Ok, I was going to move straight onto the missing turnout but I think a little history lesson of how the garden railway begun is needed. This is not my first attempt at building one but actually the third. Each one has been built at different rented properties and they have all differed in terms of design factor and construction.
The first (sorry no photos) was literally just laid on the ground, no fixings and a little garden redesign to make it all fit. The second was more of a serious undertaking due to the lay of the land and severe neglect over the years. It was a folded loop on an area that needed serious re construction and although far from ever being finished, trains did run on it. A move to Portugal saw the end of this one.
Railway number 2 with the track laid roughly where it would go.
What I meant by serious reconstruction. Apart from the concrete and cement, everything used was either scrounged or found buried in the ground.
This viaduct was to be the centre piece, a river would have run beneath it, onto a waterfall and into the pond below. Shortly after this picture was taken, the railway was dismantled.
How It All Began
When my children were of a less adult age and through a rather tragic event, I ended up in America and needed something to take the children's minds of the subject when I got back. I found a cheap G Scale remote control train set and brought it back with me, they loved it. Now any parent will tell you, if you ask a child not to do something, they will. In this case it was don't break the track, it's plastic and cant be replaced and so they did.
At the time, I was engaged in European truck driving and regularly ran overnight to the late Marks & Spencer store in Koln, Germany. Here I found the ultimate model and toyshop called Feldhaus. I quote "ultimate" for good reason, every floor was dedicated to a particular subject, starting in the basement with pre school toys and onward and upward until the mind explodes. I discovered LGB here and that the track was of the same dimension's as the now defunct plastic stuff.
Upon my return to the UK, I started to look at the price of track and was taken aback to say the least! Next trip out I crossed referenced the prices and realised I could buy it at half the price in Germany, so I did. I replaced all the plastic track and having placed it outdoors, it grew rapidly. The remote control train was replaced by an LGB Cargo Set and an early LCE (LGB's version of a German ICE) set.
Sadly The demise of M&S in Europe saw the end to further cheap track expansion but the stone was set and LGB track had become the norm. So did I learn anything from the previous two railways? Yes I did but sadly for this idiot and the current railway, virtually none of it applies! Here endeth the history lesson.
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