how to start a garden railroad

It may be necessary to cut away soil in some areas and fill other areas much the same way the real railroads do to keep the grade to a minimum.

More than anything, garden railroading is fun. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Please try your request again later. Another important consideration is to have wires that provide power to the rails in more than one location. You may also want to consider laying your track on 2"x6" pressure treated lumber.

Get comfortable with the process, how to build the railroad, and let your railroad grow after that.. That way I could talk to other people about garden railroads. What else should be considered?

Kevin Strong's Garden Railway Basics They are two of our favorite hobbies.

It will answer most of your questions about how to plan and build your railroad. LGB has flex track in 5ft. The Internet is the place to start: gardenrailways.com, Bachmanntrains.com, gardentrains.com are all good. Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2008, I bought this as part of a four book purchase including ", " by Marc Horovitz and Pat Hayward (4 stars), ", " by Garden Railways Magazine (4 stars), and ", I was very disappointed in this book because it lacked technical information, Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2017. :

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all need to be decided.

, Paperback All information, data, text, and illustrations on this web site are Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 by Paul D. Race.

Blaine estimates that a starter set (trains, brass track and transformer) would cost $300 to $500. Harsh winters, frost or big storms can erode the ground under the tracks.

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And an advanced layout (larger locomotive and cars with stainless-steel track that has wider radius curves and multiple loops of track, a higher voltage transformer and accessories) would be in the $1,500 to $2,000 range. Model trains and gardens. Aristo-craft has both a 5ft. A garden railroad opens up the possibility of combining two hobbies into one, "model railroading "and "gardening". You have to have a plan. Different control systems you can use, theres different scales of trains. Paul Race, whose essays appear at familygardentrains.com, has some suggestions about what plants work best: 2022 www.sj-r.com. Most garden railroads start with a bed of gravel for good drainage, so you dont get ice freezing under the tracks causing instability, Blaine says.

This complete overview of modeling railroad scenery shows you how to use the latest techniques and materials, time-tested methods, and more! On the garden side, physical characteristics of the layout (mountains? This method appeals to people who want a raised railroad and aren't entirely comfortable with the carpentry involved in the method described below. Blaine says that a bridge or trestle over a dry river bed or water feature is always eye-catching. This also gives you a chance to lay the completed roadbed out on the ground and doublecheck where your post holes will go.

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Radius brass track, and TDV has 10 different radii available in stainless steel. The book is very detailed about not only the trains, but also the cost of setting up a railroad. Dont leave a train out in inclement weather, for example. Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2018, Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2013.

This will allow you to explore many possibilities in a relatively short period of time.

But I planned it in phases so I could get the first phase built and run trains for a while. forbidden. Among other things, you'll find:Details of procedures for planning, constructing, powering, landscaping, operating, and maintaining a complete garden railroad.More than 200 full-color photos of products construction techniques, and inspiring examples of what can actually be achieved in garden railroading.The most comprehensive listings of manufactures, suppliers, clubs, publications, print and video references, and Internet Web site addresses ever published in a model railroading handbook.Answers to the most frequently asked questions about what it takes to get started in this diverse and affordable hobby.Tips and techniques provide by experienced garden railroaders from around the world.Garden railroading: A great hobby for all seasons, and for all the right reasons! The most common raised railroad is made by making a wooden "roadbed" out of 2x6" pressure-treated lumber, connected by 1x6" "plates" and supported on 4x4" posts. Wheels tend to slip and motors tend to overheat particularly on long trains.

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2013. The very best way to learn about garden railroading is to do it.

If you don't plan to backfill at all, you may consider using DekBlocks or a similar product to support your posts, although you'll need to cross-brace between the posts if you raise the railroad more than 24" from the ground. In Florida we do not have many of the constraints that our northern neighbors have to contend with. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2014. , Language Learn more.

, Dimensions

Tin the rail around the holes and both ends of your jumper wire and then insert the wire in the holes on either side of the rail joint while applying heat to the rail as you insert the wire. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. You certainly do want to make sure youre plugged into a GFI outlet, but thats just standard for any outdoor electrical product, Blaine says. There are several ways of doing this so you will probably want to experiment a bit and use whatever method works best for you. From all of those, I kind of looked at what was out there and what my options were.. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. And a 10ft. For this reason it would be rare to find a garden railroad with more than a 3% grade. Add more gravel to any low places to make the track more even, wipe the top of the rails clean, set out the train, hook up the power, and watch it run. Colder climates may require you to use 2"x6" pressure treated lumber, a concrete roadbed, or dig a channel in the ground that you fill with ballast. First book I read concerning garden railroading or model railroading in general.

