One of the joys of garden railways is that they develop over time, so we revisit The Peckforton Light Railway, built by regular Garden Rail contributor Rik Bennett. The last few years have seen station areas and yards expand to handle the extra sources of goods traffic that have grown up. Rik has grounded his model in a convincing history based on prototype information giving the line all the atmosphere of a real railway.

All railways need locomotives and we take a look at a couple of important new releases. For live steam enthusiasts, Bowande's Talyllyn is put through its paces by David Pinniger while for the younger enthusiast, Ben Bukki looks at Hornby's move into the larger scales with their controversial Harry Potter train set. Gauge One isn't forgotten either, with a scratchbuilt NER Petrol railcar that would be perfect for the shorter line.

All these engines need to be stored somewhere, so Mark Thatcher builds Bole Lasercraft's latest engine shed. They will need somewhere to run so we look at creating a child-proof level crossing as well as review of different types of rail clamps.

Finally, we bring some science to testing locomotive haulage capabilities by building a working dynamometer car. Along the way, our professor learns just what it is that makes moving different trains difficult.

All this and more, in the September issue of Garden Rail