July, 2013 Update from Family Garden Trains^TM

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In this Issue

By the way, next year's National Garden Railroad Convention will be in Tampa, May 4-10. For folks who don't want to come this far East, there will be a West Coast Regional Meet in California, hosted by the Sacramento Valley Garden Railway Society. That will be June 20-22, including lots of open railroads in the Sacramento Area.

At the convention this year, I saw a prototype of the re-engineered 0-4-0 that will hopefully be pulling AristoCraft's new starter sets in the next few months. Their Consolidation and new F units were nice, too, but starter sets are what get people started, so I'm hoping to see more of these little worker bees.

Overall, the convention proved to me that, even if the "business" side of the hobby has had setbacks, there is still a lot of enthusiasm for the hobby among garden railroading families. We've had setbacks before, but the way to keep moving forward is to keep promoting, sharing, helping, encouraging. Our job isn't finished until backyard trains are as common as backyard ponds and fountains.

In the meantime, our family of train sites has faced a crisis of its own, due in part to being forced to change host servers abruptly. This month's "Blog-like Article" tells how mistakes we made setting things up in the 1990s have caught up with us in a big way. Of course we won't be making those mistakes again. We'll be making all new ones.

Finally, please accept our wishes for a great rest of the summer. And please enjoy any time you can spend with your family in the coming months.

Topics discussed in this update include:

• NB&DCR Update - Prepping for the 2013 Open Railroads Part 3 - Our last-minute preparations for the open railroads we held for attendees at the National Garden Railway Convention.
• Clinic Report: 2013 National Garden Railway Convention - Report on the garden railroading clinics we presented and participated in during the 2013 NGRC convention.
• June, 2013 Open Railroads - Report on the New Boston and Donnels Creek's busiest day ever, and lots of fun.
• Thomas the Tank Shootout - Comparison of Lionel and Bachmann Thomas the Tank(r) train sets.
• Working at a WWII-Era Railroad Yard in Harmon, NY - A link to a memoir about what it took to maintain mid-century steamers "back in the day."
• Track Updates - Who has track now, and comparing apples to apples when shopping for track.
• Garden Railroading in Late Summer
• What's In a Name - Again - What not to do when you're starting a web page or home business. The list isn't exhaustive, because I haven't made every possible mistake - yet.

Prepping for the 2013 Open Railroads Part 3

To see Part 3 of this series, click the following link:

http://familygardentrains.com/newbost/13_prep_for_conv/prepping_for_2013_open_rr_part3.htm .

To see Part 2 of this series, click the following link:

http://familygardentrains.com/newbost/13_prep_for_conv/prepping_for_2013_open_rr_part2.htm.

To see Part 1 of this series, click the following link:

http://familygardentrains.com/newbost/13_prep_for_conv/prepping_for_2013_open_rr.htm.

Clinic Report: 2013 National Garden Railway Convention

http://familygardentrains.com/clinics/cincy_presentations/cincy_clinic_report.htm

June, 2013 Open Railroads

http://familygardentrains.com/newbost/13_june_open_rr/june_2013_open_railroads.htm

Thomas the Tank Shootout

I'll be up-front - if you're looking to buy a really big Thomas train for your own family use, either product will serve that purpose well. And both companies have pretty good service. But if you want a closer look at the differences between the two sets, click on the following link.

http://familygardentrains.com/primer/rolling_stock/thomas_shootout/thomas_shootout.htm

Working at a WWII-Era Railroad Yard in Harmon, NY

http://cardboardchristmas.com/cudequest/everythingcroton_signup.htm2013/07/for-train-lovers-only-2013-11-my.html

Track Updates

• LGB's financial difficulties, which started before the recession, made their track hard to find for a while. Maerklin's "bailout" helped make their track available again, but now Maerklin is getting a "bailout," and the near future may hold another slowdown in availability of LGB products. Another complication is that all LGB product in North America is now supposed to be distributed through a single company that seems to be intent on keeping prices as high as the market will bear.

• AristoCraft's track prices doubled when the worldwide cost of copper tripled. Then the recession flattened sales of garden train products about the same time distributors that owed Aristo "real money" were going bankrupt. So Aristo had to cut back on orders from the factory. Some retailers still have some odds and ends, but most Aristo track products are unavailable to most would-be customers most of the time.

• Former LGB importers, cut off from LGB products, started importing Piko trains instead, including track. Piko track isn't compatible with LGB or Aristo, but they make a full range of useful products. Folks who haven't already heavily invested in LGB or Aristo track are giving Piko a second look.

