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Garden Railways, The Magazine
There is certainly no question that outdoor railways offer a unique challenge in the hobby of model railroading. Not only do you have Mother Nature to contend with but also the question of how to design your garden to include a railway within it. If you are completely new to the hobby but would like to get started the magazine is certainly a great guide in doing so giving you plenty of tips and tricks and other useful information. For those beginners below are some common questions asked, courtesy of Garden Railways and Kalmbach Publishing: What are large scale trains? "Large Scale" is a term that denotes trains that are larger than 0 scale (1:48) but smaller than the trains that are large enough to ride on. Large-scale trains generally run on gauge 0, gauge 1, or gauge 3 track. Do you leave them outdoors all the time? Most people bring their trains indoors when they are not running, even though most brands (LGB, Aristo-Craft, Bachmann, etc.) can withstand prolonged exposure to the elements. Some people have built tracks that run indoors through the walls of their houses. However, the rest of the infrastructure -- track, bridges, buildings -- stay out year round. Can a garden railway be built in areas that receive snow? Sure. When you model indoors, you are dealing with realism, the illusion of reality. When you model outdoors, reality stares you in the face. A garden railway faces all the same natural hazards as a full-size railroad, including rain, sleet, snow, and gloom of night. That's all part of the fun. People in the northern climes often have working snowplows to clear their lines. These can take the form of a simple wedge plow mounted to a loco's pilot or to a gondola car pushed ahead of the engine, to working rotary plows that will toss the snow 8' or more to one side. Snow, of course, is one of those things you can't scale down. A moderate 6" snow scales out to 12' in 1:24 scale. Keep this in mind when expecting your plow to clear the track. Also, light, powdery snow is much easier to deal with than the wet, heavy stuff. I want to start a G-scale railway in my yard. Where do I get all my questions answered on building a railway? Your magazine always shows railroads in warm places and I live in the north. 1. Join a garden railway society in your area (see the Club Directory at the back of the magazine or here on our web site).2. Read the book, Garden Railways: Getting Started.3. Read everything else you can lay your hands on4. Learn by getting out and doing it. Is there any publication that provides suggested prices for used large-scale trains? Kalmbach Publishing Co. publishes Greenberg's Pocket Price Guides for various toy train lines. I know of no published information for LGB, Bachmann, USA Trains, Aristo-Craft, Hartland, or other manufacturers. Your best bet is to read the want ads in the magazines and on the Internet and send for people's lists. You can also visit online auctions such as eBay and see what prices items have been selling for. Over time you should get a feel for what things are selling for. In all, while I have never built a garden railway of my own (yet anyway!), I have purchased a few copies of the magazine over the years and was impressed by the detailed information included. They honestly help you as much with your garden, as far as what types of plants to include, as with the layout itself.
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