General Discussion (Garden Railways)

To our UK friends: Why have you been keeping this magnificent layout a secret?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMsJ_P6d-zg

I would love to hear a bit more about his layout than is written on the YouTube page. It is a joyous 8 ¾ minute ride in the cab.

Thanks for posting the link, it brought back very fond memories for me.  The little boys jumping up and down with excitement, well that was me 40 odd years ago.  I grew up not too far from Beaconsfield, the town it is in, and went there many times.  I can't really tell you anything about it, other than it is a little boys paradise!  If you are ever in the UK it is well worth a visit.

ttrigg:

To our UK friends: Why have you been keeping this magnificent layout a secret?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMsJ_P6d-zg

Wow! I’m speechless. Rob

What a ride!  This is truely amazing.  The upkeep must keep many people employed or is it run by volunteers?  The detail is fantastic and the plants - wow.  I'm going to have to go to the website to learn more.  My chief of staff now wants me to use my RC inflight video system on the front of my loco hooked up to both the virtual image glasses and the big screen TV. 

Rex

It is a business with employees, though it would not surprise me if they have some volunteer help as well.

Hi chaps

 I'm from Bekonscot and happy to answer any questions you have about our railway. It's been going quite a while now; over 80 years. It's still very popular.

If you'd like a potted history and some more about the construction or stock that we have, we've been putting together a better website for enthusiasts (like us!)

 Have a dig around here:

http://www.bekonscot.co.uk/models-and-attractions/model-railway/

 And you'll find archive video, photos, diagrams etc of what we think is one of the world's oldest surviving garden railways.

Enjoy!

 

Tim

PS. I'm a volunteer and look after the website: but there are around 12 full time staff who maintain the railway, 7.25" gauge line, buildings, landscape etc; work in administration or man the cafe, shop and ticket office. Then there are a couple of dozen of part-time paid and volunteer seasonal staff who help out on those tasks too. And of course, all our profits go to charity (about £5 million at today's rates in total since 1929.)

Tim,

The enhanced web site is great, thanks for posting the link.  Since I still have family in the Maidenhead area, it is not too far to come to Bekonscot when we are visiting the UK.  A couple of years ago I took my 2 boys, then 10 and 8 and they enjoyed it every bit as much as I did when I was their age.  You and the staff have done an amazing job of keeping the place looking good over the years. 

Great stuff; hope you can pop in again next year!

 

Incidentally, we've got a Facebook Fan page for those of you who want to keep updated with what we do behind the scenes and over the winter:

http://www.facebook.com/bekonscot

Bestest

 

Tim

 Its a beautiful layout, Tom. I have seen many pics of it posted over on the former GscaleMad site.

Wouldn't be great if we could have more of that over in the states? I was contacted awhile ago by a botanical garden in the mid-West to possibly consult with them about a new huge permanent garden railway but never hear back from them    .

-Brian 

Brian, the closest thing that I’ve been to is my LHS. O.K. it’s a large nursery, Walter Anderson http://www.walterandersen.com/ .  Around their layout, they have miniature/dwarf trees and ground cover appropriate for LS layouts.  They also allow customers to run their own trains on the layout, by appointment.  I have a vid on YouTube (001pudder), titled WAN.

That's hellified. I gotta question though. When they say "ten scale miles", does that mean ONE loop all the way around, or are they talking about the entire measured track work? I mean....it seems on that layout, there's a LOT or reduntant trackage. ...if that makes sense.

GDS: Total track "in the dirt" is ~1,400 ft, encompassing 4 "mainlines". The longest loop, the Red Line, is 292 ft. Fit that into your "scale calculator" to find the scale miles. There are some redundancies, where they designed the layout so that a "visiting engineer" could film multiple passes of his equipment (on different "levels") from a single "photographic location." Red Line is a convoluted dog bone (?). Brown Line is a simple and small oval around the original layout. Green Line is a "folded" dog bone. Blue Line is (how to describe this?) A high country logging line? The Yellow Line is a dual track mainline, passing through the "yards" with connections to everything else. I don’t know If you’ve seen my little video, if not try here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbUZLLdQ8Co

　

Right. I knew there were reasons for the redundancies.....hell, even real railroads have that, but I was unclear on how they measured the trackage. You polished it up for me! Thanks, Tom.

In response to "10 miles" of our UK railway, it's measured as 10 miles at 1:32 scale, the railway scale. The surrounding buildings go from 1:18 to 1:12 (with the exception of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, somewhat oddly) which the trains run over on the single track branch line. Such was the whim of the designer in the 1940s! The 10 miles of scale tracks we use comprise a double track mainline, plus a complex Y with a single-track branch, passing loops and return loop. There are a number of loops and sidings as well. Every piece of through-running track has at least one train routed over it ever 20 mins or so. The busier stretches get one train every couple of minutes. They are all pre-programmed and identified with radio beacons to a central computer. They are set on certain routes with defined stopping points, pauses at different stations, routes through loops, branches, reverse-shunting into goods sidings, overtaking other trains, etc. They are re-routed intelligently to avoid build ups at busy junctions. Trains are also calibrated depending on the weather so we can adapt speeds and control depending on environmental conditions. All of the software and interfacing, like the rolling stock, has been developed in-house. There's also the option to use original ex-BR full size signalling equipment manually in tandem with the computer, so we can get hands-on operation around the main sections. So in answer to the OP, the route taken in by the video shows most of our 10 miles of trackwork, but doesn't run over all of it. The video only covers one direction (clockwise) around the double-track circuit. Hope that's of interest!