Here are some photos I took in June 2006 on the Vale of Rheidol railway in Wales at Aberffrwd station. Note the substantial nature of the track (c. 60lb/yd) and modern pointwork which is typical of modern preserved NG railways in the UK.
#gallery-1 {
margin: auto;
}
#gallery-1 .gallery-item {
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 33%;
}
#gallery-1 img {
border: 2px solid [...]
Although the gauge is out by 8″ or so for O14, there are some great details in the trackwork of the Volks Electric Railway in Brighton that could be a useful reference for anyone working on a “tourist attraction” type railway rather than serious functional narrow gauge!
#gallery-2 {
margin: auto;
}
#gallery-2 .gallery-item {
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 33%;
}
#gallery-2 [...]
Chelfham Station – photo taken by S Miles-Davey 1930s
I have been given permission to publish these two photos of the original Lynton and Barnstaple railway which show very good detail of the track and pointwork as relaid by the Southern Railway. (Click pictures to enlarge)
Bratton Bank – photo taken by HGW Household 1927
Of course the [...]
A great place to see 2′ narrow gauge steam and diesel in action in the South of England is Amberley Working Museum. It has regular gala days which also include narrow gauge models, layouts and traders, and there’s plenty of other attractions to amuse those members of your family who rather strangely easily tire of [...]
The Templot site has some data for prototype industrial turnouts here which may also be of use for non Templot users.
There is an interesting description of the signalling of the L&B (which was signalled to mainline standards) including a picture of a turnout with an outside facing point locks on this site here.
The weights of flat bottom rail used in typical prototype 2′ narrow gauge railways ranged from 20lb-30lb (per yard) for small industrial use up to 60lb for ‘main’ lines. Nowadays some of the modern restored railways use even larger weights. Flat bottomed rail of these lower weights typically have square dimensions, in that the height [...]
The attached table of British NG rail and sleeper sizes (PDF) shows the main (flat bottom) rail weights and sleeper sizes and spacing for some of the principle British narrow gauge railways at various stages of their existence.
Continue reading about British Narrow Gauge Railway Rail and Sleeper Sizes
Users of Templot may be interested in obtaining two templates for prototype turnouts as follows:
The first turnout is based on the drawing of a Robert Hudson 6′ 1 in 6 turnout as published with the track articles in issues 63-65 in the NG&IRM Review and also available on this site as a PDF.
The second turnout [...]
RP25 and ScaleSeven Wheel Comparison
This shows a comparison of the NMRA RP25 110 wheel profile commonly used for O14 and the ScaleSeven wheel profile for standard gauge locos, established from published web sources.
Given that most narrow gauge locos had a similar flange profile to standard gauge locos often with a slightly narrower tread, the profiles [...]
