Proof of the pudding

Last weekend, Peter came down and we made good progress on the pillars needed to support the next section of track: My previous post showed the first pillar (20cm wide). This shows the next one (10cm wide) and then the last two (10cm and 20cm wide respectively. Between them are two clamps attached to the…

“Please be advised that due to major engineering works, no trains will be running for the foreseeable future” What!! Well, its not strictly true: trains can still run in the undergarage. But no trains can run outside, because the reversing loop has been detached: This is because the next phase of the Auerbach and District…

It’s over four months since that momentous day that track was first laid into the garden itself, being the reversing loop attached to a spur coming out of the undergarage window. After much planning, I am now ready to extend further into the garden. Here you see the plan of what is intended for the…

Since the Open Afternoon, I have been progressing on a couple of details of the layout which I hope will add to the realism when looking at and operating it. The first is ballast. I have never ballasted a model railway before, except for sometimes using precut foam plastic inlays with my OO-gauge layout. But…

Thankyou to all of you who came to the open afternoon and made it such a great success. Special thanks to Peter, who helped enormously with the setting up and operating, and to Lesley for the delicious cake. Firstly, I had to make sure that everyone could find their way to the trains: Then I…

There has been a great response to my open day invitation, with more than 20 people planning to attend next Saturday afternoon, 30th August. If you are planning to come and didn’t yet let me know, please email anmeld.williams@gmx.de. There has been some progress on platform building; a second platform has been constructed, but neither…

A model railway isn’t just about the track and the trains, it also includes the surrounding infrastructure, and everything that sets the scene. So I decided one of the things I needed to add such atmosphere would be a platform at the indoor station. I started by taking some of my 18mm thick OSB offcuts…

If you are in the Darmstadt/Bensheim area and would like to see my trains running ‘in real’ then you would be very welcome to the first (hopefully not last) annual Auerbach & District Light Railway Open Day. There is not so much to see in the garden itself, since the extent of track laid has…

One thing that Peter and I did on his last visit was cut the rails at either end of the bridge, so that it could be lifted off: This is so that the bridge can removed, in case I get fed up crouching down to get under it all the time. Here you can see…

As avid readers will know, the railway comes out of the undergarage at a height of 53cm above ground level. The aim is to descend to ground level for at least part of the layout, so trains will have to go down hill once they emerge into the garden. But what goes down must come…