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August, 2013 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
Most readers know that we spent a lot of time in the last several months getting ready for a once-in-a-decade event, the National Garden Railway Convention near Cincinnati, Ohio. We're getting back to some of the projects we started earlier, so we have a couple to report on now and a couple more we hope to report on soon.
We've also got past some of "growing pains" that resulted when most of our sites had to change servers in the last several months. Every time I get into the code, I find something else I need to change, but at least the sites are mostly functioning these days. In a few cases, while we tried to update pages so they would work on the new servers, we also realized that the content needed updated as well. One example is our article on "Getting and Keeping the Kids Involved." Since I wrote the original article, the world of toy trains has changed. I've also come to realize that kids need a little more encouragment and direction than they used to when everybody knew what trains were "for." So that document got updated, and we hope you find it helpful.
As always, we have more projects in the works, so stay tuned.
Finally, please accept our wishes for a great rest of the year. And please enjoy any time you can spend with your family in the coming months.
Topics discussed in this update include:
- Getting and Keeping the Kids Involved - Update - new tips and recommendations for helping the kids stay interested in trains after the Brios and Thomases go into the attic.
- Detail Painting Storefronts - prepping, masking, and spraypainting techniques that will bring interest to otherwise less-than-impressive buildings.
- One-Day Waterfall - A 4-hour project that "perked up" our neighbor's side yard.
- Old-Fashioned Neon Signs - Graphics to inspire your "mid-century" communities.
- Iron Storefront Catalog - A hundred different ideas for designing your own 1870-1930 business facades, from a century-old catalog of building fronts you could buy.
- Garden Trains for Kids, Updated This is a "buyer's guide" companion to our lead article, with many new reviews and recommendations.
- Garden Railroading in Early Autumn
- Christmas Train Day, 2013 - A "Save the Date" for our sixth annual Christmas-themed open railroad, with outdoor trains, kids' trains, snacks, music, and more.
- Halloween Trains Update - Expanded resources for Halloween-themed trains and towns.
- Aristo 0-4-0 Redux - One of garden railroading's "go-to" locomotives
re-emerges with re-engineered features.
Over a decade ago, I wrote about getting the whole family involved with garden railroading. Recently I've realized how many kids - even kids who grew up on Thomas videos - have no idea what trains do or how to play with them appropriately. I've added some hints on how to bridge the gap between Brio/Thomas and real model railroading. Whatever scale you model, your kids can benefit from creative, instructional play, using trains and appropriate accessories. And if they stay interested in trains long after they've outgrown Thomas, is that a bad thing?
To see the article, please click on the following link:
When I saw my neighbor testing an old "waterfall" fixture, I offered to help her install it. Turns out it was her mother's, so having it working would be a nice tribute. My neighbor also had a pile of rocks that the previous homeowner had left in the side yard, and a low-sloping hillside where the fixture could be installed. True most water feature installations don't start out with "free" supplies, but once you have the stuff onhand the rest goes just the way we documented it.
To see this article, click on the following link:
If you've ever detail-painted a car, you know that "detail-painting" is really all about masking. This article explains how to use easy masking and spray-painting techniques to turn "generic"-looking structures into a delightful, unique community. Though we use Large Scale model buildings as examples, the techniques we describe have been used in every scale.
To see the article, please click on the following link:
 Old-Fashioned Neon Signs
Blogger Maria Cudequest has published links to some great mid-century neon signs that might give you some great ideas for your railroad.
To see the article, please click on the following link:
I've always enjoyed the look of the Design Preservation model buildings for indoor railroads, because they captured the look of the towns I grew up in so well. But no matter where I go in the U.S, I see similar structures in every "downtown" that dates to the late 1800s or early 1900s. Why do many vintage storefronts in so many towns and cities across America seem so similar? Believe it or not, a lot of them were ordered from the same catalogs. And the ones that weren't ordered from catalogs were influenced by the storefronts that were.
