My daughters new Father-in-law is a Garden Railroad enthusiast so maybe I can get some pointers and pictures from him.
If you're a veteran you'll want to order some of our 2008 veteran items. Just click on the picture to see all of our shirts, buttons and gifts with this design.
Table of Contents
- Garden Railroads! What Are They?
- What Makes Them Go?
- Railroading on CafePress
- What is your favorite guage train?
- Ridable Garden Train
- Our Logo
- Garden Railroading Books
- Garden Railroad Photos From California
- Large Scale Products
- Trains on eBay
- Another Layout From Friendship Railroads
- Garden Trains On YouTube
- Tell Us About Your Garden Railroad
- Garden Railroading Links
- Bentonville version of the Northern Nevada short line, Virginia & Truckee Railroad.
- Layout standards organizations
- About This Lens
- Model Railroading T-Shirts, Buttons And Gift Ideas!
Garden Railroads! What Are They?
A garden railroad or garden railway is a model railway system set up outdoors in a garden. Most often, it is #1 gauge rail track with a G scale or similar train. LGB first popularised these trains, and more recently other manufacturers such as Aristo Craft Trains and USA Trains have produced models in this scale/gauge combination. Atlas O also makes weatherproof #0 gauge tracks for O scale, very suitable for smaller gardens and patios.While G is the most popular scale for garden railroads, 16 mm scale has a dedicated and growing following especially in the UK. Model locomotives in this scale are often live steam scale models of British narrow gauge prototypes. 16mm scale (which runs on 32 mm track, the same gauge as O gauge is probably now more popular in the UK than G scale.
A garden railway's scale can be anywhere from 1/32 to 1/20.3. 1/32 scale is also called "three-eighths scale" meaning 3/8 of an inch on the model represents one foot on the real thing. For similar reasons, 1/24 scale is also called "half inch scale".
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia!
What Makes Them Go?
At its most basic level, it works just like an indoor railway, including turnouts and turntables. However, special considerations must be taken for everything from sunlight and water to dirt and leaves, and even wildlife. The distance covered also means that electrical resistance in and between sections is much higher, and electrical power will tend to drop off at the far end.To eliminate this, some are rigged to use RC car parts such as rechargeable batteries. Others even use live steam and run as a real steam locomotive would. The steam can be generated from a variety of sources, ranging from messy solid pellet (i.e. methenamine) or sterno-type fuel, through clean-burning butane gas, to prototypical coal burners. Live steam is particularly widespread amongst 16mm scale garden railway enthusiasts.
Many also have digital audio on-board, so they sound like a real train. They can also use Digital Command Control or other similar systems, though dirty outdoor track can cause less of a problem with signal than with simple DC power. This is because DCC puts the full voltage on the rails at all times. There are many benefits of DCC when compared to DC analog systems.
Railroading on CafePress
Engineers Are Hot Organic Cotton Tee
Price: 24.99 
Engineers Are Hot Cap
Price: 19.99
Engineers Are Hot Wall Clock
Price: 16.99
What is your favorite guage train?
I think everyone enjoys trains so how about voting and we'll see which guage is really the most popular. Click on the circle to vote.
If I omitted your favorite guage feel free to let me know by using the "contact" button above. Maybe I'll do a lens about it.
Ridable Garden Train
A ridable miniature railway is a ground-level, large scale model railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are models of full-sized railway locomotives and are powered by diesel or petrol engines, live steam engines or electric motors.Typically they have a track gauge between 5 and 18 inches (127 to 458 mm), though both larger and smaller gauges are used.
These large model railroads are most often seen in urban parks or in commercial settings, such as amusement park rides.
The major distinction between a miniature railway and a narrow gauge railway is that miniature lines use models of full-sized prototypes. There are miniature railways that run on gauges as wide as 2 ft (610 mm), for example the Wicksteed Park railway. There are also narrow gauge railways running on extremely narrow track as small as 15 inch gauge or less, for example the Rudyard Lake Steam Railway, Perrygrove Railway and the Eaton Hall Railway: these are known as minimum gauge railways.
Our Logo
I'd like to thank Charles Sheppard for letting me use a picture of his railroad for our logo.
Just click on the pictures for details.
Garden Railroading Books
Garden Railroading: Getting Started in the Hobby
Amazon Price: $15.61 (as of 11/11/2009)
Practical Garden Railways
Amazon Price: $24.60 (as of 11/11/2009)
Gorgeous Garden Railways
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 11/11/2009)
The Garden Railway Manual: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building and Operating an Outdoor Model Railway
Amazon Price: (as of 11/11/2009)
Garden Railroad Photos From California
Large Scale Products
Looking for garden railroading accesories? Just click on one of these products and you'll find loads of large scale merchandise on Amazon. You can feel confident shopping with Amazon! They have years of experience selling on the internet.
