December, 2012 Update from Family Garden Trains^TM

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In this Issue

One thing that has kept us busy is site maintenance that isn't always obvious on the surface, but which will allow our sites to continue to grow without continuously hitting bandwidth or HD space limitations. If your favorites bar still points to btcomm.com/trains, it's time to erase that link and point to FamilyGardenTrains.com - THAT's where the action is now.

Another thing that kept us busy in November was the preparation for our fifth annual Christmas-themed open railroad, lit trees, Christmas music and all. We hope our photos reinforce your Christmas spirit this year. A good time really was had by all. Well, by all but one. They say there's one in every crowd. You'll have to read the article to see what I mean.

Now we're turning our sites toward this spring - a May regional NMRA convention and a June National Garden Railroading convention. We hope to have open railroads for both, and maybe do some presentations at the latter - we'll see.

As always, we 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 2013. And please enjoy any time you can spend with your family in the coming months.

Topics discussed in this update include:

• Christmas Train Day Report: Our Fifth Christmas-Themed Open Railroad - How we prepared, and how we fared, and how much fun we all had.
• Building a Temporary Outdoor Railroad - Low cost of materials and easy construction result in a sturdy outdoor railroad you can leave up as long as you want, yet disassemble and move easily.
• Almost-Free Building Lighting - using inexpensive and scrap materials to bring more light to your railroad or Christmas village.
• 'Nudder Scam: The Fake Schoolteacher Request - Check this out if you have a web page or just want to see the lengths supposedly-legitimate business will go to for free advertising.
• Garden Railroading in Midwinter

Christmas Train Day Report: Our Fifth Christmas-Themed Open Railroad

For the full report, click on the following link:

http://familygardentrains.com/newbost/nov_2012/nov_2012_openhaus.htm

Almost-Free Building Lighting

To see the article, please click the link below.

http://familygardentrains.com/primer/lighting/almost_free_building_lighting/almost_free_building_lighting.htm

Building a Temporary Outdoor Railroad

Ever wish you could set up a small, temporary outdoor railroad for a special occasion, such as Christmas decorating, a kid's party, train club publicity, or a neighborhood block party or street fair? Or do you wish you had a garden railroad, but you rent your house? Turns out, it's pretty simple to make a portable outdoor railroad that you can set up and tear down again and again, and move in the average hatchback.

To see the article, please click the link below.

http://familygardentrains.com/primer/fence_posts/portable_rr.htm

'Nudder Scam: The Fake Schoolteacher Request

To see the article, please click the link below.

http://familygardentrains.com/blog_like_content/12_12_blogs/fake_school_request.htm

Garden Railroading in Midwinter

Our one-day railroad creates a temporary railroad that you can use for a few years until you're ready for a bigger version. But the new Temporary Railroad article, featured in this newsletter has the advantage of being lower maintenance and (usually) longer lasting. It also will give you more of a flavor of what backyard railroad construction really feels like.

If you already have a railroad in your back yard, is there something else you can do to add interest, like a raised loop with a coal or logging train at one end of the railroad, or a back-and-forth streetcar or industrial railroad operation you can squeeze in somewhere? Many garden railroaders in the 1980s and 1990s came from smaller scales and have the dream of replicating their N or HO empires outside with 30" coaches and 48" locomotives. But there's a lot to be said for modeling smaller operations as well, including the fact that the large scales of narrow gauge give you more room to personalize your figures and accessories.

In other words, even if you're stuck in the house, that doesn't mean you need to stay stuck in a box. Take another look at our planning and construction articles and see if there's something you haven't considered or tried yet, which might give your hobby a new "sense of purpose."

Of course there's always the "fallback" of maintaining your equipment, cleaning pickup wheels, cleaning buildings, etc. If you get a chance to clean up your buildings this winter, think about lighting the ones you don't have lighting for - there's a suggestion for a way to do that inexpensively in this month's newsletter. Or add a sense of period to your railroad with period advertisements, such as those listed in our Large Scale Signs and Graphics pages.

Keep in Touch

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 October, 2012, click on the following link:

http://familygardentrains.com/fgt_newsletter/12_10_newsletter_gr.htm

To read more, or to look at recommended Garden Railroading and Big Indoor Train products, please click on the index pages below.