One of my goals for this hobby and my layout in my back yard was to keep my grandchildren involved and excited about the different aspects of model railroading. One of the ways to do this is to keep it very personal and have them involved. On their 8th birthday, I let them pick…
I was very happy to attend the National Garden Railroad Convention 2022 in Denver Colorado this year. The club was great and put on a great convention. Thanks to all who helped out. As usual the highlights of the convention were the layouts at the homes that I was able to visit. All were great…
Nothing like a end goal to get your layout cleaned up and working. We hosted the cub scouts and the Atlanta Garden Railroad Club GGRS this past weekend. It was a great day and a great turnout. All week long before the open house the weather was great with no rainfall. All the family came…
Over time the wheel block gears on the G-Scale Kalamazoo Toy Train Steam Locomotives fail. The issue is that there is a plastic gear attached to the drive shaft for the wheels. Over time the plastic gear wears out. Kalamazoo Toy Trains went out of business a long time ago and only used locomotives are…
During the early years of the layout, I programed the DCC decoders during installation into the locomotives. I then used my outdoor layout to program the trains after they have been modified. This caused me to waste a lot of time and I would have sometimes have programming issues with the locomotives, had to have…
One of the most asked questions when I tell and show people my garden railroad train layout in my back yard is how do I get everything done ? I was able to make the layout initially while running Mr. Handyman and Behnke Inc. I was flying back and forth between Michigan and Georgia. In…
Garden Railroad Outdoor Mountains v2.0 3 years ago we built the outdoor mountains. See my post https://papacarney.com/2017/01/12/building-mountains/ and https://papacarney.com/2017/04/20/mountains-finished/ 3 years later, the mountain is showing some wear and tear. Several issues have surfaced since we built it Cracks are showing up at certain stress points. We have walked on parts of the mountain and…
One of the biggest problem for an outdoor layout is the constant cleaning of debris off of the tracks. When I envisioned the outdoor layout, I knew that I would be cleaning off leaves in the fall but I didn’t imagine having to clean the layout every 2 months through the year as pollen, seeds,…
I scheduled an open house this past May as a part of GGRS (Georgia Garden Railroad Society meeting). I wanted to meet more Model Railoaders around me and to get an opportunity to show off my layout. In addition, it is a great motivator to get everything ready and show finished. One thing I have…
When I started this train project I researched how to effectively wire the layout and I used standard LGB track. I planned the layout, wired up the layout, and after everything was in place I found that the layout electrically is not reliable. Sometimes planning and research is not enough. Experience is critical, as well…
CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2019 in Las Vegas I was lucky enough to attend the show this year and below are my highights of the show. If I had to summarize the show down to 2 items, I would say 5G and Artificial Intellicence. Everyone was weaving these 2 items into their products to improve…
Nana and I took a summer cruise in August 2018 and we enjoyed our trip to Italy, Greece, and Montenegro. We invited our dear friend Wendy Murphy along to join us this Mediterranean cruise. It was a great trip and usual we learned how little we knew about this area. Rome Our cruise started in…
Well Friday June 8th finally came and the big event. Our layout was on the Friday tour June 8th, 2018 from 8am to 1pm for the Natonal Garden Railroad Convention for 2018 in Atlanta. We have been working hard for this event ever since we started our layout, 3 1/2 years ago. The plan was…
papa carney 