I have a railroad in the garden as opposed to a true to scale
garden railroad. I do not have a major theme as I run steam and
diesel. I also run some Thomas the Train for my grandson. I
started in 2000 building a retaining wall, filling it will
approximately 50 yards of dirt. I have 4 tunnels and 5 bridges.
It is a work in progress as I still have an expansion area that
is not complete and the ongoing landscaping in the established
areas. I do not have a very green thumb so I have to replace a
lot of plants and ground covers that do not make it. My main
purpose for building the railroad is I love trains and love to
run them. I started in N and when I could not see it anymore I
went to HO. When HO become hard to work on I went to G. I guess
when I can’t work on G any more I may have to give up
railroading.
My G scale railroad is mainly circus oriented with some logging.
I have 3 different layouts. Two layouts are in my train room. One
is located overhead with 2 circus trains and one work train and
has parallel tracks. The second layout is a 9 X 12 foot table
with contains many buildings, lighthouse, coal dumping bins, and
also a waterfront. This layout also leads to the outside tracks
which are elevated at about three and one-half feet and has a
yard and town. The overhead tracks consist of about 90 feet, the
table layout has approx. 50 feet and the outside track is 120
feet plus three sidings. Layouts can be seen at the Shasta Garden Railroad Society
website and Humbughelangon.com.
I started building my “Stony Creek & Lassen” railroad in Aug. of
2006. It was completed in, if ever completed, April, 2008. I
wanted to create a railroad that might have operated between
1920-1950 in the foothills of Northern California. The small town
of Stony Creek (fictional) is located near the center of the
layout with mountains, forest and stream at one end and a more
arid region at the other. It consists of 350 feet of track formed
by two long ovals with a crossing from one to the other. A Koi
pond adjacent to the railroad is part of the water feature for
the layout. All structures were scratch built according to a
Garden Texture’s plan or a plan I developed. The water tower was
from a Kamloops Junction kit. Originally powered by track power I
have converted all engines to battery power and use Airwire. To
date I have not experienced any problems with the railroad layout
or track. Most of the track is LGB brass rail with a few sections
of Aristo-Craft brass rail. Before I laid track I dug a trench
about 6 – 8 in. deep and 10 in. wide where the track was to be
laid. I added the wiring and air lines for air powered switches,
filled and compacted the trench with decomposed granite for a
very stable base.
Note: Handicapped accessible except some areas of rear and side
yard.
The first layout was built in 2002 in the rear yard using redwood
fence planks as a ground level roadbed. Later negotiated right of
way through the side yard and over the front yard. The
independent running loops can be joined together for long runs. I
just built a new elevated roadway with dual track designed for
live steam. Track length is 850 feet. I have Aristo-Craft Train
Engineer for power. Still fighting acorns and heavy leaf debris
in the fall but have no grass left. The entire lot uses small
bark with ornamental plants interspersed. The result is a
practically weed free landscape.
High steel (see photo) and concrete trestles, arch bridges,
tunnels and water feature with a flowing stream. Two and three
percent grades over 450 feet of track. A funicular 100 feet long.
Note: Handicapped accessible with level and sloped hard pack
trails, some wide enough for a wheelchair.
We began building our railroad in 1999 after viewing a display
from the SVGRS. We are in the mountains above Lake Oroville and
have named our line after the now extinct Feather Falls Lumber
Company line. We had the idea of building a small layout around a
small pond (20 by 8 ft.; 3000 gal.). It has grown a lot larger
than we originally planned. We now have about 450 ft. of track
with multiple bridges (one 5 ft. long) and trestles that traverse
the layout along with a tunnel that goes under the waterfall that
supplies water to a large pond (8 by 50 ft.; 6000 gal. and 3 to 4
ft. deep) that we named Lake Oroville. Our goal has been to give
people a relaxing experience. We have walking paths around the
layout as well as many seating areas to stop and enjoy the
gardens and the two large ponds which the railroad travels around
and across. We have planted the layout with many dwarf trees and
plants that blend well with the tall native pines. We have track
and battery powered engines. We have a real Southern Pacific
Caboose on the property that is a work in progress. We are
located in the mountains above the town of Oroville. It is about
a 30 min. drive from town and you will travel around Lake
Oroville crossing two bridges. This is a great drive and we hope
that you will take the extra time to visit our railroad.
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