• Bachmann, who has resisted getting into the "outdoor track" market, realized that:
  • People wouldn't keep buying their trains if they couldn't get track, and,
  • Bachmann couldn't count on other manufacturers to keep quality track available.

  So Bachmann announced a line of brass track that is compatible with LGB and Aristo. Pre-orders were so heavy that at least one product ID sold out before the first container reached the US.

In other words everything we "knew" about garden railroad track just a few years ago is wrong, and everything we "know" today will probably be wrong at least once between now and Christmas. But we have attempted to update our "Track Order" page. Yes, it started out as a checklist of AristoCraft and LGB part numbers that you could use as a planning guide while designing your railroad. Now it is a tool for the "present age" - a cross-reference of the product IDs of the most popular Aristo US, Aristo Euro, LGB, Bachmann, and Piko track pieces.

We still have links to vendors (mostly Amazon) who seem to have stock, and we're trying to get permission from other vendors to link to their product pages as well. But in the meantime, if you find yourself mixing and matching, or trying to compare prices or availability of different brands from different suppliers, this tool should help you compare apples to apples. Hopefully it will also help you avoid confusion from things like Piko using the term "R5" to describe the 8'-diameter curves that LGB calls "R3". To see the article, please click on the following link:

http://garden-train-store.com/track/track_order.htm

Garden Railroading in Late Summer

• When you go outside, use sunscreen, even if you're tan already. Not only might you live longer, but science now claims that you'll look young longer, too.

• Make a note of the plants that seem to survive dry weather the best, and consider using those whenever you expand or need to replace plantings. Here in Ohio, my sedums can lose their color and look a bit shriveled if they go several weeks without rain, but they pop out and green up just fine with a little bit of water. I once figured they 'd be fantastic for a friend in Reno and sent him a bunch, but his didn't survive, so there's no one-size-fits-all. Most of my conifers hold up well in blasting heat as well, especially my junipers.

• If you have to water, try to target specific areas rather than soaking your whole garden. Many kinds of weed seeds will germinate overnight in 90 degree weather if they get a good soaking - you could come out tomorrow and see a forest of new weeds.

• If you have to water your conifers, and your water is hard, go light - hard water can eventually put enough lime in the soil to hurt your acid-soil-loving conifers. Also, if your Dwarf Alberta spruces have a tight outer "shell" (from lack of trimming or hedge-trimmer trimming), do not soak the tree's foilage. The increased moisture will encourage mites and other pests to set up housekeeping in the core of the tree, eventually working brutal damage from the inside out.

• If your pond is getting low, try to bring it up a few inches a day, instead of all in one watering - putting your garden hose into the pond and walking away so that 40% or more of the pond's water is exchanged or replaced by (relatively) cold tap water can drop the pond water's temperature so fast that it puts your fish into shock.

• Some of your plants (in my case, Blue Spruce Sedum) might as well be deadheaded as soon as the flower starts to lose its color. Other plants may set more blooms if you deadhead early and often, so don't feel bad about cutting flowers to take to your spouse or just to throw away, depending on the plant and the current state of your relationships.

• If you have ragweed, goldenrod, nightshade, or other weeds that get big, try to pull them when the ground is damp. And tug until you feel the roots losening, instead of just snatching them out of the ground. Otherwise, they'll just grow back from the roots even stronger. (Also, don't eat the berries from your nightshade plants. Those are the plants that they call "Nightlatch" in Hunger Games.)

• Mentioning nightshade reminds me to mention dangers from other poisons: while you're working in the garden, do not rub or scratch your eyes - you may have brushed up against an allergen without realizing it. Always wash your hands and forearms (and legs if you're wearing shorts) with hot soapy water when you come in from a day outdoors. The allergens in Poison Ivy and most similar plants spread through oils that the plant gives off, so you need to wash those oils away promptly with something like dish soap that dissolves oil - hot water alone won't do it.

• And watch out for paper wasps, especially yellow jackets, which tend to get more aggressive and protective of their hidden nests as the summer progresses. In my yard, yellow jackets have nested inside the "shell" of improperly trimmed Dwarf Alberta spruce (a good reason to trim them properly) and inside buildings (a good reason to glaze them properly). If I was even remotely allergic to wasp stings, Shelia would be a widow by now.

For other safety tips, please refer to our article on Gardening Safety Tips. To see that article, please click on the following link:

http://familygardentrains.com/primer/gardeners/garden_safety.htm

What's In a Name - Again

http://familygardentrains.com/blog_like_content/13_07_blogs/whats_in_a_name_again.htm

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 June, 2013, click on the following link:

http://familygardentrains.com/fgt_newsletter/13_06_newsletter_gr.htm

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