Making a Ghost Train

I already have Hogwarts trains and a castle that I set up for the kiddies as part of our Christmas-themed open railroads each November.

But what would make my railroad seem even more "Halloweeny"? I considered building or buying a haunted house, but then I thought about making a ghost train, using bits and pieces of old Bachmann sets that are "out of service" for one reason or another.

What would I call it? "Spook Hill Express," of course. Spook Hill is the name of a friend's fictitious Halloween town, built of cardboard, after the fashion of the old Japanese Cardboard Christmas houses.

If you click on the photo, you'll find Howard Lamey's step-by-step instructions for building a number of great Halloween-themed structures.

But there's more to it than that. In 2012, inspired by Howard's designs, I wrote a family-friendly Halloween-themed novel called The Spook Hill Chronicles.

In the story, a young widow fleeing from bad people hoping to collect on her late husband's gambling debts moves her children to an ancestral home in a ghost town whose ghosts seem to be very much alive. And part of her journey there is on an old steam train labeled "Spook Hill Express."

Each chapter is illustrated with photos of Howard's projects.

Looking for Donor Trains

One of those sets was an early "Royal Blue" passenger set that came to me with the locomotive missing several parts.

Like most Bachmann passenger sets, this set came with a combine and an observation car. It had the battery lighting circuit, though one of them wasn't working at all. It also came with plastic wheels, which was normal back in the mid-1980s.

I wanted to repaint the train purple with orange highlights, so the orange clerestory windows were just fine with me.

At the time I wasn't thinking seriously about lighting, so I made a mistake I won't make again (see below).

Disassembly - The first step was disassembling the coaches. There are a mess of screws and four "snaps" on the bottom of the car. A few of the screws actually hold the seats to the floor, so they don't all have to come out, but if they do, it's no big deal. That said, on some early passenger car sets, the lighting circuit is wired differently, so you have to unscrew all the screws and pull the floor of the car away from the seats temporarily until you loosen two other screws.

Side Windows - The windows in the sides of the cars are lightly glued, but they also sort of snap in. At the top, they sit in a slot, unglued, but at the bottom, they snap over molded-in posts that receive the screws from the floor assembly. They can be snapped out gently by working the bottom edge with a knife blade or slim screwdriver until the glue gives loose. The part around the post may deteriorate, but you're going to glue them back into place anyway. I left the celestory windows alone - see below.

Prep for Repaint - I was going repaint and to apply new lettering (via a Cricut, see below). But just painting over the old lettering wouldn't be enough. If it is left on, you can still see the outlines through the spray paint.

I tried several chemicals to try to get it off, but none of them worked. I didn't have any brake fluid - my old go-to - handy, or I would have tried it. I guess that's the downside of having automobiles that aren't 20 years old.

I did have 600-grit water-proof emery paper. 1200 is recommended but I wasn't going to run to the store any more than necessary.

The sandpaper didn't get down into the cracks between the "boards" as well as I'd like, but it cleaned things up enough that wasn't worried about the old lettering making discernable bulges under the spray paint.

The trucks were dark blue, but I left them, since you hardly them anyway. The bits between and around the celestory windows were also dark blue. If I was repainting the cars for a serious modeling effort I could have masked off the celestory windows and painted that part. Or I could have disassembled the lighting features and pulled out the celestory windows. But I didn't think I could do that without breaking the lighting features.

So I determined to leave lhat part "as-is" and just mask the entire roof section when I painted. As it turns out you don't really notice that the bits between the celestory roof are dark blue - they look black in most light, which is just fine.

What I DIDN'T think about was masking the lighting stuff. Even though I hadn't planned to use it, I should have masked it off in case I wanted to get it working later.

Spray Painting - The only purple spray paint I could find in a color I liked was a gloss finish, so I knew the dark blue might still influence the final color if I didn't prime the cars first.

So I masked off the entire roof section, including the celestory window sections and the stove pipe. Then I primed the walls of the cars with gray primer, using several light coats to avoid drips, etc.

When the primer looked even all around, I painted the car walls with the purple topcoat, again, being careful to avoid drips or places where the paint went on too thick.

