General Discussion (Garden Railways)

While I love GRR, sometimes I feel I need another garden RR mag. When I visited Switzerland this year, I saw a really nice garden RR magazine in a bookstore in Zurich, but unfortunately, it was in German and I don't speak it (tho mom's parents did).

Also, I understand there are British garden RR mags.

Does anyone get these; and if so, what do you find useful/intriguing about them; perhaps in a way that GRR doesn't offer? (not to belittle GRR which is fantastic & #1).

The main British Large Scale magazine is "Garden Rail", published monthly, quite a different magazine to "Garden Railways",  a lot more Live Steam, plus scratch building articles, mainly in 16mm Scale.  Always a good read, but be warned very little on US railroads, very British in content.

The british Garden Rail mag is not what I would recomend to any one across the pond   try the Model Railways  I think thats what its called. Over here we do not have a big range of mags to choose from. Thats why we have your garden railways mag it`s go so much info in it

Well now, I get 'Garden Railways Magazine', which I enjoy reading and flicking through from time to time.  I also get 'GardenRail' (the British mag.).  As I live in Japan I appreciate seeing what people are doing in their gardens without having to fly over to see them!

I agree that GardenRail doesn't have much in the way of US contents, but neither does GRR have much of the British or European scene.  Before anyone points out, yes I know Britain is in Europe, though not many British people would ever call themselves European!  I digress.

I enjoy both mags and would urge you to either get hold of a couple of Garden Rail mags (Ebay often has some up for grabs) or take out a one year sub.  One of the better things about GardenRail is that it is a monthly mag, which is something to really look forward to in the post.  There are more articles written by regular enthusiasts and is for my mony a better read.

I also get 'Locomotives International' but that is only quarterly.  It is an interesting read and has lots on old steam locos, sometimes unusual ones which suits me well.

I have not subscribed to 16mm Today yet, though I did get a copy via Ebay and it was worth the effort, though similar to GardenRail.

Go for GardenRail, unless you only have time for US stock.  Keep in mind that inspiration come for many places!

 

Hi Matt

We break for a news brief 16mm today is the magazine of the Sixteen mm Scale Association

Although it looks like and is a top shelf publication its a club magazine normaly only avalable to members.

I have one copy of it and am well impressed.

regards John

FJ and G wrote:

.................................................... When I visited Switzerland this year, I saw a really nice garden RR magazine in a bookstore in Zurich, but unfortunately, it was in German and I don't speak it (tho mom's parents did).

Chances are the magazine you saw  in Zürich was GARTENBAHNprofi.

English translations of a variety of the articles published in GARTENBAHNprofi can be found on our website at www.easternmountainmodels.com/eng/html/gartenbahnprofi.html

They are in PDF format and a free download! However the PDFs contain only the text, for the excellent pictures you will still need the published magazine.

Hope that helps, best regards

ER

Thanks for pointing out the detail there John.  Yes  I know 16mmToday is a club mag, but a very good one at that.  Subscription / membership...whatever, it still means more dosh for just a quarterly mag.

Still can' beat once a month for a treat in the letterbox.

I read the garden railways magasine, garden rail, and the g-scale journal, also railway moddler and Continental moddler(the last two are mainly the smaller scales). I am quite dissappointed in garden rail as it is so heavily weighted towards 16mm, and not evenly balanced with g-scale, don't get me wrong i like 16mm, but theres not enough g-scale, and what there is is almost entirely devoted to only Lgb(again don't get me wrong i like lgb but it would be far better if there was a balance). Garden Railways is fine more than twice as large as garden rail, but its only bi-monthly, plus the reviews give you everything you want to know including pulling power and dimentions, where as garden rail just says things like 'i expect this to be a powerful loco' and therefore not very descriptive. The g-scale journal however, although its even worse at quarterly, is in my opinion the best of the bunch, it's got everything and i'm interested in all of it!

daniel

Hmmm. Sounds tempting to start up a U.S. magazine called Garden Railroader, and have it published every other month when GRR (the magazine to this forum) is not published.

