Garden Railway

[FGMatt]

A little project I'll probably build into something larger at some stage, but just a little vignette for now. There was a time when pretty much every park in the UK would have a little train offering rides on a little loop around the place, so I tried to create the smallest possible moving train I could.

 

If anyone has any ideas how to do three-wide curves, I'm all ears!

 

 

[zephyr1934]

Nice. As for the curves... that's a tough one

[XG BC]

maybe use the old 12v curves and leave some spacing with bar pieces/panels or something.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Epic little train!

[L-Gauger]

21 hours ago, FGMatt said:

If anyone has any ideas how to do three-wide curves, I'm all ears!

So, looks like you're seeking to make an Ln2 curve like I wanted to do for my model of Railway Series "Rusty." 

My suggestion would be to attach tiles to 1x4 plates with the "pony-ear" technique, like in this photo: 

To make curves, you can make a roadbed of 1x2 plates and 1x4 plates and use the brick-bending technique to make the curve, atop which you lay your track. Using pony-eared 1x2 tiles for rails, I have successfully created smooth R38 curves with the technique described. Using 1x4 tiles might require the minimum radius be increased a bit, and 1x8 tiles are only suited to very broad curves or straight track. 

Also, just a suggestion, but there is a way I've found to substitute the Tiny Train Wheel for the wheels you're using. You can use a 3- or 4-stud long bar element as an axle for the Tiny Wheels if you use robot claws or Technic half bushes to keep the wheels from falling off the ends of the axles. Then you can use this element: 

to hold the axle (use the cross-axle hole, and attach the whole assembly to the rest of your model with Technic half-pins.) 

Does that makes sense, or do I need to offer clarification on anything? (The things I'm saying are kinda hard to describe and I don't have photos currently...) 

[Stereo]

If you had a bit of depth to work with you could combine the two, they need to be 1/2 plate different in height because the rail's 2 plates tall and the tile's 2.5 plates tall.  And also a half-stud offset needs the jumpers.  But it'd ensure your curve is consistent.

It looks like when it's with an "outside" rail, the inner one is about 15.75 studs long for one curve. Fortunately 1x2 tiles are a tiny bit less than 2 studs long (0.1mm end tolerance) so it might actually work out that they fit together evenly.

 

This isn't the shallowest way to build the 1/2 plate, just the easiest one for me to find parts for so I could mock it up, you can definitely do it in 2 plates height with the 3386.

Edited August 8 by Stereo

[Elysiumfountain]

Very cool! The engine is definitely my favorite, well done! :) 

[L-Gauger]

On 8/8/2025 at 6:29 PM, Stereo said:

If you had a bit of depth to work with you could combine the two,

That's a really novel idea that I never considered! If you have any other ideas like this, I'd love to see them on the Brick-Built Lego Railroad Track thread. 

The only thing that might need testing in real life is whether the train might tilt inward a little. I've noticed that when on the old 4.5V rails most Lego trains ride on the flange with the wheel tread suspended just the tiniest bit over the rail. Might not be an issue at all, and it might even create a cool "superelevated track" look, but worth building a test track for. 

Also, speaking of consistency @FGMatt it wouldn't be hard to convert the track you've built in your diorama to use pony-eared tiles instead of 4.5V rails. Just substitute 1x4 plates as the sleepers in place of the jumper plates. The pony-eared tile track would keep the exact same clearance for the station platform, but would raise the tops of the rails by 1/2 plate, hopefully only a minor matter. 

[FGMatt]

15 hours ago, L-Gauger said:

Also, speaking of consistency @FGMatt it wouldn't be hard to convert the track you've built in your diorama to use pony-eared tiles instead of 4.5V rails. Just substitute 1x4 plates as the sleepers in place of the jumper plates. The pony-eared tile track would keep the exact same clearance for the station platform, but would raise the tops of the rails by 1/2 plate, hopefully only a minor matter. 

Pony-eared tile?

[L-Gauger]

7 hours ago, FGMatt said:

Pony-eared tile?

Turning an ordinary tile on its side, and wedging it between two studs, like this: 

You can make track to any stud interval (measuring to rail centers) using this technique. For your garden railway, the right gauge is what I call "Ln2" and uses 1x4 plates for the sleepers to produce a gauge of 2 studs between rail centers. 

Edited August 14 by L-Gauger
Clarification