A longer tour around Karen's Little Railway, our 7 1/4 inch minimal gauge garden railway

A driver's eye journey around the longer circuit of Karen's Little Railway, on board our 'Minx' locomotive. Includes a brief description of some of the civil engineering features we have built and hope to add in the future. For more details visit our website at www.karenslitt...
The video was originally recorded at the beginning of October 2023.

[@geordieceltic2]

Absolutely magic and charming. Yes, the waste from minor earth works never fails to amaze me. Well done.

[@centradragon]

This is a cool project! I'm not sure why KZbin recommended this to me, but it's a lot of fun!

[@Hornbyttgingernerd]

New sub , love what your doing

[@labocharoman]

Beautiful line❤❤. Carry passengers, validate tickets and invest money in further expansion 😀

[@bustinboilers]

I am a big fan of Karens Little Railway. I am in particular intrigued by your minx locomotive. Can you tell me the wheelbase of this little loco and does it have any issues with your 16 foot radius curves? I have 20 foot radius curves on my 7 1/2" railway. Love to build one like it. Thanks Dale

[@karenslittlerailway]

Thanks for your kind comments. Minx has a 21 inch wheelbase and has no issues with tight radius curves, but we do have generous gauge widening and wide treads on the wheels. The wheels are 6 inch diameter at the flange and 1 1/8 inch thick I just checked the 16 ft radius curve and was surprised to find I widened the gauge by 1/4 inch around that curve. I suspect it probably doesn't need to be quite that dramatic and judging by what others have done 1/8 inch (3mm) gauge widening might be sufficient (see kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmrYlXpvarido6s for a good illustration and useful comments). Experimentation is the only way we find out what works for us. I hope this helps.

[@bustinboilers]

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, my track is already in place with self-gauging ties. So, there are no economical means of widening the gauge on curves. Perhaps I can go to 18-20" wheelbase on my 20' radius curved track. I suspect the best is to field test a mock-up with different length wheelbases. I custom built my first locomotive as a 1:5 scale model of a gas-hydraulic plymouth narrow gauge switcher. Though a nice model, it is not rideable. One must sit on a trailing car. I like your vision of a real railroad that just happens to be extreme narrow gauge (7 1/4"). The engineer actually pilots his locomotive. Bravo! Thanks again, Dale I

[@karenslittlerailway]

@@bustinboilers Yes, a field mock up sounds like the best way of finding out what wheelbase will go around your curves. Small (sub 15" gauge) extreme narrow gauge but real working railways have been coined 'minimal gauge' in recent times. There is a Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/MinimalGaugeRailways which might interest you or provide some inspiration. Here in the UK there is a commercially available sit on locomotive that has a 12" wheelbase called Scamp. Designed by 7 1/4" gauge Society member Colin Edmondson this (and several even more 'minimal' designs of his) are available as a set of parts or ready to run from CMD Engineering www.miniature-trains.co.uk/shop/ . There is another Facebook group which has information about 'Scamp' and derivatives at facebook.com/groups/449895411876067 . I have no connection with either Colin Edmondson or CMD Engineering other than being someone who has been inspired by them and used their parts in my own variations on a theme.

[@gs425]

May I ask...Is the track all made by yourself? Is it rail profile or flat bay? And if so how is it fixed to the sleepers? Many thanks

[@karenslittlerailway]

Yes all the track is made by ourselves. It is 30 x 12mm flat bar fixed to wooden sleepers using PNP Railways chairs for bar rail. You can read more about how we built the railway on our website at www.karenslittlerailway.co.uk/ including making points. The PNP chairs are designed to pinch onto the rail to hold it in place. In our experience they work well if the ballast is kept well packed around the sleepers, and it's a good idea to avoid walking on the sleepers. The PNP website can be found at www.pnp-railways.co.uk/

[@gs425]

@@karenslittlerailway oh that's a fantastic reply. I'll have a look at all that later. Thanks ever so much for sharing the info !

[@karenslittlerailway]

You're very welcome @@gs425