The photo to the right shows the cars after they were painted purple, but before I put the windows back in place. Don't worry, I also painted the freight doors, after carefully popping the windows off.

Unfortunately, as mentioned before, I didn't think about masking off the lighting features in the top of the cars. So there was enough overspray for them all to become purple, including the little lightbulbs. If I ever want to light the cars, it will take at least replacing the light bulbs.

Passengers - Of course a "ghost train" should include ghosts. When I started this project, I ordered some of those cheap Asian 1:24 plastic figures to paint and glue in place. I got the unpainted version, which is cheaper, and better for this project anyway. (BTW, if you're ever tempted to order a set like this, painted or not, try to get the set with six different molds. Otherwise approximately 1 out of four will be waving her arm like Hermione Granger in Snape's classroom. Quite a few Large Scalers have cut her arm off and positioned her where it wouldn't be noticed. Don't tell their grandchildren.)

When they arrived, they were a sort of cream color. So I used up the rest of a can of flat white paint on them. Then I sprayed them with "glow-in-the-dark" spray paint.

They don't sit properly on the seats unless their feet are cut off. Yes it seems like a rather procrustean situation, but as Grishn??k says, they don't need those. Especially since they're ghosts. Sorry, too many Halloweeny ideas floating around in my head.

Car Reassembly - I glued the windows back in place and let them set. (You drop them into the slots at the edge of the roof, snap them over the rods, and add a dab of glue.)

Then I screwed everything back together.

Tender Painting - The tender was easy, because the shell unscrews, and the coal load unscrews from the shell. I only had to mask a little bit of "coal" on the front platform.

One of the trucks on the tender was broken, but I used a truck from a Bachmann freight car that was already missing other pieces - they're the same except for the old tender truck being dark blue.

Locomotive Issues - But the old B&O locomotive I wanted to restore and use for this project was too far gone to get working again. So it's now in a "parts bin."

Running out of time, I used another locomotive that needed less work and which had already been separated from its tender.

I masked off the pilot, the smokestack, the smokebox, the windows, the bell, and everything underneath the running boards. Then I primed and painted it, along with the tender shell.

In retrospect, I should have masked off the engineer as well, but if I want to, I can paint his face and hand white and pretend his uniform is purple.

Lettering - inspired by several hobbyist friends who use their Cricuts to make signs and reletter their cars, I thought I would give that a try. I had a single sheet of bright red-orange left over from a bundle I bought years ago when I acquired my first Cricut. I have no idea what the name of that color would be.

Using Corel Draw, I created .svg files to load into Cricut's Design Space and cut on my Explore with a fine-tipped blade. I have that software because I used to have to do a lot of graphics for my "day job." But you could use InkSpace (a free vector-graphic program) to do the same thing. Or Adobe Illustrator if you have that.

I tried using the Railroad Roman font developed by Benn Coifman to represent mid-to-late-1800s railroad lettering (left below), but the little skinny lines were so skinny, the Cricut cut them as a single cut, so the lettering was useless.

Ben Coifman's Railroad Roman	Monotype Plantin, stretched out

Next I tried Monotype Plantin (Bold), which I bought directly from Monotype in the 1980s because it was the official typeface of my employer. When stretched out a little, it's proportions are very like the serif typeface PRR used when they weren't using Futura (gag!).

It's also similar to the typeface used on the Warner Brothers' version of the Polar Express. When it's 24 points high, it's about the right size for the signboards on the coaches.

I tried using Cricut's Plantin Schoolbook (from a font cartridge I own and have linked to my account in Design Space). But I couldn't stretch it the way I wanted.

While in Corel Draw, I converted the letters to curves, then saved the file as a .svg file (which Design Space can read, finally.) When I forgot to convert the text to curves, Design Space tried to cut all the Ss, then all the Ps, then all the Os, and so on. Which would have been a nightmare to try to align on the train. That said, such mishaps gave me a chance to get the blade to the right depth on the Cricut.

