Does anyone have any suggestions for a retaining wall? I want to raise the rail line area to about 3 to 4 feet for better viewing. I am considering just using landscape timbers but rail road ties may be more appealing. The timbers may be cheaper and easier to handle. Ideas anyone?
Thanks,
Chuck
SRS 4501 wrote: "mgilger" is the name of one of the members who responded to your first post. He included a link to pictures of his layout. Remember now? You are getting some good advice and I am benefiting from it as well. Did you ever mention what part of GA your in? Anywhere near Warner Robins? Best Regards.
"mgilger" is the name of one of the members who responded to your first post. He included a link to pictures of his layout. Remember now?
You are getting some good advice and I am benefiting from it as well. Did you ever mention what part of GA your in? Anywhere near Warner Robins?
Best Regards.
Sorry...I was a little brain dead yesterday from a challenging day at work.
We live in the small town of Dacula that is in northern Gwinnett....suburb on the northeast side of Atlanta . I am originally from Griffin which is roughly 50 miles up I75 from Macon.
If you ever travel to North GA, I strongly recomend visiting the Southeastern Railray museum in Duluth. They have a great selection of railroad cars and locomotives that have been restored. It is responisble for my renewed interest in model railroading.
http://www.srmduluth.org/
Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody!
"Good luck to you and man, is that some layout of "mgilger's" or what?"
SRS, What is a mgilger? Coogler is my last name and just named the railroad after my family. My wife is German, so we may start german railway later and name that after her family. We decided to go after the southern approach since I am from GA and wife has spent most of her life here as well.
vsmith, that is great advise about using the bachman as display track. I had read elsewhere on this forum that it was not sutable for outdoors but just to make sure I wanted to throw out the question to make sure that there was no exceptions. You are right...I think that I am sunk now.
Right now I am frustrated with the lack of time and money.....I do wish that I was independently wealthy! I have a lot of vacation time in December so we should get the current track up and running from there.
Hey Ray, your setup look wonderful. You gave me an idea how to manage the hill in my backyard and keep our dogs away...that fence system looks like it may work for me.
Have fun with your trains
Good advice already given but worth repeating. Get some track down and run a train. It's very easy to stay in the design stage and dream of empires, so easy a long time can pass. To follow up on the track questions, LGB design all their equipment to negotiate their tight radius 1 curves, nobody else does - by design that is! 8' diameter curves are the minimum if you can fit them in.
Kim
Greetings to you to "Coogler." I too am new to this garden rr thing and have been getting tons of great advice from the forum for about a month now. Look for my posting in this forum under the key word RECOMMENDATIONS.
Sounds like you are hooked like me. I love the fact that you are starting out with a Southern Locomotive. As you can see that is my handle in the forum, SRS 4501. That of course was the famous steam locomotive that handled passenger service for Southern for many years.
I am starting out however with Bachmann. My selection is their 60th Anniversity edition Big Hauler 4-6-0 engine. It carries the markings of the E.T. & W.N.C. line. (East Tennessee and Western North Carolina) Look through my posting and you'll learn why I choose this line.
Will looking forward to sharing experiences with you as we both grow in this hobby. Good luck to you and man, is that some layout of "mgilger's" or what?
Coogler Rail Line wrote: Thanks Again, My wife has purchased some Bachman trtack off of ebay. Is this usable in a outdoor enviroment?
Thanks Again,
My wife has purchased some Bachman trtack off of ebay. Is this usable in a outdoor enviroment?
Welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of Garden Railroading!!
In a nutshell, no, Bachman track is not suitable for outdoor use. It is made of raw steel and will rust away in short order. It is good for indoor use only. Aristo-Craft, LGB, and others make very fine outdoor track in brass, stainless and nickle silver. Do a search on the forum and you will come up with several threads on track, mostly brass vs. stainless. Make your own decision on which to use based upon your needs and budget, all of them will give you many years of service. I prefer Aristo brass for it's durability and low cost.
Again, welcome and feel free to ask any questions that may arise in your planning or construction or your new empire.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
I use the LGB MTE (Multi Train System) and it is a good complete sytem where you can put all your eggs in one basket ie if something goes wrong you have only one lot ot blaim and people can't say it is someone elses fault.
However it does have its shortcomings, but you would have to be pretty knowledgable to understand what they are.
I have all sorts of curves because of my circumstances but all LGB stuff will run on them, some look a bit silly though and mix this with 4 % gradients and you need to have very good trains i can tell you. In my area 1. I have 15 R1 curves in 20 metres and thay go in all directions as tthey wend their way through a jungle, as i live in the tropics.
Rgds Ian
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
devils wrote: Hello and welcome, If you can make 4ft radius (8ft diameter) curves your minimum you should be able to accomodate all but the biggest true scale locos, The likes of USA trains, Aristocraft, Accucraft, Bachmann and mth use this as the minimum recommended. Use the start set curves for sidings if you have an industry on your line and use only the smaller locos, makes operating more fun if you have little challenges that mean certain locos have to operate that train. good luck Paul
Welcome
This is very good advise to one that is starting in G Scale.
William
Thanks for your advice.
Who do you recommend for digital systems? This is starting to become an obsession for my family. Eventually I want to run a passenger line and a freight line from one side of my yard to the next.
Regards,
The radii of your curves are just fine, providing you stick to LGB but as you get into bigger locos this may become a problem, not a running problem more from a realistic point of view.
You should also try to decide as soon as you can if you wish to go digital or not, digital will cost you more in equipment early on but it is cheaper in the long run and much more simple as far as wiring is concerned. But it is its versatility that wins the day every time for digital sytems.
Think long and hard about this before you buy anymore locos, if you even have an inkling of going to DCC (digitalcontrol) .
Rgds ian
Now, your layout shows where I want to be. I love your pictures.
The curve radius was a concern to me and you have answered that question. The starter set came with a tight circle of track. It looks like we need to plan for larger curves
You will be able to run other manufactures engines on your layout, although if you want to run more than one, you might need to obtain a larger power supply. The one's that come in the starter sets are typically very small. Also be aware that the larger the engine, the larger the curve requirements are. You won't be able to run very large engines, unless you puchase 8 foot or larger curves. Same goes for the swtiches.
I started my layout just last year and I've been havings all kinds of fun.
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvgilger
Mark
M. Gilger - President and Chief Engineer MM&G web
Web Site: http://mmg-garden-rr.webs.com/
Hello,
I have just started the adventure of Garden Railroading.
I have always loved trains and bought a MTH O scale set a couple of years ago but I lack the room to keep it readily available so I lost interest for a while.
I was drawn back into Model railroading when I took my son to the Southeastern Railroad Museum in Duluth, GA for his boy scout railroading merit badge. Several of the volunteers were from the local railroading club and gave us some articles on model railroading. I guess this was the bait.
I have proposed the idea of a garden railroad to my wife and she has shown a lot of interest. We have always enjoyed gardening and this looks like a way to increase our enjoyment of our backyard
We bought a LGB starter set (LGB Southern Railroad SRR Passenger set with sound) and some used track from our local model train hobby shop. I felt that the only way for us to move forward was to get a set to start the motivation.
Can I use other manufacturers locomotives on this set? This set is a beginner set but after we get the layout settled, I want to add realistic scale locomotives and cars.
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