Note: Family Garden Trains?, Garden Train Store?, Big Christmas Trains?, BIG Indoor Trains?, and BIG Train Store? One solution: the reliable old doggy door.

Back in the day, railroad barons just took the land they needed (we all remember Blazing Saddles). When the track curves back and forth you need to include a piece of straight track between the curves at least as long as the longest locomotive or rolling stock that you plan to run on the railroad. Learn how signals work, applying different systems to layouts, details on automatic and complex systems, and more from expert modeler Dave Abeles. He offered another tip: Dont try to do too much at once. And people love putting the two together. Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2012.

The two main elements are the garden and a railroad, but you are certainly not limited to that. Its always appealing to anyone watching the train operate.. , Item Weight

Getting Started in Garden RailroadingHere's your invitation to get started in a great hobby that's fun for the entire family.Large Scale trains are big, rugged, durable, and colorful - designed for safe and reliable operations both indoors and outdoors. You could for instance lay it on top of roofing shingles and ballast around the track.

: : Eventually, hell have about 800 feet of track.

The next most important thing in the design process is the ground elevation or grade.

After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. deserts?) Try to keep things simple.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app. Family Garden Trains(tm) is the Internet's most complete set of free, professionally-written articles for beginning and intermediate garden railroaders. Third: use a track template and draw your layout piece by piece. Even the real railroads have great difficulty.

Please try again. Something for everyone. A 2% grade would be equal to a two inch rise over one hundred inches of forward movement, or two feet of rise for every one hundred feet of forward travel. You should also avoid reverse curves. It can be done as a family project or as an escape from the daily stress that we may experience. and types of plants to use are all in play.

Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. Garden Train Store(tm) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. If you are using brass track it is very important that each rail joint be covered with LGB # 5101 electrically conductive grease. Other plants that fit in nicely at first can quickly grow out of proportion. : You may get by with less, but your railroad will run longer and more smoothly if you do this during your installation. Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh. This will help to minimize the effects of oxidation that tend to build up inside the rail joiners after a period of time. For those of us who are fortunate enough to live in Florida, the weather is not as big a factor as it may be in a colder climate. Be careful of the plants you use. And that way they dont have to physically move them on and off the track each day.. If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you grow your business. Were able to run trains now. It could also include rocks, or boulders. Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. Theres a lot of different ways to do everything. Yes, a 31.4'-long "railroad" may seem big while you have a box of track in the house, but you'll find that it looks "about right" in your yard, as long as you can fit it in.). There are several ways to check the grade, including a surveyors transit, a water level, or maybe even a piece of string and some kind of level. This will help to prevent derailments and allow the trains to run much more smoothly. One method that works fairly well is to drill a small hole through the side of the rail, starting on the outside, and drilling down towards the inside at a45 degree angle.

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Really cool with the Kindle (Fire) because there are links in the text and appendixes. 3) large radius 22.5 degree curve - 16 pieces make a circle - 3' 10" radius, or 7' 8" diameter circle from the centerline of the track. One you get your superstructure established, you may cut off any objectionable corners of the 2x6s or 1x6s with a power saw.

5'-diameter track circle, or better yet, a 10'-diameter track circle. It starts with real estate. Previous page of related Sponsored Products. . It gave me plenty of ideas. Add interest and entertainment to your outdoor space. Lengths. The heat may play a role in when you choose to get started, but even that is not a deterrent if you plan your fun for early morning, or late evening. It helps keep the tracks even.. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2010.

Whoever the railroad person is (in the house) has to negotiate with the gardener. There are some real attention-grabbers that you should use if possible. Very useful tips on set up and construction of an outdoor garden railroad. Garden Railroading Books, Magazines, and Videos. After reading about 3/4 of it I got bored and put it down. 8) Look What's Growing in the Garden (video HR Trains & Toys, Inc. 2000 HR Trains & Toys, Inc. Don Morris.

So visit other people before you spend the money and figure out what you want.. My wife bought me a G scale locomotive as seed to develop a Garden Railroad. This will allow you to have healthy and mature plants without having to start from scratch. This works much better than river gravel because the irregular shape of the crushed rocks tend to interlock with each other and prevent it from washing away in a heavy rain. You may also want to consider soldering a jumper wire around each rail joint. The electrical conductive grease is only a temporary solution. Find other people who also have a garden railroad and go visit them and learn, Deis advises.

I bought this to help me set up a garden railroad. This grease helps to prevent water from oxidizing the rails inside the rail joiners, causing a loss in the electrical conductivity.