Once I finally good a good cut of stretched, 24-point Plantin, I got out the transfer tape and proceeded to "weed," what Cricut calls separating the parts you don't want from the parts you want. My letters were so small, that I destroyed almost as much as I saved, even weeding with a hat pin to dig out the tiny triangles in the As, etc. So I wound up cutting another set before I was through.

Ironically, after I got my train lettered, one of the fellows whose projects encouraged me to take this approach said something like "Looks great. Weeding sure is a lot of trouble, isn't it?" Still, the results are nice. (If you own a craftcutter and you want to take a look at my source file, click here.

The numbers on the locomotive and cars are from the "Spooky Font" of Cricut's "Happy Haunting" cartridge. Dozens of nice Halloween typefaces are available online, but after my experience with the Plantin lettering, I thought I'd just use something that I knew was optimized for the Cricut.

2003 and 2013 are the years my railroad has been included in the NGRC tour. We've moved since, but you if you click on the photo above, you might recognize some of the buildings.

Conclusion

In the meantime, in preparing for Halloween-themed open RRs, I also filled four HLW hoppers with putka pods - a potpurri ingredient that looks like tiny pumpkins.

For the Halloween-themed open railroad, I moved a castle to the foreground and added a battery-powered Lionel Hogwarts Express for the kiddies to run. (This is the "G gauge" version which has been discontinued. The current "Ready-to-Play" version runs on 2" track.)

If you click on the photo to the right, then click on it again, you should be able to see a Lego Knight Bus, as well as Harry, Ron, and Hermione on broomsticks fleeing a dragon.

Above that is the Spook Hill Express, above that, a lonely little LGB Porter just doing its job. But you won't hear the extensive Halloween soundtrack that also greets visitors, with several creepy, but family-friendly tunes.

Since I took the photo, I came across three more cars I may paint purple next year: two unlabeled Bachmann gondolas (to take over the putka/pumpking hauling chores) and one very old and battered Santa Fe caboose I couldn't even give away at the last club meeting.

As of this writing, though, further Halloween plans are curtailed. Our November Christmas-themed open RR is looming, and that takes a lot of pre-work.

I don't need to paint any trains for Christmas, since so many were made, but they're getting "long in the tooth" and need some TLC to be ready. If you're going to be anywhere near Springfield Ohio on Nov. 12, 2021, let me know, and I'll send you details.

Keep in Touch

If you're headed toward or past Springfield, Ohio, please let me know, and I'll see if we can work out a quick visit.

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

Return to Family Garden Trains' Home Page - The home page with links to all the other stuff, including design guidelines, construction techniques, structure tips, free graphics, and more.

Proceed to "Preparing for 2021's Christmas Train Day." - In preparation for our annual Christmas-themed open railway, I ran lighting to some of our buildings, installed rope lighting on one section, and chose appropriate rolling stock. I also lit a bunch of our dwarf conifers and ran colored light strands that would brighten up our waterfall after dark.

Click on the photo to see our status as of early November, 2021.

Return to "Portal Installation on the New Boston and Donnels Creek." . We shimmed out the frames for the tunnel entrances to make them more vertical, installed I.S.L.E. portals we had painted previously, and stacked stones around them to camouflage the wooden parts. There's a bit more work to do, but its a big improvement over black holes at each end of the tunnel

Click on the picture to see our status as of early October, 2021.

Return to "Dirtscaping on the New Boston and Donnels Creek, Part 3" - Raising 'mini-mountains' near the new tunnels to make them seem more blended into the dirtscape. Lots of rocks moved, and more trees trimmed and planted. Also, we moved our towns into position in preparation for a club meeting at our home.

Click on the photo to see our status as of mid-August, 2021.

Return to "Tunnel Framing on the New Boston and Donnels Creek, Part 2" - Adding rocks, dirt, and plants to the new tunnel structures. Because I wanted to transplant dwarf and miniature trees to the new "mountains," I had to move a substantial amount of rocks and dirt. But I feel the result will be well worth it, once the groundcovers fill in.

Click on the photo to see our status as of late July, 2021.

