm told. 

At the end of the weekend, the turf was due to be re-homed with a school, but I begged a couple of small pieces, which have found a home in our garden.

 No idea what will happen, but I'm looking forward to the results. 

BBC Gardeners' World 2026

Well, this is a bit different. When Andy Christie first mentioned that he was putting on a display featuring garden railways at the massive Gardeners' World show, I knew I wanted to be involved. 

The setup process is a bit more protracted than that for most shows. When I built "Layout in a Day" for the NGRS, I get half a day to do the job. Andy and team had a week, pretty much standard for displays at this show it seems. That included moving a lot of railway sleepers to build a fence!

Thanks to various deadlines, my time was limited, but I did manage to get a day in on the Monday. First job, dig out a pair of milk churns that had been inadvertently buried when soil was delivered by the organisers. After that, there was a lot of painting, and more shovelling as we filled up the alpine end of the model, ready for planting. 

An essential meeting in the office meant my next trip was on Wednesday - Press day and also judging. We still had quite a few bits to finish off, but by the time the judges arrived at 4:30, all was ready. 

There had been a bit of train testing during the day, and so just before the judges were due, we fired up a couple of steam engines so they could enjoy the full effect. Andy and Louise talked them through the display, which covers Andy's life on the railway. 

Of course, the trains decided to misbehave. Badly. My Merlin developed a backfire, basically flame in the cab. After a couple of re-lightings, it seemed to be happy, and after raising steam set off around the layout. All went well for a few minutes, until it stopped. A quick look revealed a cab full of flame, so without making a fuss, I turned off the gas, only burning myself a little in the process. 

I then popped the electric railmotor on, which promptly derailed on a straight bit of track. A later examination showed that one of the nuts holding the connecting rod on had come off. 

Finally, The Roundhouse Russel picked the spot right in front of the judges to run over a plant and derail!

Despite all this, later in the day, the railway was rightly awarded a Gold award.  

Another day away, this time at Garden Railway Specialists' open day, and I was back for the weekend. 

I decided against bringing steam, instead providing my IP Engineering railcar to fill the gaps when chuffy locos weren't available. 

There followed two days of operation, on one of the hottest weekends of the year. We kept things running pretty continuously - not easy when you are running steam and have to keep gassing and watering locos. Fortunately, we were joined by someone with a cracking battery-powered LGB Stainz on the Saturday, and Sunday saw Richard with another very reliable Cheddar steamer. 

Trains had to be driven too. Behind the "fiddle yard" was quite a gradient. So steep that by mid-Saturday, the steam engines were struggling despite our best efforts to wipe oil away. Eventually, Andy lightly sanded the rail tops, which solved the problem... 

The public really enjoyed the display. We had to keep explaining that yes, the locos were powered by real steam. So many people had never seen a garden railway, but we worked hard to plant the seed that this would be something to enhance their garden. 

And like that, it was all over. Sunday, we lifted all the plants, most of which were sold off (I have a nice bonsai tree) and removed the track. By the end, Andy and the team were left with the earth, and all those sleepers to deal with over the next couple of days. 

What an amazing time. I'm happy to admit that even if I'd had the gumption to book a place in the show, my design would have been less ambitious and probably not won an award. Sometimes, the envelope has to be pushed to get the results. 

All this was in support of the Greenfingers Charity.  

A fuller write-up will appear in a future issue of Garden Rail, along with some details of the planting from Louise. There is a lot to be learned from all this, to apply on our own lines. 

Photos of the line, and from around the show on Flickr.  

One coupling chain to rule them all

 

LGB couplings, Accucraft choppers, both incompatible with each other. The solution? A length of bath plug chain. 

Small scalers won't be impressed with the lack of fidelity of this setup, but outdoors, we are just happy that it works, and we can get on with running trains. 

I do love a cheap and simple solution.  

An unexpected steam locomotive

 

It must be the tweed jacket. And Garden Rail Editor badge. It fools people into thinking I know something about steam trains. 

This is probably how I found myself presented with a mystery 0-6-0 O gauge locomotive. Its owner believed it had been built in the Midlands, but otherwise knew nothing. He'd bought it for £60 a year ago, replaced the safety valve, and then was stuck. 

It took a look and realised it was meths fired. Fortunately, the owner had brought along spirit and water. He'd build a nifty stand, so we decided to fire it up. 

It's a long while since I lit a meths-fired loco up, and that would have been a Mamod. Since I didn't really know what I was doing, I pretended I did, and had a go. After all, how hard can it be? 

The burner unclipped easily enough, so I filled this up. Then unscrewed the safety valve and topped the boiler up with water. 

I lit the wicks, and clipped the burner back in place. And waited. 

With slip eccentric valve gear, the wheels aren't going to spin on their own. Normally, you give it a shove along the track, but we didn't have any 32mm to hand. So, once the safety valve was burbling, I flicked the wheels with a screwdriver. A few minutes, and many flicks later, the model burst into life, running far smoother than I expected. 

