HELP

[Anonymous]

where would you get a Garden train
because i'm thinking of starting a lage garden train
but i'm not sure yet but i need help finding them
so please help as much as you can
Thank You
What would also be the best locomotive for a garden train
1 half acre is what i'm looking for

[toenailridgesl]

Bill,
start by buying the magazine & read the ads.

[John Busby]

HI Bill
A number of outlets for garden trains advertise in Garden Railways the US
magazine and Garden Rail the UK magazine.
Your second question is perhaps the hardest to answer and you will get many BIASED replys on it, all as biased as mine.
I have LGB mostly one USA trains and one Hartland locomotive one Bachmann,
one scratch built by a friend and two live steam.
First forget the last three because of all the locomotives they win hands
down.
Back to the others
LGB the best as far as I am concerned all bar one of mine are four wheeled locomotives and I have had no problems other than fair wear and tear

The Bachman still waitng for it to come back from a heart and lung
transplant not impressed with this brand but others say different because of low cost and improvments over time

Hartland I have the little Mach locomotive
cheap and cheerfull I was surprised by this one it runs well inspite of its low cost looks best with small rollingstock.

USA trains only have one loco and have not run it often enough to form
a reasonable opinion on it but they are well detailed and apear to be good quality.

As stated My preferance is for LGB locomotives the quality is there so they get the nod from me but they are very expencive.

There are other things that will influence choice which I have no control over
they all come down to the style of railway you are familliar with like the look of
and will ultimatly build.
The three pieces of advice that always seem to come up are get Garden Railways magazine and get a start set
The third piece of advice is use the largest radius curves you can fit in when you build the line.
The reason for the last one is that not all locomotives you can buy will go round the curves that come with the start set,
and in the case of Bachmann sets the advice is dont use it as it is not suitable for out side use nor is it compatable with any of the brands that are..
regards John

[ttrigg]

Bill;

Looks as if both John and Phil have said a mouth full!

Having made the leap from HO & N scales to the garden size, I'm finding that what holds true in the smaller scales also holds true in the garden. Marklin and Flieshmann are my "workhorse" motive power in the smaller scales, LGB seems to be the motive power in the garden (all are of German ancestry). The larger the curve, the better looking the trains are when moving through them (in any scale.) Slopes of 2% - 2.5% (or less) seems to be the best in any scale, at least as far as engine performance and overall appearance.

If you have any experience in the smaller scales, you will notice that most everything is the same, except your tools are larger, and instead of using ground up foam you are using live plants, WHAT A CONCEPT!

Get the magazine, visit you local dealer, surf the web, and enjoy your trains.

[Curmudgeon]

Odd.
I have LGB locos, and while they run fine, can be of questionable scale, and detail can be wanting.

I use Bachmann almost exclusively (3 or 4 LGB out of 15 trains running last night) for cost, scale fidelity and detail.
Narrow gauge ruling grades are 4%.
Standard is 2%.
That said, there were a lot of prototypical variations.

I have never had to replace a Bachmann motor, yet my lgb Moguls are on third Buehler motors, a 2085 is on second.

You have to make up your mind ahead of time as to era, scale, standard or narrow gauge, and then control systems, and type of track.

If you do not, you will buy a whole lotta stuff you won't use and lose money getting rid of it!

I use 250 and 215 track, so it "looks" better and doesn't overpower the trains, but if you buy all 332, and 2 years down the road decide it's too "big", you're stuck.

Think and plan a bit FIRST.

TOC

[Marty Cozad]

Bill, I like to find out what a persons back ground in trains is first. Then we can help you better. How much space and what are you looking to do?

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Marty's got the right question cause he said a half acre. That's a lot of "G"! Could he be talking one that's the size of an amusement park train? I'd have done that but a mile of track to get around my cornfield would have required deeper pockets than mine!

[Anonymous]

as usual i disagree with everyone. The heart of this matter is the civil engineering aspect of it and i wouls start there. get something on the ground running first then try to envisage what you wi***o achive overall. This will change dramatically as you on. Learn about the basics first they have a terrrific book which I cant recall due to jet lag.

As try to get a abnk balance of many tens of thousands of dollars as well.


rgds ian