Return to "Tunnel Framing on the New Boston and Donnels Creek, Part 1." We planned and built two wooden boxes that would become the framework for two short tunnels on our raised platform railroad. That effort was made a little more complicated by the fact it was a "retrofit." I hadn't planned for them at first, so getting them in place took some finangling.

Click on the picture to see our status as of mid-July, 2021.

Return to "New Right-of-Ways on the New Boston and Donnels Creek RR" - Adding a loop based on 10'-diameter curves. Includes cutting and installing 2x6 roadbed, bridging the waterfall, and cutting a third passage through the train shed, as well as installing roadbed for two smaller loops.

Click on the picture to see our status as of late March, 2021.

Return to "Creating a Railroad Timetable" - No train station would be complete without a timetable showing arrivals and departures (as well as expected arrivals and departures). We made one with a big piece of underlayment, framed it with scrap lumber, cut lettering for it with a craftcutter, and lined it with striping tape. This one is hinged to a shallow shelving unit that is holding the dvds we sometimes watch while working on projects in our workshop.

Click on the picture to see our status as of January, 2021.

Return to "Christmas Preparations and Operations 2020" - A series of families were going to visit during the holiday season (masked and distanced, of course), so we just had to do a little Christmas decorating, and get as many trains running as possible for the kids. This included laying temporary ROWs on the new platform and setting up two Lionel RTP trains for kids to run.

Return to "Garage to Train Station, Part 2" - continuing to fix up one end of my garage to resemble a Victorian train station interior. I used a digital projector to outline vintage coach details for my windowframes. Then I painted the backgrounds, attached the windowframes, and installed them on the wall. A repro Regulator clock and other details are added.

Click on the picture to see our status as of late December, 2020.

Return to "Garage to Train Station, Part 1" - fixing up one end of my garage to resemble a Victorian train station interior. The initial steps included demolition, patching the ceiling and walls, moving electrical outlets, adding wainscotting and baseboard, and planning for windowframes with painted backgrounds.

Click on the picture to see our status as of early December, 2020.

Return to "Westward Expansion, 2020, Part 3" - Thanks to a spate of unusually warm weather in early November, I was able to get the new platform finished, lined with vinyl, and bordered with trim boards to keep the dirt and gravel in place.

The next "permanent" improvements will wait for now. In the meantime, we will set out buildings and a temporary loop or to entertain visitors between now and Christmas.

Click on the picture to see our status as of mid-November, 2020.

Return to "Westward Expansion, 2020, Part 2" - We had to be careful leveling the last joists so the frame, decking, and right-of-way would be as level as possible. Fortunately we were able to get enough lumber to get a good start on the frame.

We also added one last tweak to the frame design to make it easier to extend this platform to its originally planned size, if and when we get a chance to do so.

Return to "Westward Expansion, 2020, Part 1" - With a lumber shortage and warm weather running out, we revised our plans for the next addition, bought what decent lumber we could find, dug holes, installed posts, and attached joists.

We were hoping to get the lumber we need to finish the platform before cold weather set in. Click on the link to see our status as of late September, 2020.

Return to "Train Storage Solutions, 2020" - Using periods of cold weather to get things sorted in the garage, including shelf building and tips for schlepping trains from storage to the tracks.

Click on the following link to see our status as of late January, 2020. https://familygardentrains.com/newbost/20_1_19_shelves/shelves.htm

Return to "Expansion Planning, 2020" - Three years after starting a garden railroad in our new home, we are trying to figure out the best way to finish the last loop of our raised platform railroad. How to make room for 10'-diameter curves and more towns and industries, but still keeping things manageable requires some thinking and rethinking.

Click on the photo to see the options we were reviewing for the next and last expansion.

Return to "Winter Preparation, 2019" - After the big open railroad event, we try to prepare the railroad for the cold months, including populating the railroad with North States bird feeders so it doesn't look empty, adding an air pump and bubblers to the pond, and more.

Click on the following link to see our status as of early December, 2019. https://familygardentrains.com/newbost/19_11_24_winter_prep/19_11_24_winter_prep.htm

Return to "Christmas Train Day, 2019" - Three years after starting a garden railroad in our new home, we host another Christmas-themed open railroad, giving many families a jump start on Christmas celebrations and sharing the experience of running trains with lots of kids.