And the options are many. Try again. It also has a lot of good information about taking things gradually like building one section of the layout at a time to be able to run the trains as construction continues. How to set up your Garden Layout, so that the whole family can enjoy the experience of Garden Railways. All rights reserved. For a large scale model train enthusiast like myself this is a comprehensive guide to the garden railway scene although rather outdated in some respects. I knew absolutely nothing about Garden Railroading in spite of having an O scale layout. Garden railroads tend to grow rapidly, and it would be much easier later on if it were planned for. Garden Planner: Organizer for your self grown fruit, veggies and plants - track you Garden Ponds, Fountains & Waterfalls for Your Home: Designing, Constructing, Planti Amazing Jungle Life: Adult Coloring Book (Stress Relieving Creative Fun Drawings to Building Structures for Your Garden Railway (Garden Railways Books). Getting Started in Garden Railroading: Build the Railroad of Your Dreams in Your Own Backyard. Track layout certainly is one of the first things you should consider when designing your layout. Learn how to use tools and elements to blend the track plan itself with structures and scenery in a realistic manner. The most common ground-level railroad is built by digging a trench 5" wide and 4-6" deep, filling it with crushed gravel, then laying the track on top of the gravel and ballasting it by pouring a thin layer of fine crushed gravel on top of it and sweeping the excess out from between the rails.

Something went wrong. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy, Most popular tree: dwarf Alberta spruce (conical, represents small pines), Another useful dwarf tree: Hetz Midget arborvitae provides a more deciduous look, Ground covers: Sedum acre (stonecrop), creeping thyme, Elfin thyme, Evergreen ground covers: blue rug juniper, dwarf procumbent juniper, Transition plants: (for around the edges to transition from miniature to full-size garden plants) threadleaf coreopsis, threadleaf Japanese maple.

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You dont want to wind up building for years and never have a train to run. One popular variation of this method is to use rock garden or retaining wall techniques to build a raised area, truck in and tamp down a few cubic yards of dirt, then dig the trench in the raised area. Unable to add item to List.

If you have the room, consider a 8) ballast - (crushed granite works best), 9) electrical wire, and the appropriate hand tools, 1) Beginner's Guide to the Large Scale Model Railroading by Marc Horovitz and Russ Larson (Greenburg books), 2) Model Railroading with LGB by Robert Schleicher (A Greenburg publication), 3) The Large-scale Model Railroading Handbook by Robert Schleicher (A Chilton Book), 4) LGB Track Planning and Technical Guide by Robert Munzing (Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk ), 7) The LGB Telegram (Buffington Publishing). This simplifies the process because these plans have already done all the designing for you. The most basic, smallest layout you could make is a 4-foot diameter circle, says Doug Blaine, vice president of marketing for Bachmann Trains, which produces a wide variety of trains. Track also comes in a number of different materials such as stainless steel, brass, nickel silver, steel, and aluminum.

Paul D. Race, Editor for Family Garden Trains. Another consideration is track spacing. The only down side is the Kindle format which prevents you from printing sections for reference. Then, shaking the track lightly, pull the track up through the gravel until only the top of the ties show. I read a couple different websites and subscribed to Garden Railways magazine.

There are almost as many ways to build a garden railroad as there are garden railroads, but you might want to start with one of the two most common methods. For one thing, the garden is there 12 months a year, even on days you don't have a chance to run trains. The video is free if you purchase $250.00 or more of any large scale trains, track, or accessories. , ISBN-13 Where do you build a garden railroad? You could wire the ties down loosely every so many feet, if you're paranoid about the track slipping off the roadbed, although that seldom happens, and almost never happens to track that has been backfilled and ballasted. The two most prominent ones are a bridge or a trestle and a tunnel. Inside, outside, front yard, back yard, side yard, pool enclosure, or anywhere you have space.

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Nocturnal critters would love such a ready-made burrow. It seemed to like to explain the obvious without details of methods specific to garden trains. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. It requires very little maintenance and it looks great in the garden as well.

The tunnel, he says, can be a real tunnel or it can be merely hinted at by overhanging plants or rocks piled carefully along the tracks, with one rock covering a portion of it. Most people like to assemble three or four lengths of 2x6" together with the 1x6" plates and lay some track on them temporarily to make certain they've measured right before they fasten the whole thing together. A good way to accomplish this is to use a large set of bus wires running parallel to the track and use smaller jumper wires to the terminal track sections every 25 to 30 feet. Real railroads dont use them, and neither should you. It doesnt have to be an actual earthen tunnel, but something to suggest it, he says. The first step is planning. They usually include electrical diagrams and other considerations that will normally save you a considerable amount of time. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. But whatever you do, or whatever else you think you need to know, don't fall prey to "paralysis by analysis."