New Junction: Building an 'O' gauge Garden Railway Part Two 

the dedication in this video is huge! I would have given up halfway the rain and struggle of buying all the tracks! great job!

Hi Richard. Glad to see you are back with your garden railway update. Let's hope the weather improves and you can steam ahead (sorry!) with your build. Good luck and all the best. Paul.

Another one of a kind super duper video demonstrating the worlds most and ultimate safe. healthy, expensive hobby which unites all people. Train scale Modelling absolutely stunning.

Glad to see your all ok and the garden is coming on well .

LOL! As I found, doing electrics at a former friends house, it's always useful to have a spaniel handy to point out what you're doing wrong!🤣🤣

As a shipwright I used to work with was fond of saying, when hammering nails - 'hit it, don't tickle the bastard' lol

What a lovely video. Nice and quiet and calm. No long flashy intro, no blaring music. Just right onto it. And a lovely garden to boot. I can almost smell that lovely daphne at 7:00

Brilliant Richard and looking beautiful

Nice to see it moving forward 😎

That's good going considering the wet summer , which is blowing hot and cold now...and wet! It's looking good, chap. Beyond my meagre budget but that's my problem. Thanks for posting the videos of your progress. Stay Safe and Keep Well. Cheers!

Great to see you back and all well.

Good video. Your dog was definitely the star.

Hello Richard. Having watched your first commendable attempts at building a garden railway, from one who has had a railway round the garden now for over 20 years, maybe I could add a few pointers from things I learned (the hard way!) over the years. Firstly, having like you, tried nail-on roofing felt, I found that it was of relatively short life - there is the tendency of a build-up of moisture under the felt as the felt is only laid on the base wood and not sealed to it - which eventually rots the ply - no matter how much Cuprinol you coat it with. The real answer is torch-on felt (which is not that hard to lay and in the long run, quicker than nailing all over the place) and the molten bitumen seals into the wood grain as it is rolled on, plus it can be laid butt up with no overlap (which causes bumps where the track goes over the overlaps) and the joint sealed with dripping a molten, narrow strip, of the felt to seal with the bitumen and finished by pouring some of the loose grit that comes off the felt over the joint and pressing onto the joint to help protect and hide the joint. Spacing the adjacent tracks was simply done with some pieces of wood (say 1" x2") with grooves cut across the wood for the rails and spaced for the adjacent running line so that the whole lot stayed neat - ideal spacing for O gauge (according to the GOG technical manuals) is 80mm centres (85-90 mm on tight corners). The other thing is not to nail down the middle of the sleeper, but to nail the sleepers on the outside of the rail - nailing in the middle (as time goes on) will tend to make the sleepers bow and the rail tops come slightly inwards and so narrowing the gauge. Only need to pin down every 10-11th sleeper. I always seal every pin that goes into the baseboard with bitumen paint to seal the hole that the pin makes through the felt - having found a good few years ago that one un-sealed pin caused a swelling of the ply. Regarding soldering the rail together is a complete no-no in the garden as you really need expeansion joints at every yard of track as the temperature variation can be alarming big - I have recorded temps as high as 55C on the summer sun-soaked rails sections and as low as minus 12C in the winter. You really need the expansion joints, otherwise you will encounter track buckling. Easy to do, is track bonding with some reasonably sized copper wire - say 1.0mm -1.2mm dia (I used tinned copper wire which I buy in a coil off the internet) and pushed under the first sleeper either side of the join and the bent up in a half omega loop (for expansion) to solder into the web on the outside of the rail. Regarding ply, from past experience, the best was the cheapest OSB ply which is made of chippings filled with resin pressed solid under heat - stays rigid and flat and there is no chance of delamination of the plies. Not trying to teach "suck eggs" but a few pointers from my experience, which I hope may help. Have a look at GBRailways channel - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ay0lX9F9o8c.html. Regards, GeoffB

Gotta love the very 80s background music.

Nice to see you again Richard. The Garden Railway is taking shape and must be costing a small fortune. (Please never tell us how much it has cost or I will have to dip into my poor tin and send you some and at this time it is empty as I am using it.) "Yorkdale" is all boxed up again and on hold as I am working away from home again and I hope to be here for at least 3 years. I am still making some models for it though. I am making Station Canopies and some Platform clocks. I still have 7 engines which are waiting for spare parts to bring them back to life. Good luck and keep up all the good work you are doing for Hornby and for yourself. Martin. (Thailand)

Battling tedium is the key. I haven't started a railroad because I just don't know if I could put up with the tedious nature of building the thing. Wonderful videos though. I have no issues with watching you battle the tedium!

