Madman
Registered
So I have been doing my garden railway thing since 1992. Before that I had a Lionel Post-War type layout in the basement. I re-entered the Lionel world in 1977 with a starter set and built more layouts than I care to admit along the way. Some known as Hi-Rail with scenery and the obligatory mountains. The last Lionel layout was the Post-War type mentioned earlier, with all of the operating accessories.
In 1991 we were in Busch Gardens, Virginia, where I saw an LGB display. The bug had bitten. My first large scale layout was built on the same platform as my last Lionel layout. The very next year, 1992, I moved outdoors with some skepticism from SWMBO. She was concerned that it would look junky. To her pleasant surprise, it did't.
I laid track on concrete slabs, the type sold as pavers, about 8x16x1.5". My power pack was indoors on a window sill where I could see the layout in it's entirety. All 6x20 feet of it. Track power was my method of powering the trains and I soon learned that jumper wires needed. Some back breaking work on an existing layout.
Next I wanted a pond, small but functional. There too lessons were learned. In pond building, bigger is better. Larger ponds take care of themselves.
As the decade of the '90s wore on, more land grabbing was on my mind. First about twenty feet to the south. Then another fifty feet northward. At the end of the last century, the final extension was built which added another fifty feet northward.
Some time in the first decade of my railway, I abandoned the concrete slab roadbed method of laying track in favor of floating the track on ballast. For me, a huge improvement. Makes changes so much simpler.
In 2010 I made the switch to the dark side, battery power. Another huge improvement. No more track cleaning.
Over the years I have had many different ideas on how to do things. Turnout control, first the EPL system, then air, then back to the EPL system. Finally settling on manual control of the turnouts. A lot of detail at first, with many structures and figures, lamp posts, signals, etc. All gone now, but replaced by landscape lighting. I constructed catenary systems that worked very well, but made gardening more difficult for SWMBO. That's gone too, the cat system that is.....
The bottom line, in my case, is that simpler and less is better. I still like to tinker. My Lionel roots will not allow me to leave those operating accessory ideas go to waste. These are things that don't clutter the railway, but can add action to it. I lead a rather busy life, though retired. I can enjoy the railway more when I have less maintenance to do to it.
All of that said, I can certainly appreciate a well detailed outdoor railway. But for now I will leave that to those who have the inclination to do so.
In 1991 we were in Busch Gardens, Virginia, where I saw an LGB display. The bug had bitten. My first large scale layout was built on the same platform as my last Lionel layout. The very next year, 1992, I moved outdoors with some skepticism from SWMBO. She was concerned that it would look junky. To her pleasant surprise, it did't.
I laid track on concrete slabs, the type sold as pavers, about 8x16x1.5". My power pack was indoors on a window sill where I could see the layout in it's entirety. All 6x20 feet of it. Track power was my method of powering the trains and I soon learned that jumper wires needed. Some back breaking work on an existing layout.
Next I wanted a pond, small but functional. There too lessons were learned. In pond building, bigger is better. Larger ponds take care of themselves.
As the decade of the '90s wore on, more land grabbing was on my mind. First about twenty feet to the south. Then another fifty feet northward. At the end of the last century, the final extension was built which added another fifty feet northward.
Some time in the first decade of my railway, I abandoned the concrete slab roadbed method of laying track in favor of floating the track on ballast. For me, a huge improvement. Makes changes so much simpler.
In 2010 I made the switch to the dark side, battery power. Another huge improvement. No more track cleaning.
Over the years I have had many different ideas on how to do things. Turnout control, first the EPL system, then air, then back to the EPL system. Finally settling on manual control of the turnouts. A lot of detail at first, with many structures and figures, lamp posts, signals, etc. All gone now, but replaced by landscape lighting. I constructed catenary systems that worked very well, but made gardening more difficult for SWMBO. That's gone too, the cat system that is.....
The bottom line, in my case, is that simpler and less is better. I still like to tinker. My Lionel roots will not allow me to leave those operating accessory ideas go to waste. These are things that don't clutter the railway, but can add action to it. I lead a rather busy life, though retired. I can enjoy the railway more when I have less maintenance to do to it.
All of that said, I can certainly appreciate a well detailed outdoor railway. But for now I will leave that to those who have the inclination to do so.
