Garden Railroading Fact Sheets from Family Garden Trains(tm)

One advantage of a web site over printed copy is the ability to embed "photo blow-ups" and other links that help people use each article to get just what they need. The disadvantage is that it's hard to take into the garden when you just need a reminder of something you saw on the web - if nothing else, they print out differently on just about everyone's computer.

These fact sheets are condensed outlines of some of our most-read articles. These publications are in .pdf format, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat's free Reader or similar software to read or print them. They are also big, so they will take a while to download. (While you are waiting, you might remind yourself that many resources would charge you several dollars up front just to access similar information at their web sites. :-)

Please contact me if you have anything to add or express an opinion about.

Note: All of these fact sheets are copyright (c) by Paul D. Race, all rights are reserved, which means you're not allowed to publish them (or any photo or text from them) on your own web site, or to print them to sell, or to make changes to them. If you want to print them to give them to friends, or to pass out at a Garden Railroading club meeting or something, you may. But please remember, that each page of fact sheet represents about 40 hours of work on our part (including the time it takes to condense a long article to a page or two), so we ask that you respect our efforts on behalf of the hobby and avoid republishing our ideas and our text.

In addition, I would like to hear about any time you've used these fact sheets in a club meeting or other special event. If I can find out what folks are finding useful, I can plan the next set of fact sheets better.

List of Fact Sheets we have so far:

• What is Garden Railroading? - A trifold brochure that provides potential newbies with an overview of the hobby. Good for handing out at events. (366K)

• Building a Simple Ground-Level Railroad - A checklist and list of recommended steps for installing a railroad right on the ground - recommended for 1-3 year installations, unless you live in the desert, in which it can stay weed-free much longer. (500K)

• Simple Wooden Roadbed - An easy-to-build base for your trains that can keep the track weed-free and provide level, solid footing whether on the ground or raised. This article includes templates to help you easily saw the roadbed pieces you'll need.Highly recommended. (991K)

• Building a Simple Raised Railroad - Using posts to raise the roadbed described in the article above. Live steamers - who need their trackage raised - often leave the posts exposed. Many model railroaders backfill dirt around the posts, so you can't see them, but they're there, keeping your railroad solid and your trackage weed-free. (337K)

• Building a Raised Platform Garden Railroad - Instead of backfilling around your roadbed with truckloads of dirt, consider raising your railroad on a deck-like structure for better viewing and much lower maintenance. English live-steam fans have been doing this sort of thing for a century, so there are many ways of doing this. This article provides a step-by-step method I've found "bulletproof" in my own back yard (as shown in the "Building the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek - So Far" article below). (640K)

• Conifers and More Suggestions for choosing and maintaining Dwarf Alberta Spruce and other small conifers that will keep your railroad looking green all year 'round. (366K)

• Groundcovers and More - Suggestions for filling those flat spaces between your other features with inert materials or low-maintenance, attractive plants that mimic the scale of your trains. (667K)

In addition, we have a pdf that describes very briefly how we began installing our own raised platform railroad:

Building the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek - So Far - 1752K