Click on the photo to see a brief record of our busiest weekend in November, 2019.

Return to "Preparing for Christmas Train Day 2019" - Wrapping up construction projects for 2019 and getting ready for our annual Christmas-themed open railroad. Includes new lighting and other features, providing a temporary home for a Hogwarts Express train, weather issues, and more. Click to go to article.

Click on the following link to see our progress of mid-November, 2019.

https://familygardentrains.com/newbost/19_11_01_prep_for_train_day/19_11_01_prep_for_train_day.htm

Return to Decking the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek Part 2 - Getting the next part of the railroad ready to install trains. Includes installing 2"x6" decking, vinyl sheeting, edges to hold back the gravel, and corrugated steel panels. It's not done, but it will give us another place to set up trains for our next Christmas-themed open railroad.

Click on the photo to see our status as of late October, 2019.

Return to "Framing the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR - Part 7" - Installing posts, joists, framing, and decking for the eastern expansion of the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek. Although this installation was complicated by having to fit into an existing framework, the methods used could work for any raised-platform railroad.

Click on the following link to see our progress of early October, 2019.

https://familygardentrains.com/newbost/19_27_framing/19_27_framing_part_7.htm

Return to "Planning the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR - Part 5" - Once the major components of the water feature were installed and tested, we decided to add one more bit of railroad proper before our "Christmas Train Day," this November. The addition, about 5'x11', will allow us to put a small train and some scenery closer to eye level for youngsters. Eventually it will be part of the larger plan that will allow us to run our bigger cars and locomotives.

Click on the photo to see our plans for the next addition, as of late September, 2019.

Return to Waterscaping Part 4. - Installing the last connecting pool, so the whole planned waterfall is complete except for dirtscaping and planting.

The process included checking the pump, extending the hoses, rescuing toads, building the platform, trimming the platform, testing the pool's location, etc.

Click the photo to go to the article.

Return to "Waterscaping, Part 3" - After seven months of crazy long work hours, I finally got some free time to continue working on the railroad. Weather permitting, I often worked all the live-long day. This article describes installing two posts that will eventually support the last connecting pool, then digging the big hole for the in-ground pond, complicated by a three-month drought that turned the ground to concrete.

Click on the photo to see our progress as of mid-September, 2019.

Return to Christmas Train Day, 2018 - After two years without our traditional Christmas Train Day (something we did from 2008 through 2015), we were anxious to get started again, even without a huge right of way to show off. The kids' trains, the extra Thomas railroad, the popcorn popper and two Bachmann Christmas trains got a big workout. And the visiting kids all loved it!

Click on the photo to see a lot of last-minute preparations and some photos of the November 10, 2018 event itself.

Return to "Adding a Train Shed Part 6" - Installing the board and batten siding on our train shed, installing the windows, installing the trim, testing the "tunnel entrances," and more.

By the way, going over lumber receipts in early 2019, I couldn't believe I was still siding the train shed in late October, and managed to have an open railroad in mid-November. It is a little crazy how fast things can go together if you have a deadline and a lot of gift cards.

Click on the photo to see our progress as of late October, 2018.

Return to "Adding a Train Shed Part 5" - Planning the doors, walls, and windows of our garden train shed.

Includes choosing the siding and windows, installing the door, painting the windowframes, and adding crosspieces to support the vertical siding boards.

Return to "Adding a Train Shed Part 4" - Choosing and installing underlayment and drip edge to protect the sheathing until I can get the final roof installed.

Now the roof is waterproof enough to get us through the next couple of months at least, maybe more.

Return to "Adding a Train Shed Part 3" - Adding fascia, sheathing, and end trim to the in-progress train shed.

I thought about bringing in helpers for this part, but a reader commented on how helpful it was to see how one person could do this sort of thing by himself, so I just kept plugging away.

