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June, 2021 Update from Family Garden TrainsTM
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Update for June, 2021
Okay, this has been a busy two months. Three trips out of town, including a trip to Nashville for the National Garden Railway Convention. Preparing my presentation for two clinics at the Convention. Getting our tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and beans started. Mowing grass every twenty minutes. (Okay, that last part is an exaggeration, but far too often.)
That is another way of saying I didn't get much done on the new iteration of my garden railroad since the last newsletter.
On the other hand, I shared a lot and learned a lot at the convention.
Our presentations on Low Maintenance and High Reliability Garden Railroading were well received, overall. In a way I was relieved, because, in the past, I've encountered resistance for recommending lumber instead of dirt as the optimum way to raise your railroad, even in states that get enough rain for weeds to overtake the right-of-way and engulf your buildings in a matter of days.
As it turned out, many Nashville-area garden railroaders had already figured out the value of raised and lumber-based railroads for themselves.
Most of the railroads we visited on the convention's bus tours were raised, and several used post, fence, or raised-platform construction. A few used some combination of those methods.
| It's not surprising to see a live steam railroad that is raised on posts - that's a common practice to make it easier to fuel and tweak the model steamers. It IS surprising to see a British-inspired OO gauge live steam railroad operating in greater Nashville.
Though most of the post-based railroads in the region used single posts under 2"x6"s or some such, Garrett and Katie Rea's live steam railroad used double posts under what looks like 2"x12"s for extra stability.
Though, this was obviously a new railroad, almost a test track for the owners' 1:48-ish "pufferbellies," the live-steam fans on the bus with me were quite glad to see the railroad and argue about the best sources of fuel. :-)
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| Ken Miller, David Hamilton, and friends from the club worked overtime to get Ken's railroad in operating condition for the convention. If things look a little sparse or like they're still under development, credit a recent tornado and two recent floods for putting them "behind the curve."
As you can see, there is a conventional retaining-wall-and-dirt section, but there are also extensive post-based and raised-platform sections.
Yes, Ken is planning to add scenery, plants, and buildings to the lumber-only sections shown, but there's value in seeing the "bare bones" of the railroad at this time.
Sorry there are no trains in the photos - the ROW is so long, it takes several minutes for the trains to come around, and I was snapping photos between downpours. (Turns out that Nashville's weather is just as unpredictable as Springfield, Ohio's.)
Also, some of the buildings and accessories that used to be there are somewhere in Kansas as far as I know.
I did get a photo of a piece of track wedged in one of Ken's trees, courtesy of the tornado. Click here to see it if you want to. Now imagine about 400 other pieces in other trees or missing altogether and you'll have some idea of why Ken's railroad didn't look more "finished" this spring.
And here I thought having two massive trees fall on my railroad three months before the 2003 convention was a disaster.
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We also saw railroads with splendid rock and plant features, as well as many unique scratchbuilt buildings and accessories. More on those features in issues to come.
Whatever your modeling, railroading, or gardening interests, stay tuned. Every newsletter, we try to publish more, updated, helpful information.
In the meantime, have a great summer!
In This Issue
The following content is linked to or included in this newsletter:
In 2017, inspired by Paul Busse's advice to "Add vertical interest," I began an experiment - building a three-tiered outdoor railroad using raised lumber platforms. I wanted "vertical interest," which is difficult using only retaining-wall-and-dirt solutions, but I also wanted protection against the rapid weed growth, washouts, and burrowing animals that have plagued traditional garden railroads in most states east of the Mississippi.
 In a sense, the first two levels, built in the same summer, were a "proof-of-concept." Not only were the right-of-ways nearly zero maintenance, but the sedums I brought over from the other house thrived in 2-5" of dirt and rocks. (The Dwarf Alberta Spruce in the picture is in more dirt, about 8" deep but 24" wide.)
Then, in February, 2020, I wrote an article explaining how to build a simple, low-maintenance railroad based on my proof-of-concept. In that article, I included a cost comparison of the infrastructure (only) required for the sample raised platform railroad and an equivalent retaining-wall-and-dirt railroad.
If your ROW will be 24" off the ground, the raised platform railroad is somewhat cheaper. If it is any higher than that, the raised platform railroad will be substantially cheaper.
Of course, the cost of some boards and posts I recommended came close to doubling in 2020. During the convention, several folks claimed that the cost of lumber was keeping them from building the kind of railroad I was recommending. (Ironically, most of the same folks also admitted to having thousands of dollars' worth of trains in their garage, so I wondered what was really holding them back.)
But when I got home, I re-ran the cost comparison. The new figures, based on prices in June 15, in Springfield, Ohio, went into the article on June 15. They show that a raised platform railroad is still cheaper to build than a comparable retaining-wall-and-dirt railroad. Especially if you raise your ROW more than 24".
Admittedly the sample raised platform railroad in my article is simplistic. But I always recommend getting your feet wet with a small railroad first anyhow. Besides:
- The principles are sound and scalable to any size railroad you eventually want to build, and
- If you can run trains whenever someone comes over (because it's almost zero maintenance), it's easier to explain to visitors why other parts of your yard look like a construction site.
Click on the link below to see an overview of what it takes to build a simple raised platform railroad in your back yard with tools you probably already own.