What a lovely little engine!

This didn't help with identification though, but a quick post on the Garden Rail Facebook page solved this quickly enough. Several people recognised it as a Burtons of Walsall Jinty. This one is missing its cab, but all the mechanical parts seem happy enough. 

I hope the owner has learnt a bit, I know I have! 

Bournville open garden 2026

After the loco maintenance, it was time to give them a proper test on Andy and Louise Christie's Olive Branch Tramway. This extensive line in Bournville is opened up every year for the Open Garden festival, which means a group of us running trains, and a lawn full of visitors eating cake and watching us work. 

So, how did the locos work? 

Ragleth - Still a problem. Once it gets hot, the regulator servo stops working. That said, I drove on the reverser, and when working properly, the engine was very smooth and powerful. It's also quite chunky, and caught a few plants on the way around. 

Roundhouse Lady Anne - Aside from needing to clean out the burner twice, the model ran very well. The new battery box in the cab roof did its job, but I'd really like to relocate it to the side tank so the roof fits properly. I could look at replacing the four AA pack with something smaller up there, that would solve the problem too. I had the chance to try out a safety valve cover, and it looks very nice. Another item on the shopping list. 

Merlin - This also needed a gas jet clean, but once fired up, it ran a little too well. A reasonable train on the back is a good idea, especially as there are some tight curves on the line. 

So, not a clean bill of health. I really need to work through each locomotive and try to build a bit more reliability in. That's the trouble with second-hand models, they need fettling, and that takes time and expertise I don't have. 

One change I will be making though - propane/butane gas mix. You are supposed to run these models on pure butane, but since starting that, reliability has fallen off. More blocked jets,  and a feeling that none of the models is quite as powerful as I'd like. The gas tanks are all fine with the extra pressure, so why not go with what works? 

I've put a few more photos up on Flickr.  

Test running the steam locos

 

 

Did all the servicing make a difference? There was only one way to find out. A dryish Thursday evening saw me at the L&WMRS outdoor track with a box full of gas and water. 

First out, the Lady Anne. She fired straight up, was soon in steam, and ran very nicely for a few circuits. No worries there, and the batteries didn't fall out of the cab roof. 

Next, the Merlin. I lit it up with a bit of fuss, and the model was struggling to raise steam. I could hear the burner, but it was very quiet. 

After 10 minutes, I decided all really wasn't well, and wondered if the gas jet was partially blocked. As it happens, access to this is pretty easy. The unit pokes through a hole in the back of the cab, and, with a single banjo bolt undone, lifts the pipe off the unit. This them pulls out, and the jet can be unscrewed from a brass block. 

After squirting some WD-40 through the jet, all seemed to be OK, so I reassembled it, and this time the loco lit straight up, with a good, loud burner.  

After that, the loco ran perfectly. Plenty of steam, and a nice exhaust. 

Finally, Ragleth. 

I hadn't spotted that the loco was set to 32mm gauge, but that was quickly changed. Then I lit it up, and a few minutes later, the servos stopped working. Yes, like an idiot, I'd not charged the receiver batteries!

I packed everything up, and then took Ragleth into the railway club, putting it on charge in the workshop. An hour later, suitably refreshed with some tea, custard creams and plenty of chat, I took advantage of the light evening for another go. 

This time we lit up, the servos operated, and off the loco went. Sadly, the regulator servo stopped working again, but it turns out, you can drive on the reverser alone.  Which is what I did for a few minutes, and the model seemed quite happy. This isn't so odd, the Merlin works the same way. 

So, more work to do with Ragleth, but it's usable for now. The others are spot on. Until something else happens, I'm sure... 

Loco servicing

With a bit of public operation in the offing, it was time to catch up on some loco maintenance with the live steam fleet. 

First, replace the battery box in the cab roof of the Lady Anne. The original had distorted over time, and would drop the batteries out, not ideal in the middle of a run!

I've had a replacement box for nearly a year. The old one is bolted into the roof, using holes in the plastic that are also in the new box. I thought this would be a doddle, but it's a fiddly job since the bolts are only just long enough.You can't get at the screw head on one either as it's under the non-sliding cab shutter. Pushing the nut very hard onto it allowed me to just catch the thread. Bolting a flat box under a curved roof isn't ideal, and so replacing this with a battery pack in a side tank, something I have seen done, appeals. 

Next, I planned to swap out the regulator servo in Ragleth. 

 

I'm a dab hand at removing the body, it's only six bolts after all, and could soon see the recalcitrant item. I had another servo, a posh one with metal gears, but when I plugged this into the receiver, it wouldn't turn. Hmmm. So, the old servo, which works, went back in. I think the problem is that it's being affected by the heat, but we'll have another test. 

Finally, the Merlin Mayflower.  

All I needed to do here was regauge the model. Simple job, slacked off the screws, shove the wheels out, and do them up again. There are even dimples in the axles, I didn't expect those, to set the gauge. 

Next stop, the club track.