The Dovecote Light Railway Project

By Mark Thatcher

Well it’s been three years since my wife and I have played host to the Wisbech Model Railway Club (and what a pleasure it has been), but for nearly four times long I have wanted a proper garden railway. Previous efforts have been a small loop in a postage-stamp-sized garden in Peterborough, and grand designs, planned by the great railway builder, Lionel Pyke. Sadly those plans came to nought, so the best we could do was to lay a temporary layout, firstly on a spare patio, then on the car park, at an old vicarage, where we currently live.

 We’ve sort of done things the wrong way round – Garden Rail Magazine readers will have seen our temporary layout in GRM issue 150. Over the last 12 years I have built over 50 buildings and as many items of rolling stock – yet all they seem to do is to inhabit shelves and look pretty. Coming up to my 47th birthday, and I thought, enough is enough, and it really is time to bite the bullet and create some sort of permanent way.

"we chose NOT to choose!"

The challenge is, it does not need to be that permanent in case we decide to “up sticks” and move on. Indeed there are certain circumstances where a railway in one’s garden is viewed as more of a negative than a sales feature – so we wanted something that could be ripped out and moved on easily. But we also wanted something that looks the part too. In fact, having two acres of land to play with you would think the choices would be easy. Well, with all the options available, faced with too many choices, we chose NOT to choose! One acre was out as the leaves of many trees surrounding us would make a winter clear up just too much hassle. Then there was finding the evening sun as most of our running sessions occur around the time when the sun is over the yardarm and we have a drink in hand.

Then it hit us – we have an unkempt and overgrown pond. Just imagine the reflections, just dream of a railway around it – the die was cast!
Now I know most people may take up to five years to build a permanent way – well we do not have the time, stamina, or patience. Trains have got to be running and running quickly, if the project will continue to hold our attention. As it is the first week of May, we thought a reasonable – if aggressive target, that the line shall be complete for my Birthday party on the 5th of July. Yes, it’s a big ask – so lets just take it week by week and see how we get on. Remember, we have the locos and buildings to plonk on our new railway and we just need the infrastructure to gloop it all together.

Day One

Day One – this was really just clearing the pond, and making room for the railway. I had to establish a datum line – bearing mind we actually want gradients as we mainly run live steam or battery powered radio-controlled locos. This was to be the far side of the pond, where the locos would climb to a summit just past the countryside situation of Tramways station - yet to be added, before meandering gently down to rejoin the main line. We also needed a bridge across the water feature for the pond – made up of three sections of an LGB bridge, which was in stock for 10 years and finally pressedinto service. So with a lot of earth moving about 6 metres of track was laid and by 6pm and we actually ran our very first, and very short engineering service.

Day Two

Day Two – and the extension to the country loop and the addition of Tramways Station, non-conformist chapel and several small plants pinched from various areas of our garden, augmented with slate ground cover really helped to give the impression of a wild habitat for our trains to run through. Of course, one thing you cannot rush is nature, and it will be months if not years to see the line grow into maturity.

 

Day Three

Day Three – now the country line was in danger of intersecting with the main line and a decision had to be made as to what was going to occur there, and to boot, we were around a foot lower at the front of the line. It was clear a good deal of earth in-fill would be required, and having moved around 20 barrow loads of earth to build up the line over the last two days, I was not going to put myself through that agony again!

A friend of ours has a digger and we have a plentiful supply of topsoil, so we needed a quick raised-bed solution, and some form of shuttering to hold the in-fill in. Bricks were discounted as too permanent, too costly and too faffy to lay. The solution was to use sectional logging. This stuff is a bit like log roll, except it is straight, comes in metre lengths, and has two prongs either end, which can be banged securely into the ground. Well it took 48 metres of the stuff to provide the shuttering for the in-fill, which we hope to get filled in next week.

 "...we have a "service" running..."

So, so far, so good, we have a “service” running and it passes a “calling point” and despite being laid on a course of only two bricks, filled over with soil, the track bed seems firm and true. It’s back to proper work next week, but hopefully by the next instalment our friend with the digger will have come and gone and we can once again turn our attention to track laying and also describe our vision of the Dovecote Light Railway in more detail.

To read more click the Week Two link.

CLICK HERE to Read Mark Thatcher's Excellent Review of a Ground Level Signal Box as featured in Garden Rail Magazine.