© 2006 Withy Grove Junction
Webmaster - Ian Sharples
Robert, my son, has always been a fan of trains, being weaned on videos of "Thomas The Tank Engine". His great grandfather also built 5" gauge live steam engines. I took him to a model railway exhibition at the Leyland Model Club, where there was a layout by the G-Whizz G Scale Club. He was enthralled by it, (so was I!). I promised him that one day, when I had some spare money I'd buy him a G Scale train.
So it being Christmas and all, and also just having changed jobs I found that "What the hell, I'll keep my promise". I went out and bought him the LGB (Lehmann Gross Bahn (Lehmann's Big Train)) starter kit, which consists of a steam loco, a working crane and a flatbed gondola with a truck on top, a 4' diameter circle of track, a 1 Amp, 230 volt transformer / speed controller and a couple of "workmen figures"
The engine has 3 working lights (forward, reverse and cab light), a smoke generator and has an electronic sound module.
A train going round in circles gets a bit boring for a 7 year old and as it's his birthday in January, the ideal presents would be a couple of straights and a set of points. It's at this time I suddenly start finding out what an expensive "hobby" this is! £15 for a 4' straight, £25 for a set of points (electric points sir? No there £35) Hmm...........
Oh well, Grandma's and Granddad's start buying the odd piece of track and it soon mounts up.
Now this is where it gets dicey. The wife starts to complain about having the track laid round the house, kids never tidy up etc, so it's time to broach the subject of "Well we could put the track in the garden?"
So you start measuring and seeing what will go where and how much garden do you "lose" by putting in the railway answer all the questions like "How long will it take?", "How much is going to cost?" "Where will you put my clematis?" etc, etc, etc.
Our garden is about 60' long by about 20' wide. It's not a BIG garden, but it's big compared to the suburban plots that are being built today. There was a "quick" way to claim some space back without losing too much of the lawn. If you look at the picture below you'll see that there are 3 leylandii trees at the bottom of the garden. If they were to be removed this would free up about 96 sq feet of ground. Oh and the retaining wall in front of the trees would have to come down as well.
