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October, 2012 Update from Family Garden TrainsTM
Note: This is the web version of a newsletter from the Family Garden TrainsTM web site, which publishes information about running big model trains in your garden as a family activity.
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In this Issue
As I type this, there are only two weeks until our Chrismas-themed open house, November 10 (near Springfield, Ohio). We're also "laying the groundwork," so to speak for open houses next spring in conjunction with a regional NMRA convention in May, and a national Garden Railway convention in June.
For the Christmas-themed open RR, we always try to set up several trains for kids, including a Thomas or James setup they can watch, and a couple trains they can operate. This year, we're hoping to set up a "back and forth" trolley attached to the neighbor's privacy fence, too. We'll see how that goes.
In the meantime, whenever we "spread out" this way, I find myself scrounging for buildings and accessories to use to populate those additional temporary railroads. Among other projects, I did one in which I revisited a method I used back in the 1980s when I couldn't find any American-style buildings for my railroad - I repurposed broken-down toy buildings. Long-time readers know we call this "trashbashing," and many have read my "Trashbashing 101" article. The difference this time is that with a digital camera we can now take photos of every little step along the way, illustrating tips about masking and spraypainting buildings I haven't been able to illustrate this well before. Even if you don't ever try "trashbashing," you should find many of the those tips helpful for other kinds of projects.
As always, I have several more projects in the works which weren't quite done in time for this newsletter, so stay tuned.
Finally, please accept our wishes for a great holiday season. And please enjoy any time you can spend with your family in the coming months.
Topics discussed in this update include:
- Christmas-Themed Open Railroads - Contact your regional garden and model railroading clubs to see if they're putting on any Christmas-themed public displays the year. Also, if you live near, or pass through the Springfield or Cincinnati, Ohio area, there are several scheduled events.
- Trashbashing Step-By-Step - Detailed photographs and descriptions of each step required to turn a toy or toylike structure into a believable model (no matter what the scale).
- Garden Railroading in November
- Mini Solar "Lamp Posts" - We first reviewed these in 2010; now they're even cheaper, and holiday versions are available.
- Spook Hill Chronicles , a brand-new, family-friendly Halloween-themed novel just for our readers, 100% online just in time for Halloween!
- Free Project Wire from Bad Light Strands - A reminder that you can save a bundle by "repurposing" the wiring in bad light strands.
Christmas-Themed Open Railroads
Our garden railroad, the New Boston and Donnels Creek, was first open to the public in 2003, as part of the National Garden Railway Convention that took place in greater Cincinnati that year. Since then, we've been open several times to visitors, especially for our annual Christmas-themed events in association with the local NMRA train show.
This year we're going to be open on November 10th. There will be several trains running, two or three trains that the kids can run, lots of Christmas lights, Christmas music, outdoor movies, popcorn machine popcorn and other treats - in other words, a good time is expected.
For information about this and several other opportunities to see big outdoor Christmas trains in the region, click on the following link:
The name "trashbashing" means that we're using busted-up toy buildings as a starting point to create a new "downtown district," something we did back in the early eighties, when almost nothing else was available in Large Scale. This article's tips on using masking tape and spray paint to get a clean, professional paint job apply to almost any model you paint. Detailed photographs record each step.
To see the article, please click the link below.
Garden Railroading in November
By now, most readers north of the Mason Dixon line will have shut things down on their railroad. Before I started having open railroads in early November, I did, too. Some years it was a good thing. Still, if you get any warm days in the coming weeks, here are some things to consider:
Get any end-of-season trees you've bought into the ground - Lowes and other stores like to close things out just about the time it's getting too cold to plant them. If you have a chance to pick some up, or if you've already picked up some little trees that you haven't got into the ground yet, be sure to do so before any deep freezes. The plant may seem like it has "shut down" for the winter, but make certain it gets watered like any new planting, at least until you have a couple freezes.
If you have a dwarf tree that could use a trim, do that before you get it into the ground - that's much better than doing it next spring, when it's put on a bunch of new growth.
Sometime between now and Thanksgiving, get any spring-blooming bulbs into the ground. Crocus and Grape Hyacinth provide great early spring color in plants that are small enough to keep from overwhelming your trains. For more ideas about fall bulbs, see our article "Early Spring Color for your Garden Railroad."
Cut back any groundcovers that have got too tall. If they're "leggy" now, they'll only be worse in the spring. With thymes, you run the risk of killing the plant by trimming it back too far, but it's much safer to do it now than next spring.
Prepare your pond for winter by:
- Cutting the leaves off any pond plants, as well as cutting plants like rushes off to the water line.
- Dropping shallow-shelf container plants like pickerel rushes into deeper water (or otherwise taking care of them if you have something more exotic). Just remember to fish them out again in the spring.
- Remove dead leaves from the pond and cover it with a net if that's practical.
- Add an aquarium air pump and an "airstone" to force air into the water (which will keep the pond from building up CO2 levels that are fatal to goldfish when it freezes over). I put my aquarium pumps under a building to protect them from the weather. They seldom outlast the winter, whether they cost me $10 or $50. So if you think about it, check on it from time to time to see if it's still bubbling. Or, if you'd rather take your chances, and don't mind starting out with a fresh batch of goldfish next May, that's your choice.
- For more information about water features in general, see the Family Garden Trains article on Water Features and Garden Railroads.
If you have any good weather in October, make use of it. But if you get stuck indoors, it's time to finalize your Christmas list. Also if you buy (or have bought) any kits that you plan to assemble, consider using the last warm days of Autumn to clean up the flash and paint the structure pieces, so you can assemble them this fall.
Finally, if you're thinking about any extensions or changes to your railroad, this is a good time to start drawing up plans and calculating budgets. Our article on Building a Garden Railroad on a Budget should give you some ideas about how to budget your next expansion.
Stop letting your railroad go dark when the sun goes down. For $1-2, you can get solar lamps that burn just as bright as the full-sized ones without making your railroad look like it's being overtaken by flying saucers. With some stores selling these belowe $2 apiece, it's not hard to shed a lot of light on your railroad quickly. In fact our area WalMart is closing them out for $1 a piece. If you miss out on that, some stores have holiday-themed versions. I warn you, though, replacement 2/3AA cells cost more than the whole fixture, so consider that before you use them to light your whole back yard.
Click on the following link to see the original article:
Inspired by Howard Lamey's "Spook Hill" projects, we've done our best to imagine what it would be like to live in a town where it was Halloween all year 'round. We've been publishing the Spook Hill Chronicles a chapter at a time. But it's all online now, just in time for Halloween. If we get a lot of response, we may "publish" a sequel next year.
To jump to the home page for Spook Hill Chronicles, please click the link below:
This is just a reminder, from 2009, that non-working light strands are a great source of free project wire.
Click on the following link to see the original article:
Keep in Touch
As always, we have more articles in the works, and we are constantly updating our existing articles, so please check back often. Also, we are sharing some ideas and announcements on Facebook under the Family Garden Trains name.
Finally, please let us know about your ongoing projects. Ask questions, send corrections, suggest article ideas, send photos, whatever you think will help you or your fellow railroaders. In the meantime, enjoy your trains, and especially enjoy any time you have with your family in the coming weeks,
Paul Race
FamilyGardenTrains.com
To view the newsletter for September, 2012, click on the following link:
To read more, or to look at recommended Garden Railroading and Big Indoor Train products, please click on the index pages below.
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Trashbashing Step-By-Step
Mini Solar "Lamp Posts"
Spook Hill Chronicles - A Family-Friendly Halloween Novel Just For Our Readers
Free Project Wire from Bad Light Strands