Lionel Trains Holiday Express G-Gauge Train Set
Celebrate the holidays with this Christmas-themed more...0 points
Life-Like Scene Master Large Evergreen Trees (4 pieces) - 1923
These large trees are 3 to 4 inches in height and more...0 points
Large Scale Power Pack w/Speed Controller
Scale, Category: Accessories - Power Packs Item No more...0 points
Life-Like Scene Master Large Green Shade Trees (4 pieces) - 1921
These large trees are 3 to 4 inches in height and more...0 points
Conifer Tree Kit, Large (16)
The difference between a good layout and a great o more...0 points
Aristo-Craft - Crest - On-Board Train Engineer for Large Scale Trains
CRE55492 Mini On-Board Train Engineer Radio Contro more...0 points
Trains on eBay
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Another Layout From Friendship Railroads
Mount Comfort Railway
Owner, Charles (Shep) SheppardThis was the result of buying an LGB starter set at a Tuesday Morning
after Christmas sale. Playing on the floor on a four foot circle was
no challenge. Building a railroad on a trailer lot has been a little
limiting also. The train replaced a swimming pool in a 12 foot enclosed
patio after the last kid was gone. Come to think of it, trains are less
work than swimming pools.
Garden Trains On YouTube
Tell Us About Your Garden Railroad
If you have a large scale railroad in your yard, how about telling us about it? Maybe you can email me a picture to add to this lens?
JerryB wrote...
Glad to hear that the buttons are popular at your club. It was a really nice train layout to use on my items and I appreciate your letting me use it.
What you see on my shop page are just pictures. The items are printed as they are ordered. Overall sales in my shop have been good but I'm afraid I've only sold a few of the train items other than what you've ordered. I'm hoping sales will pick up as more people learn about this train site.
Posted April 26, 2008
Charles Sheppard wrote
Had not checked your site in a while and was amazed how many things I can get with my railway on it. Someone must be buying the merchandise? Will order some things for the grandkids later and maybe something for me. Have noticed that the buttons that I ordered earlier have ended up on club vest. Need to order more of them.
Thanks for the publicity
Posted April 25, 2008
Garden Railroading Links
If you have a favorite website about Garden Railroading, add it here so we can all enjoy it!
Garden Railway & Garden Trains articles, videos, photos, FREE Issue
Garden Trains videos, articles, photos. Weekly Ema more...0 points
Northwest Arkansas Garden Railway Society
Some nice pictures and information on Garden Railr more...0 points
Garden Trains Photos and Garden Train Pictures
Garden Trains Photos and Pictures -- FREE!0 points
Garden Railways Magazine - Outdoor Large Scale Trains, G Scale
Garden Railways magazine offers articles about gar more...0 points
G Scale Mad - The freshly updated for 2008 Home Of Garden Railways.
This is the new for 2008 home page of G Scale Mad. more...0 points
ScaleRailsOnline.Com
N Scale community where you can meet and talk with more...0 points
Microsoft Train Simulator MSTS Add-ons & Downloads - RailServe.com
Free Microsoft Train Simulator downloads including more...0 points
Bentonville version of the Northern Nevada short line, Virginia & Truckee Railroad.
Thanks Again to MG Scott of Friendship Railroads
richest railroads during the late 1800's. It still runs as an excursion railraod today out of Virginia City, Nevada.
Please enjoy these photos supplied by the owner, Michael & Joanne McClain
Layout standards organizations
NTRAK (Website). Standardized 3-track (heavy operation) mainline with several optional branchlines. Focuses on Standard Gauge, but also has specifications for Narrow Gauge. Due to its popularity, it can be found in regional variations, most notably the Imperial-to-Metric measurement conversions. Tends to be used more for 'unattended display' than 'operation'.
FREMO (Deutsche English). A European-based organisation focusing on a single-track line, HO Scale. Also sets standards for N Scale modules. Standards are considerably more flexible in module shape than NTRAK, and has expanded over the years to accommodate several scenery variations.
oNeTRAK (Website). Operationally similar to FREMO, standardises around a single-track mainline, with modules of varying sizes and shapes. Designed with the existing NTRAK spec in mind, is fully compatible with such modules.
ausTRAK (Website). N Scale, two-track main with hidden third track (can be used as NTRAK's third main, as a return/continuous loop, or hidden yard/siding/on-line storage). Australian scenery and rolling stock modelled in Standard Gauge.
NMRA National Model Railroad Association, the largest organization devoted to the development, promotion, and enjoyment of the hobby of model railroading.
sTTandard Polish TT-scale (1:120) modules organization.
N-orma Polish N-scale (1:160) modules organization
About This Lens
As I said in my profile, I enjoy collecting and since I retired I've found that building these lenses is a great way to stay busy; And, I hope that I'm helping some of you out by gathering information on your favorite subject and putting it all in one place so you don't have to spend hours searching for it.
I spend part of my time designing t-shirts and buttons to help supplement my social security because, as many of you know, it's pretty difficult to make it on social security. My on-line t-shirt shop is called Dene's Place after my wife.
My "retirement" came a few years earlier than I would have liked because they found that I have an inoperatable tumor about the size of a softball in my right pelvic area. They still don't know what to do about it because for now it has quit growing. One of those "leave it alone and see what happens" type things.
Anyway, if you've made it this far, I'd appreciate it if you would check out Dene's Place to see if there's anything that you might like for yourself or as a gift. It helps me pay the bills!
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out my other lenses when you have time.
Much of the information used here has been researched from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Model Railroading T-Shirts, Buttons And Gift Ideas!
For train t-shirts, buttons and gifts, visit Dene's Place! We're adding new designs daily!
by JerryB
I enjoy collecting! It doesn't really seem to matter what it is, if it's old I'll hang on to it. So, most of my lenses are about collecting.
I also...
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