Water and Electricity Don’t Mix

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…

Challenges of Electricty Outdoors

AS I built the track, it was raised on Hardiboard and had no dirt.  I ran the wires as needed to feed the power sectors of the track.  There are about 100 different sectors for the track layout and each of these had individual wires to feed the voltage to the track.  The wires feed…

3D Printing

I recently received an Ultimaker 3 Extended 3D printer. My plan is to print unique buildings and accessories for my Garden Model Railroad. I have all of my children and son in laws that can 3D program to help modify or create structures that I can print. We still have a long way to go…

Landscape Walls and Fill Dirt Completed

  It is finally coming together.  Over the past 6 weeks we have installed a landscape retaining wall around the raised portion of the track and then filled in to the track level with gravel and dirt.  The track now looks a part of the landscape with easy access from the edges. There was a…

Train Heaven – MINIATUR WUNDERLAND HAMBURG

The fun about building trains is that you can learn so much from everyone else.  I recently had the opportunity to goto Germany to visit my daughter and son-in-law and we took a side trip to Hamburg to visit a massive model train layout. The place is called is Miniatur Wunderland.  http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com  It is located…

Building a Drawbrige

Oringally building the g-scale drawbrige was planned for much later in the project as I knew this would be complicated and would have to be built from scratch.  No vendors that I found offer a  drawbrige.  But working on the layout, the bridge was in a main path and during the work on the mountains,…

Building the River

One of the key design features for the model railroad layout is a waterfall and river.  It just adds a lot of activity and interest in the layout. I added a concrete spillway before starting the layout to handle the water coming down from the driveway.  The spillway ends with a drain line into the…