The HSBA Garden Railway is a G Scale garden layout based in Jersey, Channel Islands. Over 138m (455ft) of track navigate through tunnels, over bridges and past the pond in a garden in the parish of St. Mary.
Started in 2021, the railway is result of a husband and wife team that wanted to do something a little different in their garden. A mix of a childhood dream and passion for gardening - it was a perfect match
Sounds and looks good 🙂. The handrails are often warped on these models. This is caused by picking up the loco and touching the loco . What are yours like . G
Mine had wavy handrails from the start and I got it from new. I replaced the rails with metal with a brass hand rail and fittings from a shop that also specialised in model ships…it made a huge difference. I have a zimo sound decoder in mine, but I’ve never bothered with the sync magnets
That was great! I have a garden layout that has been abandoned at the moment. There's a kids pool and a bunch of large kids toys piled up in it the moment. Once that gets cleared out (hopefully soon, LOL) I'll get back into again. I have plans for an expansion and total rehab of the current layout. You have a layout that has given me inspiration as to how I want to do to mine. Thanks for the video!
Very kind words, thank you! Honestly, the planning was the best part for me. If you're interested, here is the track plan: hsbagardenrailway.com/the-layout/ Rik's blog was extremely valuable generally to me (riksrailway.blogspot.com) but I'd also recommend the G Scale Society (gscalesociety.com) and the G Scale Central forum (gscalecentral.net). I hope to see some videos of your build too!
Thanks and welcome, John. I'm definitely behind on getting an update/tour video. Will try and do it in the next few weeks. Let me know if there is anything specifically you'd be interested in learning more about.
My starter set that a loco that did that. In fact, most of the locos I have now also have the feature. It requires a special smoke fluid which is heated and smokes. It's a great feature. Thank you for atching!
Thanks, John. It's really come a long way and I've enjoyed the process. I just need to get around to doing another update video to show how it's evolved in 2024.
So nice of you. I think a few are getting a little large now so will need to contain them but that's part of the fun of the 'garden' side of things. Thanks for watching
Thanks, Simon! Yeah, the plants have really exploded this year. Probably a combo of mild weather with lots of rain. I was less impressed with it but the greenery is enjoying it.
Probably one of the best videos I’ve ever seen of a really practical garden railroad. Took a lot of work I’m sure but it was worth it! Nicely done;very enjoyable.
Sorry for the slow reply, Jeffrey. I hope it was useful. I do need to do an update as I've found another niggle which only manifested after a year or so. Very solvable but something to be mindful of.
I've seen some of your other videos on this layout. It is awesome. I like everything about it. Still trying to get my g scale started. Thanks for sharing all your videos. 🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃
Absolutely brilliant, love it! Superb the way the magic train makes everything light up as it approaches. Well done and Merry Christmas to you all. All the best Jim.
Thank you very much! We are really happy with how it has turned out.That being said, we always have new ideas for what comes next. Thanks for the comment!
For us, it was worth the uniqueness. It was -expensive- (especially given we mostly buy second-hand locos on eBay around a similar or less price point) but given what it offered we were happy to go for it. Already planning the Christmas tunes!
The SD Cards are just standard micro SD. If you search on Amazon or local electronics store they should be able to provide one. Once you have it, you'll need to get the software and the default sounds (must + sound effects) which can be downloaded from the LGB site (www.lgb.de/service/downloads/wiederherstellungsdaten-sd-karte). We uploaded a separate video on modifying the sound files but this can walk you through part of the process of getting the sounds working. Good luck!
Love the review! Wow the music and sounds are really good and the lighting. Thanks for doing a review I don't think anyone else has done an indepth review of this item. The only thing is the holes by the drummer they should have plugged them up. But wow the music while running looks great
Thanks! I think the first wagon review we've done too. It's a bit more unique so felt it deserved something special. We've also managed to customise the music too which adds to the enjoyment.
Am amazed how much this costs now is certainly not worth £350 they're asking for it now, was bad enough when I paid £280, if you get any luck with playing your own music on it, do a follow-up video, lgb/Marklin's email help was next to useless never did get it to work.
Yeah, it was steep - by far the most we've paid for any of our stock (and more than many of our locos). I was tinkering with the idea of trying to build my own version but feared it would end as another incomplete icon on the todo list. Plus, Nikki gave the green light so we just bit the bullet. Actually, I made a video on that! I worked out the problem after a couple of days. Will post it shortly.
Well done garden railway, looking great. Few questions, are you running track power or battery? You refernced removing your remote decouplers and only using fixed ones. May I inquire why? Do you perfrom a lot of switching when running your trains? If you are running track power, how are you circuiting your two reversing loops? Assuming your branch in the lower right is to inside your home. Is this for train storage? Do any of your vidoes show this area? Do you have any automation or auto running of your train(s) or is everything manual controlled? You have quite a few stations, woiuld be interesting if trains were running in a automated sequence. Especically if travel direction was varied on your main line. Apolgies if you have addressed the above in a pervious video. Just found your channel, very nicely designed.
We're working on a video that covers power and control because we get these questions a lot. I think we've touched on them in other videos but nothing comprehensive. We're running track power (DCC using a system based on the Z21protocol). Regarding the uncouplers, I may have misspoken - we're moving towards loco-based uncouplers because of the flexibility. For now, the ramps in the terminus station are staying because this is where we do a run-round without the 'hand of God' so to speak. Mostly, I enjoy the trains just going round. However, on Open Days and for videos, I try to give some more operational interest of trains doing things - I think it's more entertaining for the viewers. The reversing loops are controlled by x2 reverse loop modules. You completely isolate the section and there are 2 feeds in from the 'main' layout and 2 feeds out to the isolated loop. Really simple wiring. Yes, the branch is into the garage. I don't think there are recent videos of it (honestly, the storage tracks aren't big enough!) but a couple of older ones showing it running into the garage but nothing of the workshop itself. Everything is manually controlled at the moment but we plan to automate. The left side (the terminus) is going to be where we test/learn about the technology. We've always know we wanted to go this way so have laid some of the required infrastructure already! Hope this helps :)
Just reread my orginal inquire. Appolgies, hit you with a lot of questions. Looking at designing a garden railroad with reversing loops. Very interested in automation. Familar with the Raspberry Pi, unknown if this device can support the DDS protical. Would be interested in a video on how your automation testing is going. The railroad I am planning will be a bit smaller then yours, 200' of track. Planning only two trains running at the same time. The Rasp Pi connected a relay board would allow auotmation via controlling blocks of track (DC control for trains). DCC attractive as could add sound boards, will have to look into this further. My older garden rail road was basially just a large loop. Waiting to add some turnouts, switching and automation to make the new layout more interesting. Thank you for providing more deails on your layout. Looks great, looking forward to your future videos.
@@dpin6072 No need to apologise. We post these videos because we're excited by the hobby and helping others with it is a part of that. Have you looked at "The World of LGB" (champex-linden.de/cl_downloads/download_fremddokumente/lgb_00559_explore_the_world_of_lgb.pdf ). This was a book produced by LGB years ago. I believe it is now out of print but there is almost a complete replicate with the above link. They had an EPL system that allowed a degree of automation. There is a wonderful post by Dunny on G Scale Central (www.gscalecentral.net/threads/automation-with-lgb-epl.318445/) that explains how he did. In short, it uses a combination of isolating sections, reed switches with magnets to switch points and relays.There are also options for shuttle runs but I've not seen them combined (conceptually, it is possible). Much of the above should be imitatable with a Pi and other electronics components. The Reversing Loop unit is the only I'm less sure about - may be worth getting an off the shelf module for this given the speciality of the request.
