Sunny Afternoon In The Garden...
When faced with the prospect of a few free hours on a sunny afternoon I mostly decide to head outside into the garden for a play on the railway...as I did today! With blue skies above I made my way to the shed and began preparing the railway for running (turning on switches, opening trapdoors, shunting etc) and before long all was ready. I then headed back inside before picking a few loco's (from my collection of 35 or so) to haul trains with for the afternoon. I then had to bring my "coach box" to the shed. (This box simply contains a few of my coach rakes stacked on top of eachother for easy storage). As today was a normal "running session" I was utilising the railway to the maximum capacity available without needing to shunt anything between trips. This means using all 3 passing roads in the shed as well as the passing loop at Chilvers Station. I was also using Ashford Spur, Sutherland Yard & the indoor reception siding for storage and shunting now & again...this just makes things a little more interesting! With the use of the passing roads, 4 complete trains can be stored at any one time with 1 of those trains being allowed into the single line section whilst the other 3 wait their turn. With push-pull trains, such as Autotrains (14xx+Autocoach), the reception siding in the shed can also be used for "overlay", as there is no need to run round. 
The above image shows the interior of the shed...as best as possible with my phone camera! The 3 passing roads can be seen clearly. To the right of the image, arriving in No1 Road, can be seen 0-6-2 GWR 56xx No6600 with a clockwise train. An anti-clockwise train is waiting in No2 Road whilst the Black 5 is seen in No3 Road with a mixed-freight train, about to run clockwise around the circuit. At the bottom of the image can be seen Austerity No68075. The 0-6-0 is waiting on the short reception siding which can contain 2 regular bogie coaches if required. In the future, I would like to model a 4-road (at least!) engine shed in the top right hand corner in which to store up to 8 locomotives at once. This will not only make the "fiddle yard" a little more 'scenic' but will also prevent having to store engine's on the above workbench. However, this "fiddle yard" is very effective and can store 4-coach trains with ease. However, longer trains of up to 6-coaches can be stored in No1 Road, whilst still allowing trains to pass in the other 2 roads. (Chilvers Station loop can accomodate trains of up to 5-coaches in length too). 
In all, trains ran from around 2:45pm unil 6:15pm. After tidying most things away, the day's steam locomotives were lined up at Ashford Spur in the evening sunlight. They are, from front to back...45xx No4560, 56xx No6600, 68xx No6862 "Derwent Grange", Black 5 No45156 "Ayrshire Yeomanry", 57xx No5775 and J94 No68075. After the image was taken they were all "put to bed" after another successful running session. It had been another nice afternoon spent pleasantly in the tranquility of the sunlit back garden...playing with a good few trains of course! I hate to think of the amount of movements that there must of been up & down the railway over the last 4 years(!)...we must of clocked up some massive mileage! Oh well, 4 years of good fun and hopefully many more to go! The next garden railway session will probably be next Wednesday...as I always do bits & bobs on the track on Wednesday's! However, the next post will come on Sunday June 28th as I will be crewing the RPMR for the afternoon along with a few other CMES members...lets hope for good weather! Thanks for reading folks! Good evening...
When faced with the prospect of a few free hours on a sunny afternoon I mostly decide to head outside into the garden for a play on the railway...as I did today! With blue skies above I made my way to the shed and began preparing the railway for running (turning on switches, opening trapdoors, shunting etc) and before long all was ready. I then headed back inside before picking a few loco's (from my collection of 35 or so) to haul trains with for the afternoon. I then had to bring my "coach box" to the shed. (This box simply contains a few of my coach rakes stacked on top of eachother for easy storage). As today was a normal "running session" I was utilising the railway to the maximum capacity available without needing to shunt anything between trips. This means using all 3 passing roads in the shed as well as the passing loop at Chilvers Station. I was also using Ashford Spur, Sutherland Yard & the indoor reception siding for storage and shunting now & again...this just makes things a little more interesting! With the use of the passing roads, 4 complete trains can be stored at any one time with 1 of those trains being allowed into the single line section whilst the other 3 wait their turn. With push-pull trains, such as Autotrains (14xx+Autocoach), the reception siding in the shed can also be used for "overlay", as there is no need to run round. 
The above image shows the interior of the shed...as best as possible with my phone camera! The 3 passing roads can be seen clearly. To the right of the image, arriving in No1 Road, can be seen 0-6-2 GWR 56xx No6600 with a clockwise train. An anti-clockwise train is waiting in No2 Road whilst the Black 5 is seen in No3 Road with a mixed-freight train, about to run clockwise around the circuit. At the bottom of the image can be seen Austerity No68075. The 0-6-0 is waiting on the short reception siding which can contain 2 regular bogie coaches if required. In the future, I would like to model a 4-road (at least!) engine shed in the top right hand corner in which to store up to 8 locomotives at once. This will not only make the "fiddle yard" a little more 'scenic' but will also prevent having to store engine's on the above workbench. However, this "fiddle yard" is very effective and can store 4-coach trains with ease. However, longer trains of up to 6-coaches can be stored in No1 Road, whilst still allowing trains to pass in the other 2 roads. (Chilvers Station loop can accomodate trains of up to 5-coaches in length too). 
In all, trains ran from around 2:45pm unil 6:15pm. After tidying most things away, the day's steam locomotives were lined up at Ashford Spur in the evening sunlight. They are, from front to back...45xx No4560, 56xx No6600, 68xx No6862 "Derwent Grange", Black 5 No45156 "Ayrshire Yeomanry", 57xx No5775 and J94 No68075. After the image was taken they were all "put to bed" after another successful running session. It had been another nice afternoon spent pleasantly in the tranquility of the sunlit back garden...playing with a good few trains of course! I hate to think of the amount of movements that there must of been up & down the railway over the last 4 years(!)...we must of clocked up some massive mileage! Oh well, 4 years of good fun and hopefully many more to go! The next garden railway session will probably be next Wednesday...as I always do bits & bobs on the track on Wednesday's! However, the next post will come on Sunday June 28th as I will be crewing the RPMR for the afternoon along with a few other CMES members...lets hope for good weather! Thanks for reading folks! Good evening...
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