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…

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…

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…

Building Mountains

I finally finished all of the track laying, track wiring, and turnout controls. I still need to finish wiring my signals, dwarf lights, and end stop lights but I decided to start on my mountains over the holidays. I planned on building a wood structure to support the shell, cover it with chicken wire, cover…

Getting the Electronics to Work

After we got everything wired up with the Digitrax components we started to have several problems. When we moved the locomotives the sound would shut off and locomotives moved slower than I though they should.  We originally though it was because the layout was so big 600 ft of track. But the zone / sections…