Before the 1870s, there was really no such thing as "window shopping." Windows on brick storefronts could not be all that wide - wooden or stone lintels (the bar across the top of the windowframes) could only be a few feet wide and still support the walls of the upper stories.
But starting about 1870, big ironworks companies started designing iron posts and lintels that would support the upper walls of a brick building no matter how wide the windows were. Store owners liked being able to display more of their goods to folks strolling by. The growth of "window-shopping" as a recreational activity let retailers snag potential customers who might otherwise have passed the store without a glance.
Many of the new stores boasted indented entrances with even more windows to coax window-shoppers right into the store. Transoms for ventilation, elaborate preformed cornices, and many other common features followed. Although the ironworkers who made all of this possible didn't get all of the storefront-building business, they heavily influenced it for decades.
Once again, we have blogger Maria Cudequest to thank for a glimpse into the past - she sent us the link to scans of the Mesker Brothers Metal Store-Front catalog, which lists hundreds of products, large and small, for outfitting a state-of-the-art 1880s- to 1920s-era store. If you like modeling old buildings, and are looking for ideas for your next project, this resource may bring you a wealth of ideas.
Click on the link to find downloadable pdfs.
This is the Buyer's Guide companion to our article on Getting and Keeping the Kids Involved (above). It includes many products we've never reviewed before. Unfortunately, as the economy is starting to recover, a few are already in very short supply. If you let kids run trains on your garden railroad, if you want to encourage youngsters to run trains period, or if you'd like your own toy trains to play with, check out this page. Just don't wait too long - I expect several pieces to sell out by mid-November. As an extra benefit, we list several of our favorite kids' trains that are now discontinued, in case you come across one somewhere else and wonder if it's worth getting.
To see this year's crop of recommended garden trains for kids, click on the following link:
In so-called temperate zones, September is often the best time of year to operate a garden railroad. Weed growth slows, algae growth in the pond slows, temperatures become reasonable, and generally the weather is a little more predictable. That said, it's also time to start preparing for cooler weather.
Here in Southwest Ohio, it's time to "deadhead" plants whose blooms have come and gone. Weeding-wise, I still have lots of crabgrass, nutgrass, and goldenrod to pull. Do not allow nuisance plants to go to seed, or you'll be extra sorry next year about this time. Folks who use Preen say they don't have as big a problem, but my railroad would take a lot of Preen.
Many garden railroaders in the so-called temperate zones have Open Houses in September. Check your local club to see if they have any scheduled. You can do a search for local clubs on the Garden Trains site. Visiting other people's railroads will give you many great ideas, and you might come away with a few "starts" of plants you may find helpful.
By the way, here are two events that my friends are hosting, so I know they'll be good. The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's Garden Railway tours are on October 6 this year. The following link will download a flyer with the specifics:
And the Columbus (Ohio) Garden Railway Society will have several great garden railroads open on September 8 this year. For more information, please click the following link:
In the fall, stores continue to reduce prices on plants you may need. Virtually all plants that are commonly used in garden railroads can be planted in the fall. If you can "kid them along" until heavy frost (which mostly involves compensating for any periods of low rainfall) most of them will establish to some extent over the winter and have a "head start" next spring. This is especially true for thymes and sedums. See the Family Garden Trains article on Groundcover 101 for more information about thymes and sedums. For more ideas about perennials in general, see The Secret Life of Perennials.
If you have any trees or bushes that need trimmed, get started as soon as things start to cool down. Flowering plants such as forsythia, lilac, or vibirnum should be trimmed as soon as the flowers go off in the spring, so trimming them now will mean fewer flowers next spring, but if you have to trim them now, it shouldn't hurt the plant.