Looks like the 4 legged supervisor is doing a lot of micro managing, ha. Great job

I was one of those wondering where you had gone! We missed Lulu too ❤️! So glad to see an update. I like that you have kept it nice and simple and above all, demonstrating that a garden railway doesn’t call for alchemy but just hard work and common sense...and a break in the weather 👍😉🍀 Looking forward to the video tonight 😎 🍻

Hi Richard, you've got a really hard working navvy there, she's on the go all the time lol. Railway is coming along nicely. I bet the bank is taking a hammering with all that track! Glad to hear that all is well. I can sympathize with you about the birds. Being close to the coast I have STUKA dive bomber seagulls changing the colour of the car all the time!! Hope to catch you soon kidda, stay safe, regards Bobby 'T'.

Welcome back sir, thanks for the shot in the arm.

Glad you’re back Richard, I’ve missed your videos. The railway is coming on a treat, see ya Friday night 🚂🚂

it is coming on very well and looks great...................Cheers Kev

Well done Richard I'm currently building an O gauge railway in the garden suffer with a bit of reduced mobility so mine is on 4" dia soil pipe and 4ft off the ground so thanks for the boost to do some more only other relevant difference is I used bituminous paint to seal and bond my felt .

I glade to see you back .Its also nice to see you fit and well .Your 0 gauge layout is coming on great despite the set backs .I have often admired garden layouts I whish I had one myself .But she who must be obayed wont allow it

Thanks for your time and effort in sharing this with other aspiring garden railway modellers. Greatly appreciated and good luck!

Yay! New Junction is back! Thanks for the great video Richard! The railway is really coming together!

Looks great!!

Thank you for this...really looking forward to more!

Great Stream Richard. Looking forward to more New New Junction.

Good job. Thanks for sharing with us.

OO gauge fishplates on o gauge track? Would never had known that. Your video blog in making this really is giving me the bug to do this to my yard in the future. It’s looking great Richard. All the best, Clint

Fabulous work; thoroughly enjoyed this second video.

Be aware of leaving voids under the track it might encourage rats. Great to see you again. I always look forward to seeing your vids🤓

Great work, love your dog by the way.👌👍

I've also been at a standstill because of backorder issues, but, I've got a fair amount of track delivered over here in the Netherlands lately and this should get me around the garden. I'm building a branchline, single track with a station consisting of a 2 track platform and a goods yard, maybe a passing loop somewhere midway through the garden. I do hope the local wildlife keeps of the track 🐦

amazing work!!!

Glad to see you back. New garden layout is looking great.

Good to see you back big fella, your videos have been a big miss the last couple of months. Glad to see that you’re ok and that you’re cracking on with the job at hand, railway looks amazing by the way, can’t wait for your next instalment. 😀

Great work. Thank you from the USA for the presentation.

Great to see another video! Looking forward to seeing this railway develop over time.

Great update Richard! Thanks for sharing. Good luck at your new job. Cheers Onno.

First time catching your video on 8/9/20. I enjoyed watching what you are doing. Will be looking for the next chapter of your build. Thanks for sharing. Liked seeing the dog too.

Hello... Glad you back ..... yeah, the good old UK and a wet summer time..... How soon will we see you back to your OO layout...it's indoors, no need to worry about the weather...? Please keep the video coming as and when you can!

What a fabulous garden to begin with. It'll be superb with the railway once it is finished

Great to see you back railway looking good looking forward to the next video 👍

Great to see progress, Good job

Looking great so far!

Awesome video! Eagerly waiting for Part 3!!

Amazing.

Great stuff Richard..very enjoyable. Well worth the wait, thank you. All the best.

Brilliant video, thank you for sharing it with us.

Great video Richard the O gauge is really coming along keep up the great work

I see your four legged child has been helping with the construction of the benchwork! LOL!

Enjoyed the video.

Great video Richard, the garden railway is coming along nicely 😀

Great to see you back!

Looks great, good ideas for a road bed...

Looking good man👍💯💪🏻 🚂

Another great video, your cocker spaniel loo loo looks very wet at the start. You have done very well and your shutter looks really good testing the track. I went around my dad's friend garden O gauge layout the other day. It made me think I should build one too. My wife will be mad 😂😂

Brilliant video again, love them 😊

Great work so far. It’s going to look amazing once finished 😊

Nice to define what you mean by a "big gap" at the fishplates. For approx 45C range, the gap needs to be 1mm; further for that, the solar heating is worth another 0.5mm, so the gap at the coldest temperature would be 1.5mm. As you have mentioned, the temperature of the day affects the gap you select at build time. Too small, and the rails will buckle. Too large, and the clack will be large, and the smoothness will be compromised. The expansion is the same for OO as O gauge, and the scale of the gap is halved for O, so this is less of an issue on your garden layout than in other discussions that are current. The nice thing about doing this in the summer is that you can review the gaps on a hot day, and use a cutting disc to generate a new gap. Generating a new gap is better than increasing the existing gap, as it allows more gap without making any one gap too wide.

