The Heatherburn Garden Railway (00)

[Metadyneman]

Quite a lot of the Beeching closed lines remained intact with track down several months after closure. They weren't all ripped up straight away.

[billa.1268]

Yes, I know; it was a 'throwaway' remark.
Bill.

[thomas the plank engine]

No it's not! There's still track on the trackbed!

Only just as the 'greens' haven't got there yet to build a cycle path

Dave, As always a pleasure to see that Heatherburn lives on.

Ian

[tuxychuff]

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x216/87101/Westcoast/Image2642.jpg

Ha! a tree growing through the platform! (who said nature didn't scale!)

[87 101]

With the fine weather we are currently having I have managed to spend some time tidying up the back garden. Some progress piccys..
Leaves on the line



After a clear up



The new access being put in at the back of the layout

[sheep21]

looking good, keep it going.

[Infrontcat]

Hi mate

Great to see Heatherburn is back on the road to progression! Fantastic!

Love the blue liveried 305 (Or whatever class it is, lol!)

Cheers fella

Tim

[ghosttrain]

That is one lovely project mate . Wish I lived close enough to see it . Always wanted a garden railway
Keep up the good work buddy

[87 101]

Yesterday I was at a crossroads with my railway modelling as the Heatherburn had dissapeared under 3 foot high weeds again and the N gauge empire realy needs scrapping and starting again. After spending yesterday afternoon mulling things over I have come up with a plan that will hopefully give me what im looking for. I had considered ripping out the contents of the garage and building a new indoor layout but the lack of money and the fact that most of the track including some expensive pointwork is embedded in balast has killed that idea. I also considered building a new exhibition layout and then selling AC lines with the idea that the new layout could be used at home in the garage. I have even thought about scrapping just the N gauge layout and building an N gauge exhibition layout of Kidsgrove as the 17 feet of the garage is double the size of the shed that I built my last Kidsgrove layout in. Anyway back to the plan after sitting down and chatting to Rachel last night I have decided to stick with what I have and just deal with the main problem mainly the junk in the garage so today will be a big chuck out session. As the Albert dock branch was lifted a few months back to provide track for Trent valley this area of the garage will now be the main rebuild. The dock area was accessed via an incline from the main layout that ran round the wall of the garage. What im going to do is scrap the old cut down set of drawers that the dock sat on and build a new baseboard lower down. This I will use as storage sidings for the layout although I need to replace a curved point at the junction as the current one is bust. The idea with the storage sidings is so I can run the push pull trains out of the terminus and up to the storage yard thus allowing me to opperate the Heatherburn when the weather outside is bad. I will also be looking at rebuilding Parkway station (Birmingham international) with a revised track plan so that I can run trains out and back from St Davids as this outdoor section is under cover. This will involve installing a set of crossovers at one end so that all three platforms can be accessed by the main line trains. Im also thinking of building a shuttle unit to control the branch trains between the two stations. This can then be switched in or out as required allowing trains to run to Woodham and the rebuilt Cobblers Hall station once the bridge over the pond has been replaced. Well the suns just come out so time to take the garage door off and get started........

[thomas the plank engine]

Of course we want pictures as well David.

Ian

[87 101]

Been a long time since I last saw the floor



This is Heatherburn works







The lights still work















This was my first building about time I finished it !!









About time these were finished too









One day I will build that traveling crane between those walls







Arh well back to mucking out .....

[Metadyneman]

That's a massive ambitious task you've set yourself it's looking good so far..... good luck!

[thomas the plank engine]

Would sack the builder doing that Dorma conversion, 2 years down the line (pun intendeed) and still not finished it. Might contact Dominic Littlewood who is the frontman for the programme New Cowboy Builders.

Ian

[87 101]

As long as you dont mention that I work part time as a handyman at Asda !!

[thomas the plank engine]

HASDAman....................