Click on the photo to see our progress as of September 13, 2018

Return to "Waterscaping Part 2" - Getting this year's waterscaping project done (for now at least). Installing and dirtscaping the third level of the waterfall. Installing pump and filter, adding an extra container and modifying the ones we already had installed to keep the water running smoothly. And lots of other tweaking. Includes tips about introducing fish and plants, as well as other information about water features in general that you may find helpful.

Click on the photo to see our status as of August 5, 2018.

Return to "Adding a Train Shed Part 2" - Adding rafters to the frame of the in-progress train shed. Now it's starting to look like it might actually be a structure and not just a crazy collection of posts.

The way we got the rafters and ridge board up wouldn't work for everybody, but it worked for us, and hopefully will help other folks to "think outside the box" - literally in this case.

Click on the photo to see our progress as of July 14, 2018.

Return to "Adding a Train Shed Part 1" - What started out as a simple addition of a deck to stand on when putting trains on the track got a little more ambitious when I realized that JUST installing the deck this year would require more work next year. So we framed out what we planned to be a train shed attached to the railroad. If it ever gets finished, I can easily put trains on the track at a moment's notice instead of schlepping them out from the garage.

Click on the photo to see our status as of July 9, 2018.

Return to "Waterscaping the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek Part 1," our article on getting the top two layers of the waterfall on solid footing and getting the third layer framed. After we finish decking and dirtscaping the third layer, we will probably add a washbasin or something for the water to flow into, then add a pump to get the waterfall flowing. No big pond until next year at least - too many other projects.

Click on the photo to see our progress as of June 13, 2018.

Return to "Dirtscaping the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 2. - Adding barriers to keep the rocks, dirt, and plants where they're supposed to go, placing platforms and running wiring for buildings, adding rocks, dirt, and plants to the upper level of the railroad.

Click on the photo to see our status as of June 1, 2018.

Return to "Adding Raised Roadbed to the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek, Part 2" - Trimming the corners off the roadbed on the upper layer and cutting the pieces that will support the curves on the middle layer. We need to get the upper two tiers of the pond installed before we totally complete this step, so the article doesn't quite show the finished product. You'll see it later as part of other articles.

Return to "Adding Raised Roadbed to the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 1" - Sorting out our priorities for the spring and summer of 2018. There a lot of little chores we really should get done before we start on the next big addition. Click to see our plans as of February 27, 2018.

Click on the photo to see our status as of February 20, 2018

Return to "2018: Springing into Spring on the NEW New Boston & Donnels Creek RR." - Sorting out our priorities for the spring and summer of 2018. There a lot of little chores we really should get done before we start on the next big addition. Click to see our plans as of February 27, 2018.

Click on the photo to see our status as of February 20, 2018

Return to "Dirtscaping the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 1. - Putting edging around the existing "layers" of the new railroad, and beginning to add gravel and rocks. There were a few test runs, but we got stopped early by bad weather before we could dump the rest of the rocks, gravel, and dirt, much less plant the plants we hoped to get in before snowfall.

Click on the photo to see our status as of November 21, 2017

Return to "Decking the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR - Decking the 'middle layer' of our proposed three-tier outdoor railroad. Prepping more track, laying out track and decking to make certain we have measurements correct, installing most of the remaining decking for this layer.

Click on the photo to see our status as of October 25, 2017

Return to "Framing the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 6" - Modifying and finishing the framing on the second layer, cantilevering, using R3 track versus all other pre-curved track formats, finalizing the track plan, why painting the track makes old and new track blend better, and more. This will be the last bit of "framing" in 2017, and it worked out well, considering.

Click on the photo to see our status as of October 15, 2017

Return to "Framing the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 5" - Spreading the billboard-sourced vinyl underlayment on the top layer. Prepping used Aristo track for (hopefully) many more years of service. Laying the first loop of track, attaching power wires with spade terminals, and testing conductivity with a Bachmann streetcar.

Click on the photo to see our status as of October, 10, 2017

Return to "Framing the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 4" - Planning and running the decking for the top layer, testing the track plan, checking clearances, prepping used track with new railjoiners, examining the vinyl I ordered to go over the decking, and more.

