The upside (and downside) of laying in ballast is that the track layout can be changed. This curve is too tight:

The original timber lawn edging performed a retaining function at the top of a steepish slope so i didn't want to remove it but the "creekbed" ran under it, as we saw in a previous post.

ooops nearly forgot the drainage - had to retrofit it into the roadbed.

Digging and laying out roadbed ballast.

With an initial plan for a loop, a turning wye, two towns, all on a small lawn and an extension under the deck to a storage shed, it its time to start building, when I can snatch the time.

We are in our new house, and the Wellington Garden Rail club have been around already for one track planning convocation.

The Pukerua Bay wind stayed away, the mist and drizzle washed the tracks, then the watery autumn sun warmed the railroad for the Grand Opening and the Last Run.

We're moving, just as the W&MR nears completion. Sad but true, house already sold, and the new owner doesn't want the railroad. So up it all comes.

Part of the joy of outdoor model railroading is that so many elements are similar to the prototype. I level my right of way with a spade. I lay track in gravel ballast.

It is a tough call to demolish a railroad. it is an even tougher call to retire from one scale and sell all your gear. But that is what I am doing.

Running in the reverse direction from the previous video.

The dual-track loop is completed, the first train ran a full circuit in early November, and a dozen friends from a local model railway club assembled on a chilly evening to watch trains run with no major problems!!

The first garden railway loco moved today.

Serious progress on the roadbed, more than half done. About 70% of the main loop has roadbed.

Ugh! Nearly a year since last post. these are hard times. Too busy writing books and chasing work.

grading done, ordered last lot of blocks to finish retaining walls, about to lay track in cement "grade crossing' for pedestrian access

http://www.southpacificlines.org/node/67

http://www.southpacificlines.org/node/75

http://www.southpacificlines.org/node/19

photos from around this time