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I live near Dallas, Texas. We have to deal with the same temperatures as you do in the summer. Fortunately, we are not quite as humid (although still pretty humid compared to other parts of the country). There are several different aspects to garden railroading that can be considered separately as some of these may be more important to you, or may not be important at all. * Track You won't have any problems leaving the track out year round. The thing you do need to consider is expansion/contraction. I find the best way to deal with this is to have lots of curves and to NOT fasten the track down - let if float in the ballast (like the real trains do). Solid brass track is probably the most common, but the new stainless steel track is becoming more popular. Just make sure the track is solid metal. Don't use Bachmann track outdoors since it is hollow steel with will rust away in no time in your environment. * Engines and Rolling stock As others have pointed out, you probably do not want to leave your engines and cars out except when you are running them. Some people get quite fancy and build train sheds so that they can just drive the train out of the shed and then back into the shed when they are complete. Personally, I keep all of my trains indoors and carry them outside when I want to play with trains. * Plants The gardening aspect of garden railroading is really no different than gardening in general. You just need to make sure you use plants that do well in your area. A hard lesson I learned when I first moved to Texas is that a lot of nursery don't necessarily sell plants that grow well in the area - they sell the plants that people want to buy. Find a nusery that specializes in native plants and talk to them. There is also a CD you can get that shows plants that grow well in Texas with a search tool. * Buildings and scenery If you want to include buildings in your garden railroad then you need to make sure they are made of materials that can withstand the elements in your area. - I would avoid anything made of wood, especially plywood. An exception might be if it were made of redwood or treated lumber. - For plastic, you need to make sure the plastic is UV protected (most plastics are not, they need special UV inhibitors added to be able to hold up outdoors). There are G scale buildings made of UV protected plastic, but they can be expensive (expect to pay nearly $100 per building give or take $25). - Concrete can be used for building. Check out www.jigstones.com. They sell molds where you can cast your own concrete pieces to build just about anything you want (buildings, bridges, tunnel portals, etc.) - Anything made of metal should be OK as long as it isn't steel. Steel, of course, will rust away (stainless steel is OK outdoors) Something else to consider is to paint the structures using exterior grade paint (the same kind as you would use on a house). Paint can protect surfaces that might otherwise last in an outdoor environment. I hope this helps. Jon
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