Click on the photo to see our status as of September 26, 2017

Return to "Framing the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 3" - Getting the frame finished on the top layer, ordering other things I'd need eventually, deciding on materials for the decking on the top layer (at least).

Click on the photo to see our status as of September 17, 2017

Return to "Framing the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 2" - Once I had the overall frame relatively solid, I hooked up the underground power lines to two GFI plugs that should be in easy reach once everything is finished. I also decided to frame out the top railroad layer while I could still access the center of the railroad easily. Because I was running out of vertical space, I reconfigured that layer. Then after I got the "core" pieces on, I changed my plan again. But the whole thing is getting easier and easier to visualize, and is getting closer to complete with every board I cut and fasten on.

Click on the photo to see our status as of September 7, 2017

Return to "Framing the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek RR, Part 1" - Once I started dropping posts in the holes and screwing things together, I didn't want to stop before I had the basic frame built (for one thing, the wood warps less once it's fastened in place). Now the folks driving down the street past our house (we're on a corner lot) probably wonder if I'm building an elaborate chicken coop, but that's fine with me. I still need to make a few more lumber runs and do a lot more cutting and sawing, but having the basic frame in place should make the next bits a lot easier.

Click on the photo to see our status as of August 10, 2017

Return to "Breaking Ground on the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek" - Okay, in case you wondered if we'd ever get started on the thing, we broke ground in July, using a manual post-hole digger. Well two manual post-hole diggers. But by the end of this article, we're ready for the posts to start going in.

Click on the photo to see our status as of the end of July, 2017

Return to "Planning the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek, Part 4" - Well, the rented post-hole digger fell through, so we dug our vegetable garden with a manual post-hole digger (the scissors kind). In addition, I stake out where the railroad was going to be. Twice. And tweaked the plans again. Sorry about the redo's, but sometimes just walking around the yard trying to visualize things makes me reconsider something that seemed "settled" only a few days before.

Click on the photo to see what we were considering as of late May, 2017

Return to "Planning the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek, Part 3" - We have still not broken ground. In part because we plan to rent a post-hole digger and dig the post holes for our raised vegetable garden and the first phase of the garden railroad at the same time, and we don't have enough lumber on hand yet. (If we didn't break it down into multiple trips, we'd be blowing out the shocks on our minivan.) In the meantime, we used a line level to see if the slope of the back yard was as bad as we thought it was (it's worse), and we did other site preparation, including planting a whole bunch of spruce tree seedlings to eventually give us some privacy in our side and back yard. Plus, I'm still wavering a little on the "where-to-start-first" issue.

Click on the photo to see what we were considering as of late April, 2017

Return to "Planning the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek, Part 2" - More plans. We've moved on from the 2"x6" roadbed-on-posts to a sort of "train-table-outside" plan. Our goals include low-maintenance, high interest, and high reliability. We're also trying to get around having a thousand dollars' worth of dirt hauled into the back yard. If you want to get some idea of what our planning process looks like, reading these through in sequence may help. Or it may drive you crazy.

Click on the photo to see what we were considering in early April, 2017

Return to "Planning the NEW New Boston and Donnels Creek, Part 1" - If you're subscribed to our newsletter, you know that we moved just after Thanksgiving in 2016, leaving behind most of the track, a few of the bird feeders, and one Bachmann train set for the new owners. We also left behind a high-maintenance garden that we do not intend to replicate at the new place. This is the first chapter of a new chapter in our lives, which we hope will include a lot of "lessons learned." But first, some serious landscaping had to take place.

Click on the photo to see what we were considering in March, 2017

Return to the New Boston and Donnels Creek RR Page - This is the page describing Paul Race's progress and frequent rework on his own garden railroad, started on a shoe-string budget in 1998, later expanded, and later refurbished several times as issues arose. Issues that Paul hopes to avoid by building the next iteration above ground.

Click on the photo to see the home page of Paul's railroad.

Return to Family Garden Trains' Home Page - The home page with links to all the other stuff, including design guidelines, construction techniques, structure tips, free graphics, and more.

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