Garden and railway complete re-hash

Hi George and guys, sorry for disappearing off the planet but other life-stuff has just been gettin in the way, not to mention Covid-19 lockdown and all that goes with it. The G scale line is 99.9% finished ,managed to get a good bit of wiring work done on that to improve juice delivery. The O gauge line unfortunately is gonna need all the switches lifted re-wired and relaid as they are live-frog and unfortunately I laid them as I would dead frog switches so a fairly major task there with the soldering iron. Electrics ain't my forte however theres some good instructional videos online how to wire the live frog switches. So I'll need to spend a few hours on that.  Ive also been helping my next door neighbour with his garden ,and we just finished it today. I did all the pondwork and waterfall. I;ve also been working in a friend's garden in Glasgow re-hashing that so I haven't been idle....  picture of my neighbours place

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Great to hear that you are still active . Yes , life has a funny way of throwing us a curve ball now and then . You neighbors garden looks wonderful . He is lucky to have you as a neighbor . I don't know why , but I was thinking of you yesterday , wondering how your garden railway had turned out .Then here you are today . Eerie !! 

I just found out garden railways magazine is calling it quits this fall. I was a little surprised to hear that...

@Summerdale Junction posted:

Great to hear that you are still active . Yes , life has a funny way of throwing us a curve ball now and then . You neighbors garden looks wonderful . He is lucky to have you as a neighbor . I don't know why , but I was thinking of you yesterday , wondering how your garden railway had turned out .Then here you are today . Eerie !! 

Hi Jim, aye the best laid plans, never mind at least during the onset of this Covid nightmare we had great weather for weeks here in Scotland which helped. At least it was possible to get out into the gardens in the sun. felt sorry for folks who lived in city flats etc., though.  Hope you guys are all OK . Stay safe.  

@p51 posted:

I just found out garden railways magazine is calling it quits this fall. I was a little surprised to hear that...

thats a pity eh ? 

Both yards look great Davy!

Hi, Davy

Have the pipes been out lately? 

Sorry to hear about the O scale switches - most of us are 3- railers and didn't catch that when you were installing the track.

Hi Guys, well as I said the O gauge layout will require some major switchwork re-wiring ,however today my brand new all singin all dancing digital PIKO BR50 German 2-10-0 arrived  .Luckily it makes it on my turntable by the skin of the teeth ,rear tender wheel and front bogie wheel half on half off but it makes it...just !. Super big model. As for the bagpipes,Covid 19 stopped all the wedding gigs ....  

Davy, That is one great looking engine!  Excellent!!  I'll say it just makes it on the turntable!  Wow!!  What system do you use to control it?

I'm not surprised about the wedding gigs not happening.  Our younger daughter is a musician; soprano, piano, and harp.  She sometimes sings at weddings and sometimes they just want the harp, but this year there hasn't been much activity.  She has a small wedding next week for a young couple from our church.  She had to go online giving private voice and piano lessons for a while, but things loosened up a bit.  She can now give lessons in the room she rents from the local music store.  Unfortunately, they had to shut down her 5th season with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.  On a positive note, she hasn't had to drive clean into Pittsburgh for practice and shows.  It's over an hour drive each way, though the traffic is sparse.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Davy, That is one great looking engine!  Excellent!!  I'll say it just makes it on the turntable!  Wow!!  What system do you use to control it?

I'm not surprised about the wedding gigs not happening.  Our younger daughter is a musician; soprano, piano, and harp.  She sometimes sings at weddings and sometimes they just want the harp, but this year there hasn't been much activity.  She has a small wedding next week for a young couple from our church.  She had to go online giving private voice and piano lessons for a while, but things loosened up a bit.  She can now give lessons in the room she rents from the local music store.  Unfortunately, they had to shut down her 5th season with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.  On a positive note, she hasn't had to drive clean into Pittsburgh for practice and shows.  It's over an hour drive each way, though the traffic is sparse.

Hi Mark, Massoth decoder and pulsed smoke unit controlled by a German Z21 unit via tablet or cellphone.  Was just gettin used to it tonight. Need to study the manual and get familiar with the function controls ,I;m not used to digital control. I have three locos 2-6-2tank, 2-6-0 tender loco and now the BR50-2-10-0. The BR 50s were used well into the 80s in the old East Germany, maybe even early 90s ,Don't rememeber exactly off the top of my head. As for the piping ,I;m not all that bothered whether I go back to it on a regular basis. 67 in a few days time so maybe ah'll just hang up my gigging spurs. As a professional accordionist and keyboard player ,and performing since age 8 I've had enough ! Picked up and learned the pipes at age 57 ten years ago, it was a challenge and a novelty at the time ,but after nine seasons piping at weddings, its beginning to get monotonous ,apart from that weddings are still only allowed very small numbers of guests since Covid 19 struck. So the wedding scene is very much on ice over here right now and nobody know if and when things will get back to any kinda normality. 

Hi Guys heres some interestin colour footage of East German BR50s in 1983.... amazing when you think that some US railroads were practically completely dieselised by the late 40s...... here in Scotland the natonal system lost its last steam 66/67 but some small industrial steamers lasted into the early 80s.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSp9tjJzev4

The Br 50 is doing a nice job in that video!  It looks neat going over that viaduct!  The automobile that pulled up where the boy is watching the train looks like it is out of the 1930s!  You are right about some American railroads being dieselised by the late '40s.  Here in the Appalachian Mountains some of the coal hauling railroads kept steam going until the late '50s, but finally gave in that it wasn't worth the cost to help support the coal industry that way.  I just missed seeing steam locally since I'll be 64 shortly.

I don't blame you on thinking you may not play at weddings.  Our daughter says there is always some hassle but folks seem to love having her.  Who doesn't like a 27-year old pixie who plays the harp or sings?

@Mark Boyce posted:

The Br 50 is doing a nice job in that video!  It looks neat going over that viaduct!  The automobile that pulled up where the boy is watching the train looks like it is out of the 1930s!  You are right about some American railroads being dieselised by the late '40s.  Here in the Appalachian Mountains some of the coal hauling railroads kept steam going until the late '50s, but finally gave in that it wasn't worth the cost to help support the coal industry that way.  I just missed seeing steam locally since I'll be 64 shortly.

I don't blame you on thinking you may not play at weddings.  Our daughter says there is always some hassle but folks seem to love having her.  Who doesn't like a 27-year old pixie who plays the harp or sings?

Hi Mark, aye I noticed that old car too. I recently did a bit of research and between industrial use of steam and on shortlines /tourist lines etc ,steam pretty much managed to hang on more or less continuously in the states somewhere or another. As for the wedding scene,I;ve been doing them since I was in my 20s with various bands I had , and for the last 9 years on my own with the pipes, can't say I had a lot of hassle to be honest mostof the time but I'm just gig-weary in general.  As for a 27 year old Pixie ....well she's always gonna have a head start over an old croak like me...

Mark and guys, some great close up colour footage of steam in East Germany in 1979. A steam fans paradise bach then.Some seriously fine machines too.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obkLYqIEmlo

Hi Guys, don't know if you'll be ablse to see this footage, anyway,heres the 2-10-0 making her debut on my G scale line. I'll try to get better footage with a more modern camera soon. 

Impressive even with that camera, Davy!  The sound is great and the red drive train really makes it flash!

Hi Davy , No luck on my end with the video . All that I have is a still picture for each video . Still a very nice steamer ! 

Hi Guys, better footage of the new Piko G scale BR50....hope you can see these OK !! 

Those videos look great!  Thank you for posting!!!