TDF Rly Home

Welcome to Tumble Down Falls Railway (TDF Rly), the blog for my Garden Railway, and the activities that make it work, if you may wish to read its "Back Story".

In The Beginning

As with most us older railway modellers, I have been building layouts in lots of scales over many years.  starting as a young boy with Hornby 0 Gauge Tin Plate, and then some years late the 00 gauge “train set” for my son, which started my interest in model railways.

The 00 gauge layout led to N Gauge, in a bid to have more running in a small space, then a move of house, more space and back to 00, though eventually “fat fingers” so a change to 0 gauge.  As nice as this scale was, and I was able to build both locos and wagons (from kits), and a bit of “bashing”, the limitation on room meant I was still not content, and needed something else.

Next Steps

In 2018 the showing of The Biggest Little Railway (BLR) inspired me to have a live steam train, and so I did some research on what I would need and more importantly what I would want.

My first thoughts were, if I buy a loco (and having checked the price of a RC Silver Lady), I could not afford loco and the track, and it would be a shame to buy a loco with nowhere to run it. However the obverse is also true, if I buy (and lay) the track, what is the point without a loco to run.  I needed a compromise.

Having checked out the second hand market, I found I could by track, and a track powered loco (and some stock) at a reasonable price, but what gauge? SM32 versus G45.  My searches revealed that G45 seemed to be more prevalent, this together with my thoughts that 45 mm gauge over 32 mm gauge would be more stable over a poor track bed, so G45 it was.

The Adventure Starts Here

So with the purchase of some LGB track, a Bachmann Loco and a couple of carriages, together with an existing power supply my Garden Railway adventure started here.