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Garden railroad, take 2

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, December 14, 2019 5:34 PM

 Wanted to see how the buildings will look on the railroad

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, December 14, 2019 5:39 PM

 The detail level of the bird houses is equivalent to my home made structures 

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, December 14, 2019 5:44 PM

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, December 14, 2019 5:48 PM

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, December 14, 2019 5:53 PM

 Smooth Operator.....Sade, and my Forney !

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, December 14, 2019 5:56 PM

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, December 14, 2019 6:00 PM

 I'm happy with the bird houses. Plus, it saves me from having to build them.

  • Member since
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  • From: Ormond Beach, FL
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Posted by chocho willy on Sunday, December 15, 2019 12:30 PM

Looking good

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Posted by PVT Kanaka on Sunday, December 15, 2019 6:46 PM
Wish I could find those birdhouses locally!
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Posted by Postwar Paul on Sunday, December 15, 2019 11:30 PM

They're great !!

it's Ace hardware, maybe try online ?

they're just about the right size for our needs . And reasonably priced.

Paul

  • Member since
    February 2015
  • From: Ormond Beach, FL
  • 389 posts
Posted by chocho willy on Monday, December 16, 2019 9:24 AM

Eric they are also available from Amazon and Walmart, just search Home Bazaar birdhouses, Bill

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Tuesday, December 24, 2019 4:26 PM

Merry Christmas to all !

I thinking about, at least partially, adding a Swiss influence to my railway. Trying to figure out how exactly to do it. To see what I'm talking about, Google:

Rhatische Bahn

Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke

Brienz Rothorn Bahn

then, look at images. Always been impressed by how Switzerland has used technology to overcome the mountain obstacles. Wish me luck !!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Tuesday, December 24, 2019 6:30 PM
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Posted by PVT Kanaka on Thursday, December 26, 2019 11:20 PM
Paul, LGB has a lot of Alpine stuff available, making equipment easy to come by. I would consider whether or not you have access to the landscaping materials to emulate the Alps. You could have a cool Alpine-inspired railroad without it, but I think you'd want the granite faces to announce "Wilkommen nach Alpenland!" Of course, this is coming from a guy who has no problem running his German narrow gage stuff on his allegedly Hawaii-themed railroad! Eric
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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, December 27, 2019 6:46 PM

Thank you for some ideas !

Yes, I realize this is a tall order, plus, my space is very small, and, it's flat !! I am still trying to figure out how exactly to at the very least capture the flavor of the region. I am still convinced that I can come up with something to at least suggest...

I've had a lot of ideas for this railroad, but this one is sticking !

The whole point of the excercise is to give my rack engine a hill to climb !!

Paul

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Posted by PVT Kanaka on Friday, December 27, 2019 9:14 PM

Paul,

We had a gentleman suggest standar packing foam, carved to shape, and covered with concrete for a difficult part of our own "mountains."  These were non-loadbearin areas, and it worked great.  With the right stains, it blended in very well with the lava rock that forms the basis of most of our mountains.  Maybe a similar process would work for you?  Texturally, it might be "wrong," but you could cheaply and easily carve you 1:22.5 "Alps" to shape.  I imaginne some clever sculpting as the concrete set and clever paintwork afterwork might do the rest.

 

I am not sure if this would hold serve as aviable foundation for the train, however.  That might require a more traditional sub roadbed to take the weight

 

Eric

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, December 27, 2019 10:58 PM

These are all great ideas, thank you !

I think the track itself may need to be supported with treated lumber, and the actual scenery could be something like you described. I am still combing the hardware stores, and looking at materials. Should be a fun project, once I figure out the best way to approach...

Paul

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Wednesday, January 1, 2020 7:07 PM

Getting fired up to try LGB's rack system !

I've got some ideas to try out. I think I can run a cog line off what is now a siding, up and over the rest! Been researching the track components. 

Just wondering, does anyone have experience with the rack system?

  • Member since
    November 2015
  • From: Pibrac near Toulouse - France
  • 9 posts
Posted by ARIA on Thursday, January 9, 2020 5:11 AM

LGB put a nice information set in the LGB depesche dtd 3/2917

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:13 PM

Thank You for the info about the Glacier Express in LGB's depeche!

I enjoyed reading about it very much, and I hope one day to ride this great train. I always tho ught RhB's helix at Brusio on the Bernini Pass line would be ideal in a model train setup.

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:21 PM

 I realize that I do not have the space for the Glacier Express in my tiny garden line, but I can try to capture some of the flavor of the cog Railways in Switzerland. The cog lines are numerous, and some of my most pleasant memories !!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:27 PM

 I want to try to use this idea somewhere !!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:31 PM

 But I think the smaller cog Railways would fit more easily into my modest system.

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:36 PM

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:40 PM

 I'd love to try to kitbash this !!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:45 PM

 LGB has a steam rack engine, which is on my wish list !!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:51 PM

To try to capture this somehow....

 Paul

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Posted by PVT Kanaka on Friday, January 10, 2020 12:50 AM

Paul,

I think you can capture a feel for any of these systems.  The key, I think, will be the terrain, not necessarily the size.  If you include a couple clever curves with some out of sight time for the train, you can surely get the illusion of space.  We were shocked by how much "bigger" the Triple O appeared when we connected our two "mountains" with a saddle.  Trains disapper from sight about 10 seconds, but that is really enough to give us a sense of them going somewhere.

 

Eric

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, January 10, 2020 11:00 PM

Eric,

thank you for the great advice ! I am not sure exactly how to approach this, or how it will turn out. When you work on an indoor layout, the materials are different. You tend to work with wood, and paint ,and such. Outdoors, it's stone, concrete, dirt, and such. But, the illusions are the same, and similar tricks can be used. I've learned that capturing the essence is much more powerful than exact scale. Many great layouts have been very successful with suggesting a city, or scenery that if built to exact scale would be enormous ! It'S a challenge! But I'm excited to try !

Plus, I also believe it is important to dream Big ! If you accomplish only 1% of what you had set out to do, it'll be fantastic !

Paul

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Sunday, February 2, 2020 11:56 AM

February 2020

 

 

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