Planning to start working on a garden G layout. It will focus around a pond and landscaping. Looking for landmines and pitfalls and adivce on what to do and not to do. Any help appreciated
Welcome Philly Welcome to the TrainBoard!!!! I started a couple years ago building and planning my railroad..and used the bigginners books about halfway down this website....... *********** Getting started in Model railroading. Building and designing your outdoor railroad. and Garden Railroading. They were very good reading for the initial planning. Later, I found this, and some other train web sites that have many good modelers, with great experience and ideas to help. Just ask, ane you will find the answers. Please visit this link....... First G Scale out door Layout!! - TrainBoard.com This is the thread on the railroad my wife and I have been working on. We are not experts.....and are still learning. But there are some good pics and posts from others about this great hobby. We have been working on the spring clean up of our track and garden....and I will be posting more on how the winter affected out layout soon......(we are still figuring that stuff out), but for now......just read all you can ........there are no wrong ways......just some that are much better than others!!!! Regards. Darryl
welcom !!! Welcome to Train Board ! Sorry I cant help much with out door railroads. I do model in G scale but I have an indoor layout. Its just that where I live, I could weld the rails down and they’d still be gone in the morning. L But Welcome and I’ll offer help where I can. J
philly33, welcome to Train Board. dmillier has built a real nice outdoor layout and did it right. Please visit his link to his posts here on Train Board.
Take your time with planning and do your homework! EMD Trainman has some useful threads floating around that I found very useful.
Just remember one thing, always remember to leave room for expansion on your design plans. And don't be afraid to start over again and again until you get the layout that works for you.
Garden Railways Magazine has always been a good refernece for me and years ago they just featured kitbashed trains, today they feature alot of commercial and more modern trains as well as kitbashed trains. Anyway, they are showing you a step by step article on how to build a outdoor layout. Of course each step will be in a different issue, so you probably have to buy like 4 issues to get all of the steps. Step #1 started in April 2010 issue, so it may not be too late to buy this issue. Most important, like DragonFyreGT said, leave room for expansion, make sure you have proper drainage and choose the right foundation for your track and ballast for your area that you live. Frost will destroy certain materials on your layout. The last thing is to remember that track expands and contracts with heat, so Hillmans invented this neat rail expander track, as you layout expands and contracts, the rail expander allows this to happen easier. Figure what you want to run before even considering what curves you want to buy, the standard for most outdoor layouts is 10ft diameter curves minimum, if you want to go smaller due to cost, alot of trains made today will only run on certain diameter curve. I have a Intro to G scale for newbies post in the G scale section that list what trains are what scale ratio and what diameter curve they will run on. Also figure out if you want to run on track power or battery power. If you want to run large or multiple lash up diesels for instance, you should use a nice big transformer with 10 gauge wire and hillmans rail clamps for hook ups to the track. So figuring out what you want to run first makes a differnece in what you buy and how you build something. Another newbie out mistake, never use mulch under your track in place of ballast, you will be sorry, you want to keep any type of mulch as far away as you can from track, especially switches. Mulch will basically float away from under your track creating no support and it also jams up switches. Do it right the first time. Trust me, less aggravation later. Here is the link to my article G scale for newbies, please read this first, it may be helpful >>>> http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=114106 Feel free to ask questions or make commnts in that post link
Thanks, I'm really wondering about roadbed preparation and elevation changes in the layout. How nuts do I really need to go if what I plan is a summer time layout that I will refresh in the spring after taking most everything in during the snowy season. I also keep finding highly variable numbers for the percent grade that is acceptable. I'm planning to run LGB rolling stock.
Road Bed Philly33, Here is what I have experienced so far on the road bed issues..... I used crushed fines available locally, and put in a really good base, (3-6 inches) and one thing we found thru the winter, is that no matter how well drained or contoured, we will still need to refresh/replace some of the fines every year. Settling, wind, rain, errosion, all play a factor in this......and we know now that this will just be one of the maintinence items we will always need to do. That being said, all we are really doing is putting more rock around the track.....the BASE is still solid as ever, and on grade. No real work needs to be redone there. Dont skimp on the base roadbed......it does make a difference. We can walk on our road bed base when it is dry, and it feels pretty much like a sidewalk!!! Hard and firm as can be! As for taking the track in in the winter......if you use Stainless Steel or brass...you wont "have" to take it in. That was the most suprising thing for me, was how well the track survived one of the most horrible winters we have ever seen!!! It was under snow almost the whole winter from Dec. on, and the temps were well below freezing, and even below '0' degrees for much of the winter, and all I did was a quick scotch brite pad cleaning this early spring, and it was good to go!!! As EMD mentioned, keep the mulch away......and even keep as much rock ballast away from the track switch machines.......rain will work the dust and fine rocks into the switches...and jam them. I always have to make sure they are clean and opperable before running the trains. One thing I have done to help with this is to build a pressure treated wood base grid for the switches, to keep the rock as far away as possible. May not look exactly "scale" but I havent had near the issues with the switch machines jamming as I had before. As for the grade/elevation issues.....I was concerned as well.....but after running the trains on the track.....I was supprised how well they handled the climbs. It really didnt become an issue. I kept my grades to 2% and less......and used a 4 ft level with a small block on one end to measure the grade. A 1/4 inch block on the end of a 4 ft level equals 1/2 percent grade.......etc. Most of the time I used a 3/4 inch block......and as I mentioned.....the trains have not had a problem at all with this grade. The biggest thing for planning is to make sure you have drainage/water flow plans. Ie, is your layout on a hill???? Then make sure u can divert the rain flow away and around the roadbeds........this will help with the errosion issues. Hope these things help!!! Its a great hobby:tb-biggrin: Darryl
thanks Thanks for the info. I'm not planning to start out with any switches just a loop around the circumference of a pond. May well grow from there of course. I had planned on trying to hold the grade to 2% or less but will have do some construction to make that happen. Looking for a local source for crushed fines but since we are in an agriculotural area figure I can always drop back to chicken grit if forced.
source for fines Philly....... Where do you live?? I am in a rural portion of Northern Illinois, and I found that a couple of the local quaries will let me drive right into the pits, and the loaders will dump the products right onto my truck in bulk. Only about $5 a pickup truck full. Another option is ready mix cement plants.....our local ones have the grit/fines as a by-product, and will sell it bulk, as well. Also check out landscaping or gardening outlets, and look for paver base.....same stuff. The "chicken grit' is the same, but you will be spending a TON (pun intended) more by buying it by the bag! Darryl
We have a quarry that will do that too. But you have to call ahead and they don't publically advertise that.