Lovely garden. Can’t wait to see a working loop 👍

Love your dog!

Well done Richard. It is all starting to come together.

Hi Richard, it is plain to see that the garden layout is exposed to all types of weather conditions, and I would assume it needs to be bone dry before you can operate trains. After the track starts to dry out when the sun comes out maybe you could accelerate the drying process with a hair-dyer. Very much looking forward to the next episode of your garden railway construction. Cheers Greg

Great video Richard and coming along nicely. Looking forward to the next one. Cheers Rob

Looking fantastic

Looking great!

great setup will be great sitting on the patios on a summers evening watching the Trains go by

Great Video Richard, I've never really considered garden model railways... but you're making me think whether I perhaps should! I will watch with interest to see how yours develops first!

Awesome garden, cute dog, incredible set up! You certainly have a lot of patience seems like very long and tedious hours building it, but the finished product is clearly well worth it! 👍

Brilliant!! Got more excited about this than my 10 year anniversary this week. Don’t tell the Mrs.

from one Richard to another.... Great video Richard. Tip if you have not already cut the excess off the felt may I suggest you fold the excess back onto itself, so the bottom edge is half inch, sorry forgot you are a young one, make that circa 1.5 cm below the bottom edge of your side timber, then re tack the now double layer to the side timber. I believe this is known as a welted drip in the roofing trade, sure someone will correct me if I have this wrong. Anyway, the purpose of this is to prevent capillary action drawing the rain water into the lower edge of the side timber. and rotting it out. If it is cold try warming the felt along the line you will be creating your fold on which should stop it splitting. by the way we have a Cocker and a Springer one 9 the other 10 years old and just as mad as yours. I have been reliably informed they do settle down about six months after the die LOL keep up the good work

Nice to see a new video

Richard your back I have been waiting for an upload!

Nice to see you back in the garden Richard.

Brilliant Richard 0 gauge it looks beautiful

Fantastic vid mate you have inspired me to build my own garden railway I have got half one built in my attic built but still on going but carry with with build I can't wait to see your next vid on your garden railway

Brilliant! Great video once again. Things seem to be coming along nicely (weather permitting). Cheers from the States!

Nice setup! But regarding the DIY, especially the tacks: Set & Hammer them in from the center to the edge, if you start at the edge you will get (and you did) slack and thus creasing...

Modify a locomotive with a pilot guard- cattle catcher of some sort, and lower it to clean the bird droppings! Cattle catcher was a common sight on the western steam locomotives of the past, and kept them from derailing, as you are prob well aware! Nice vid appreciate all the work! 🤠

Good morning from St John Parish, Louisiana, 19 Aug 20.

Awesome video mate, the railway is coming along nicely mate, keep up the amazing work

Great video! I'm building an O gauge garden railway aswell. Keep up the great work!

Glad to see you back with another enjoyable video. Too much rain ..... next it will be leaves on the line. 😀 If it rains you need to be in the garage right? Looking forward to the next one, take care of yourself.

Richard great video and update on the Garden Railway. Looking forward to the finishing of the Garden Railway and trains running on it. Thanks for sharing and stay safe. Ken

Good to see you back. This is a properly ambitious project it will be worth the effort. I need a bigger garden.

Greatly enjoyed the video! The 80s style music and the four legged site supervisor is more than enough for me to give this video a Like!

Hi Richard, great video 👍. I have a G1 garden railway and yes the 🐦 are a pest . ✌️👍

I cant wait for the New new junction

Welcome back Richard, Been having withdrawal symptoms. Keep up the good work and please don't leave it so long next time.

Cool vid Richard and I am starting my own oo Gauge layout because u inspired me to

Hi Richard, to be honest, I’ve been putting off watching this video because I just know it would enforce my idea of having a garden railway even more but temptation (and curiosity) got the better of me. Bugger - I watched it!! 😂😂👍🏻. Now I really want one. I showed Hazel clips of it - mainly of Lulu, in the vein hope of something along the lines of “oh, that’s nice dear” but she was more interested in seeing Lulu. But I’m hoping the seed may be sown but this is going to be hard work. Anyway, a great video young man and I look forward to seeing the next one soon as long as it doesn’t rain or you have to go to work! 😂😂. Cheers for now mate. ...........Graham

Wow what a layout im excuited for more updates already

That’s way cool👍

Been looking forward to this! Nice update!! Interesting learning curve for you by the sounds of it with the bird poo and all haha!

Thank you for this series of videos. We're hoping to build a garden railway this year, & find your expertise, tips & humour to be exactly what we need. We haven't got a dog, tho.'

All the best young Richard especially with those bird poops mate 😆👍

Great update mate looking forward to seeing the progress cannot wait to catch up soon for a chat and a cuppa hope to see you very soon mate