The Garden Railway

 My first 'proper' model railway. Prior to this my last layout had been dismantled some time around 2007, the usual large piece of board (Probably somewhere in the region of 5x4ft) with a classic OO circle of track and several sidings and a few odd buildings positioned about the place. It was fun, there's no denying that, but I'd decided quite early on that when I found the time to take up modelling again I was going to try a fully scenic layout.

Fast forward to 2020, and I'm sure I don't need to explain why I suddenly found myself with time on my hands. Many things had changed, I'd started accumulating some OO9 after being introduced to the scale by my dad, and I'd also discovered the fantastic Small Layout Scrapbook by the late Carl Arendt, cementing the idea that a new layout needn't take up a vast amount or increasingly valuable room space, and that I should also probably base a new layout on the tried and tested 'inglenook' method.

The only problem was a theme, I just couldn't think of one that would appeal to me.

Then one day whilst browsing through the Micro Layouts Facebook group I came across Adrian Full's 'Garden Railway' layout. Incredibly simple: OO gauge, 16x6", modelled to look like a typical UK back garden in the suburbs, with a Wickham Trolley running up and down the lawn on a single piece of track in the style of a BBC News article published at the time.

Measuring out the dimensions on a piece of 3mm ply, I found that if using the small Minitrains style wagons a OO9 inglenook could fit in the same space. Just!

Testing the track after laying, at the time I only had three of the Minitrains wagons...

Fast Forward to 2022, when an entire linesworth of wagons arrived via the 009 Society!

Due to the circumstances surrounding the time the layout was built, it had to be constructed from items and kits that were to hand. Luckily I had a wills Garden Accessories kit in the stash to provide many of the stereotypical structures, a Wills Domestic Garage found employment in a slightly kit-bashed way as an engine shed, whilst the main house and garden walls were a cut down Low Relief Terrace House Back kit from Scalescenes.

A rooftop view of the garden. The influence of Sir Arthur Heywood's railways shows.

A view looking back towards the house end.

They say a layout is never finished, and this is certainly no exception. You'll notice there's a distinct lack of figures, and the paper and card garden walls need replacing as the colours started to run during the scenic stage. Even in this unfinshed state though, it's still very enjoyable to take a laid back half hour shunting a few wagons into place. The layout also has another unexpected use, it spends quite a bit of time as an unintentional 'photo plank' for any new rolling stock!

Lastly, 'The Garden Railway' will always be important to me as it's where I gained my first experience at having a model railway article published. The layout appeared in Issue 5 of the Micro Model Railway Dispatch - An excellent read for those wanting more influence and ideas for tiny model railways!