Book Review: One Man’s Railway, O Gauge in the Garden by Allen Jackson

This book is about the author’s efforts, largely carried out single-handedly and with limited funds, to build a model railway layout in his garden that runs just like the real thing. It is based on Brymbo near Wrexham in North Wales.

Published in August 2021 and written by Allen Jackson, this softcover book comes in the usual Amberley format of around 234 mm x 165 mm with 96 pages and 140 colour photographs and line drawings. It has a published price of £15.99 but at the time of writing it can be obtained online from Amberley Publishing for around £14 and from Amazon for around £15.

With seven chapters, the book is not a photographic record of the author’s garden railway, instead, it is a step-by-step description of how his vision became a reality.

“A Potted History” takes the reader back to Alan’s early years of railway modelling, whilst “A Tentative O Gauge Restart” shows how the layout was tailored to fit in the available space in Alan’s garden.

“Some Constructional Detail” is the longest chapter and provides excellent details of some of the Alan’s DIY tricks to save on construction costs, as well as how the base for the track some of the buildings were constructed.

The railway has 25 steam locomotives, and “Railway Vehicles” describes how they were acquired at a reasonable cost. Operation of the layout mimics real-life practice, and “Control and Block Instruments” describes how real-life has been translated into the model. Because all of the outdoor track is not visible to the operators at all times, “Closed-circuit Television” provides easy-to-follow details of the layout’s CCTV, whilst the final chapter “Photo Gallery” shows how impressive the final layout has become.

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Throughout the book, everything is described in easy-to-understand language. From constructing the base, track, and buildings, to the signalling, all accompanied by clear diagrams.

Packed with wonderful illustrations including photographs and layout diagrams, this book is a wonderful tribute to a lifetime’s hobby and will delight railway modellers both young and old.

The pages below are typical of the clear, easy-to-understand, construction details.

These pages show the level of detail the author has achieved in his buildings.

No book on model railways would be complete with photos of trains. The lower left photo shows how the author has cleverly included houses in the background by the simple trick of just building their end walls. The block instruments and bells add a real-life air to the railway.

In summary, for anyone wishing to build a garden railway, this is an excellent introduction. The diagrams and photographs show that with a little ingenuity, construction is well within the capability of anyone with basic DIY skills. The book will surely entice others to think about whether they too could have their own model railway in their garden.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon for around £11.59 as well as from Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing RailAdvent with a copy of the book for review.