Pay special attention to any dwarf conifers (such as Dwarf Alberta Spruce) that have grown up against each other or up against a wall. The warm, moist environment such crowding creates is especially inviting to spider mites and other tree-destroying vermin. Yes, it's hard to trim a Dwarf Alberta Spruce evenly all the way around the tree when it's in the ground, but if you make the effort in the fall, the tree will be ready to take advantage of late winter and early spring rains. I try to trim conifers at places that are junctions already. Often when two or more branches branch out from a junction, one grows way out and the other one is less "impressive." By consistently clipping off the branches that are longer and leaving the branches that are shorter, you can both "thin out" the excess growth and give the tree a narrower profile at the same time.
Whenever you cut off a branch, do it so that there is no bare "twig" sticking out, whether you cut it off at a junction or back at the trunk. The tree's bark will close over the cut much more quickly that way, improving both the health and the appearance of the tree.
When you're all done with this careful pruning, you may go back and shape the tree from a more aesthetic viewpoint. Yes, it may look a little ragged for a few months, and you want to make certain to water enough to compensate for any autumn droughts. But by late spring, it will look "perkier" than ever, and you've probably added another two or more years to its lifespan.
For more tips about trimming dwarf conifers, check out our Trees for Your Trains article on the subject.
Maintain good water flow, especially as long as temperatures get over 75F during the day. Algae problems will start tapering off with the return of cooler weather. As leaves on water lillies and other pond plants start looking "sick," clip off and dispose of the ones you can reach. The pond and the rest of the plant will stay healthier.
Start thinking about how you will protect your pond from leaves this fall. Nets made for this purpose are available at pond supply places. And when they're properly installed, they aren't even that noticeable. Don't put the net on until after you've taken care of your pond plants for the winter, though. See next month's newsletter for some hints about that.
In my part of the country, September is often the best time of the year to run trains, but if you do get rained into the house or otherwise stuck inside, this is a good time to start thinking about winter projects. If you don't have a "test" track (say around the upper wall of your basement) where you can run trains this winter, this may be a good time to start planning one. Are there any kits you'd like to order so you have them on hand once it's too cold to work outside? Is it time to start putting together your Christmas list?
Every November for the past five years, we've decorated our garden railroad for Christmas, with hundreds of lights, Christmas themed trains and more. Since we started, we've added Christmas music, outdoor train or Christmas movies after dark, a movie-style popcorn popper, three trains that children can run, and more. This year, the "big event" is planned for Saturday, November 9, and we wanted to give you as early a notice as possible, in case you are going to be anywhere near Springfield, Ohio in early November.
To learn more about our November 9 Christmas-themed open railroad, and maybe sign up to visit or to help, click on the following link:
We started our first HalloweenTrains.com page in 2007, to provide resources for folks who like setting up Halloween-themed towns and trains every year. Since then we've moved servers twice, to get more room for photos and projects, and to get more bandwidth for readers. Sadly, the recession caused some of the great products we featured in the "early years" to disappear, but there are still great products available, and our collection of free projects and resources is larger than ever. If you want to see what's available this year, or if you want to "roll your own," this is a great place to start - and, frankly, Halloween isn't that far away!
To visit the HalloweenTrains.com pages, click on the following link:
Here's a last minute announcement: The AristoCraft 0-4-0, which has been unavailable for some months, is now available again in a re-engineered form that includes power pickup on the tender wheels and a new motor block. The old one was my "go-to" locomotive whenever I needed a workhorse that could run for hours unsupervised on display railroads. At the moment, Aristo is offering the new, upgraded versions with sound tender direct to consumers at a nice discount, coupled with a compatible shortie caboose, so my "Christmas list" just got a little longer. PRR, Santa Fe, UP, and Christmas paint jobs are available.
To jump right to Aristo's page about these, please click on the following link:
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 July, 2013, 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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Getting and Keeping the Kids Involved - Update
One-Day Waterfall
Detail Painting Storefronts
Iron Storefront Catalog
Garden Trains for Kids, Updated
Christmas Train Day, 2013
Halloween Trains Update
Aristo 0-4-0 Redux