After running a string of Bachmann coaches that kept uncoupling for no apparent reason on smooth, level, wide-radius trackage, I asked some friends what they did to compensate for the couplers' legendary weaknesses. Answers included using machine screws to brace the couplers more securely in the coupler shank/tang, disassembling the couplers and trimming out flash and other regularities, as well as replacement with Kaydees or even LGB couplers. No one approach will suit everybody, I'm afraid, and I will may take another tack on my coaches - like gluing the couplers closed - but I wanted to share these tips.
Click here to see the article.
The May/June issue of GRNews is available. As a reminder, this online-only "e-mag" is a "labor of love" by volunteers looking to fill the gap now that Kalmbach has officially abandoned the garden railroading community.
I'm pleased to see that they are getting some advertising dollars to supplement the cost of this effort, and I'm favorably disposed toward those advertisers as a result. Thanks, folks!
To download all four issues free, click here
The people putting the magazine together have also started a Facebook page here. That's probably the best way to keep up with their efforts and any future publications.
Dryer weather slows weeds, providing time and opportunities for other activities, but there is still plenty to do when you get a cool evening or three.
- Plant Maintenance - It will soon be time to "deadhead" any plants that bloom in early summer including including yarrows and larger sedums.
If you have "normal" thyme, you might want to "harvest" some by cutting it while it is still in flower, then tying it in bunches and hanging it upside down until it dries. Watch for bees; thyme attracts some very tiny species you almost never see otherwise. Try not to cut back beyond the last green part of the plants. It's also time to pull the crabgrass, nutgrass, and goldenrod that somehow gets seeded into your railroad every year.
As you work your way around your railroad, be sure to take a dandelion puller/knife with you so you're not tempted to break off any dandelions or thistles at the ground - they WILL return with stronger roots that ever.
This is not a good time to trim evergreens; wait until cooler weather if you can.
- Irrigation - After several summer droughts in the last few years, I've been making a point of monitoring the plants on my garden railroad. Fortunately most of them, like my ubiquitous sedums, are pretty drought-resistant. And having weed growth and insect migrations slow down in the dry summer months is a benefit, not a curse. But sometimes, you have to get the hose out. One way to tell when is when evergreen groundcovers start looking as gray as they do in the winter. Another way to tell is that certain deciduous plants, trees, and shrubs will be pointing their leaves almost straight up, as though they're conserving moisture and hoping to trap any rainfall at all. Here are a few caveats:
- Watering your entire garden railroad indiscriminately (say with a lawn sprinkler) will increase weed growth, so that should be done sparingly.
- Watering evergreen trees with hard water may keep them alive in the short term, but too much hard water can harm them in the long run. In true droughts, there are always cases of folks "killing with kindness" when it comes to conifers and hard water.
- Watering in the late evening will make the moisture last longer. However you should avoid evening waterings during the "wetter" months of the year, as it can compound mold or other problems.
- Make certain you don't leave any open containers that can collect your irrigation water and give mosquitoes a place to breed.
- Even if you don't water your garden railroad much during the summer, consider giving it a soaking the morning of any day in which you plan to have company. It will "perk up" and green up your plants and make the whole garden look that much more attractive.
- Planning an Open House - If you're thinking about a late summer or early autumn open house for your garden railroad, now is the time to start planning. My club, the Miami Valley Garden Railway Society (in southwest and west-central Ohio) often has some around the end of August or early September. We plan to be open at some point. I wouldn't count on seeing the Nashville-area garden railroads open again this soon - a whole lot of work went into those. But other clubs will also be planning open RRs.
Also, I'll try to keep up our tradition of having a Christmas-themed open railroad in November, so stay tuned. Some tips on planning your own open railroad are in the following article:
- Landscaping Opportunities - Although you're not supposed to plant trees in August, many stores start reducing prices on landscaping trees in late summer. Generally, if I get anything like that at the sales, I leave it in the pot in a shaded area and make sure the soil in the pot stays moist until I have time to trim it up and get it into the ground in the fall. (Some folks dig a hole and drop the whole pot into the ground, which has the additional advantage of stabilizing the soil temperature.)
- Water Feature Care - Make certain that the "waterfalls" that aerate your pond are running properly. This includes cleaning out the filter as often as necessary to maintain a strong flow. If you're going to be gone for a time during hot weather, consider putting your pond pump on a timer so it only runs during the afternoon, when the fish need it most, but it doesn't run so much that it clogs up and stops running period.
If you need to treat the pond to get rid of that stringy dark algae, be careful to read the label - some brands kill water hyacinth and other plants (Pond Care Algae-Fix's present formula works without killing my plants). If you do treat your pond for algae, be doubly careful to make certain your pond is getting aerated - otherwise the dying algae creates an unhealthy environment for your fish.
- When It's Too Hot to Play Outside - If it's too hot to run trains, you might think about planning an indoor "test-track" somewhere that you can use in the "dog days" of summer as well as the cold days of winter. It probably is time to start prioritizing your list of what you plan to get accomplished before the leaves fall. Unless you live where the leaves don't fall, then you may need that indoor "test track" right now.
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 April, 2021, 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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Raised Platform Garden Railroads (Redux)
Bachmann Coupler Tips
GRNews Next Issue Available