I didn't see this mentioned, but there's another German magazine called Gartenbahn (published in German). You can visit their web site at www.gartenbahn.de

This is a little more fringe, but Steam in the Garden is another interesting pub. They are at www.steamup.com (published in the US).

Takasaki Matt wrote:

Well now, I get 'Garden Railways Magazine', which I enjoy reading and flicking through from time to time.  I also get 'GardenRail' (the British mag.).  As I live in Japan I appreciate seeing what people are doing in their gardens without having to fly over to see them! I agree that GardenRail doesn't have much in the way of US contents, but neither does GRR have much of the British or European scene.  Before anyone points out, yes I know Britain is in Europe, though not many British people would ever call themselves European!  I digress. I enjoy both mags and would urge you to either get hold of a couple of Garden Rail mags (Ebay often has some up for grabs) or take out a one year sub.  One of the better things about GardenRail is that it is a monthly mag, which is something to really look forward to in the post.  There are more articles written by regular enthusiasts and is for my mony a better read. I also get 'Locomotives International' but that is only quarterly.  It is an interesting read and has lots on old steam locos, sometimes unusual ones which suits me well. I have not subscribed to 16mm Today yet, though I did get a copy via Ebay and it was worth the effort, though similar to GardenRail. Go for GardenRail, unless you only have time for US stock.  Keep in mind that inspiration come for many places!

 

I hear ya gang.....I long for seeing what the Germans and alpine countries are up to....I have had copies of GardenRail and I find it a very nice journal....it really has a "grass roots" feel to it, and the pix of those live steamers in the garden are great.  Note that it seems the British prefer live steam to electric powered locos....i guess they feel steam locos should be run only by real steam power...purists ethics i guess.   i wish i had a live steam engine....but i dont have a outdoor pike so i could only set it up temp.

as for other countries , i have seen many layouts from Germany--even an O scale outdoor layout operated by track power (it was shown in the O gauge magazine here in the States).  the Germans like lots of accessories and really approach the outdoor layout like they were making and indoor HO empire.  Attention to detail---figures, lots of structures and signals, bridges, and I have noticed that because the European landscapes have relatively more "textures" than the American heartland--in other words---the roads were paved much earlier with cobblestones or brickwork , the abutments were many styles , etc. so the overall garden railway for a  European prototype  looks much "busier" or "congested" than a American garden railway, most of which model the American west in the 1800-to early 1900s which means not a whole lot of people around in one area.

I feel that because of the above "texture" oriented railways of Europe it requires quite a bit more work to get a realistic Euro layout in the garden than a rural American prototype...a bit more expense, at least i dont see how i could get around spending thousands on bonsai plants to get that Black Forest look!

I do wish GR magazine would bend a little more to the international scene, but every once in a while there is a nice surprise. For years I wanted them to do indoor layouts now they finally show them as well

 

Regards,

Tom M.

 

 

 

Speaking as a UK resident (I am not English) and member of a Garden Railway Association... The majority of the club locos are steam, however there are a large number of battery electric and even CLOCKWORK locomotives running around the club layouts.

Most clubs produce their own newsletter, they have a definate home grown feel to them and I for one like them for it!!! Ours may be found here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sheila.capella/test/BGRA/archives.htm

BLATENT ADVERTISEMENT

It is our open weekend this weekend 19th and 20th and the Midland Railways Centre 25th celebrations next weekend. We plan to have 25 model steam locos running on our layout -just as the real Std gauge plan to have 25 std gauge locos running on their track!

regards

ralph

Oh .  I'd love to join you for a garden railway meet, just a few minor problems-

I have to work the whole weekend (open campus, of all the...), a bloody big exam to make (with little help from my so called colleagues) and I'm in the wrong country!

I hope you get good weather and manage to find a few bargains.

I too wish for a live steam loco.  Until then, my battery fleet continues to grow.