There hasnt been much news on the garden railway lately, Thanks to the great falcon incident of 2019 I've been fairly predisposed with talking to the insurance company. That said I came across a pair of large Radius LGB points which has given me a nice long storage siding near the balcony and a new 7 car long passing loop at the top of the line which will complete trackwork for the time being. Next I'll be focusing on buildings and rebuilding the elevated section of line with actual trestle bents instead of the current arrangement which was just so I could get some operation happening. I'm looking forward to the classic Melbourne weather settling in over the next few months it usually proves to be quite productive being forced into the shed.

I'm a bit torn on this. I do quite like the idea of having Duckets the only problem is it looks like a bachmann baggage car with duckets stuck on! The original idea was to convert this into something quite similar to Rurr Valleys EEP 4 but it was decided that I might as well scratch build if i was going to go that far

Both new cars repainted. Jury is still out on repainting my other bachmann pass car but this finishes acquisition of stock. everything else will be scratch built now.

TGR Y class is still slowly inching further forward towards completion. Power bogies have arrived for this and the other "big wheel" diesels so hopefully the painting process is finished soon

Another Shot of the Y in undercoat along with the QR DH, both models are 3d printed although only the DH is my work in cad.

As always I'm far faaar behind the 8-ball with updating this blog. The railway has been expanded to double its length and has gone from 1 RC powered loco to 5! without further ado lets have look at whats been happening...

Fyansford lime hopper, these came in 4 and 6 wheel Versions. I printed the doors for it too but i have to redesign it wasnt rugged enough and the actual ones tipped

A9 prepares to push an empty ore train back up the Wye to the loader

Alexanders steeplecab does its thing

The railway built its first and second set of scratch built points on the last day of the year, point number 2 seen here was installed at 11.58 on near years eve!

Alexanders steam tram departs

D1 and 14 come off the new leg of the wye

D1 grinds uphill with an empty ore past the new 3d printed signal box. This design is off thingyverse by badgerbreath. I scaled it up to 1:24 and then made a roof from bbq meat trays from bunnings crimpted

Point 2 at midnight new years eve!

Alexanders battery electric

D1

Alexanders Baldwin 2-4-2 brings an empty log train around viaduct number 1

The grade drop is more noticeable here. The steeplecab, AD3 and D1 are all visible here along with the railways Caterpillar D8H which can be seen clearing a pad for the railways new engine shed. A proper railway workshops has always been planned for the railways port base of Hastings but this will take care of the locos engaged in shunting the mine and doing branchline trips in the Yarra Valley area

3 Baldwins!

A down empty Tea and sugar is seen here traversing the loop on its way up the hill. The inside leg of the Triangle is yet to be built in this picture.

the D8H doing some damage to the yard with D1 Behind! I bought this kit on a whim and I've become extremely attached to it despite it not being rail related. it still needs some weathering and some more painting but I'm generally pretty happy with it.

this is the current track plan in scale to my house, the new passing loop still needs to be done but as it stands its an extremely effective track plan. Last run day saw 4 trains running concurrently without really running out of room which I'm very happy with considering theres under 15m of track!

Theres plenty more news but you'll have to wait till next time.

Happy new year!