More track side tales.

Friday (2nd November) - a nice sunny morning so time to take advantage of the weather and attempt a ‘steam up’ in the ‘workshop’ before taking ‘Phyllis’ out for a run on a short length of track I had set up on the patio. It has to be short on account of the length of the patio and the limited track I currently have available!

After pre flashing up checks it was time to fuel up, ignite the burner and wait for steam pressure. Using warm water in the boiler assists in reducing the time and also the gas consumption.

Having raised ‘her’ up on blocks I was able to test and perfect (really!) my skill level on the radio controller without the loco making a mad dash for the workshop door!!

On the starting blocks!

So, first part of the plan complete. Next (for the more safety conscious of you) - complete my risk assessment for the first ‘live’ run on my Phase 1 garden track - then move outside.

By now an audience had gathered. Actually I had to drag Sheila from ‘The Shed’ and a neighbour off the street as he tried to sneak past the front of the property!

The inaugural run of ‘Phyllis’ on the first section (and only section) of the current ‘Barrack Lantern Line’ was a steaming success and loud applause could be heard reverberating around the neighbourhood - well almost. Also no damage was sustained by the porcelain terrapin which was acting as temporary buffers! So it was all back to the ‘buffet car’ for a well deserved cup of coffee.

Capitalising on the success so far it was decided that ‘we’ would open the other two boxes of track, move up a level to the gravel patio, and attempt to construct Phase 2 - a full loop. In doing this we would exhaust all our current track stock which consists of two boxes of radials and 4 x 1m straight lengths of Flexi Track. enough to give an extended 36” circle (or so I thought).

To cut a long story short - we didn’t have quite enough track to complete the circuit, but we do have now, more on that later. Incidentally as I was not securing the track down each section has to be wired together to stop them separating when the the loco goes over. This is until I lay my ‘permanant way’. The proof of the pudding etc etc…. more on that later also!.

Saturday 3rd November and after dropping Sheila off in Totnes so she could buy more wools and similar for Shed projects I popped over to Paignton to view some redundant track bed that I had very kindly been offered. (Thanks to Reg & Joe). Looked good so another trip next week, this time in the van, to collect aforementioned track bed and supports. From Paignton it was back to Buckfastleigh and the garden railway group where several members were already running a variety of trains.

It is good sometimes just to stand back and observe, listen and learn (something that does not come naturally to moi’ some have said) and so far the learning curve has been quite rapid. Once again thank you to all those members who share advice and information.

The club has several carriages which members can use behind their locos so today was my, sorry Phyllis’s  first day pulling rolling stock (technical term that). However I do need to practice my fuelling techniques as I kept running out of gas and/or water and subsequently grinding to a slow halt, normally at the furthest most part of the circuit. This entails pushing the train back to the ‘approved area’ for fuelling etc.

'This way?... 

..or this?

A good afternoon however until the weather started to impact on everybody’s enjoyment and ‘rain stopped play’. So it was back to Totnes to collect the ‘wool lady’ then home for tea and crumpets! We know how to make the most of retirement!!

Sunday and a very wet day today. Shame because the rest of the rails turned up yesterday that will allow me to complete my garden loop, albeit temporary, but rain stopped play outside today.

Not to be defeated it was back to the workshop (conservatory actually) and my cutting board, with copious amounts of advice from the Director of  Miniature Memories I set forth to build my first rolling stock from kit. Well actually my first anything on this scale since my Airfix days as an impatient young lad, yes, I can remember that far back.

So far so good but I have yet to reach the really important fixtures - the wheels! Perhaps next week.