Family Garden Trains™ - Your First Stop for Garden Railroading Fun


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Garden Trains are big, weather-resistant model trains that you can run outside. Once you install the track, you leave it out all year 'round, (though most people bring the trains in overnight). You can surround your railroad with real ponds and plants that not only make your trains look "at home," but beautify your yard all year long as well.

Since many new Garden Trains became available in the 1980s, the hobby called Garden Railroading has been attracting both "indoor" model railroaders and families that never owned an "indoor train." All have found that a Garden Railroad is a family enterprise, with everyone finding something to enjoy and something to contribute. That's why, when we started "Family Garden Trains"™ in 1996, we put the word "Family" into the title and kept it there.

We at Family Garden Trains™ are Garden Railroaders who want to help our hobby grow, and we think that the best way to do that is to give anyone interested the information that they need the most to get started. That is why we publish that information on our web site in the form of free, original articles. Each article is written or edited by a professional writer with the beginning garden railroader in mind. To help you as much as possible:

We provide clear explanations, step-by-step instructions, and lists of resources you can consult when you need more detail about a particular subject than we can provide.
We keep our content "fresh" by adding new content and updating older articles as new products or techniques become available.
We encourage two-way communication, through a Letters to the Editor section, a Contact Page for your questions, a Mailing List signup, and a Blog. If you poke around a little, you'll also see that we have incorporated reader feedback directly into dozens of our articles, and we'll be glad to include your suggestions, additions, and corrections as well.

Information about Garden Railroading

Free: Garden Railroading Primer Articles - Everything you need to know to get started, including many planning and construction articles to give you more ideas for getting a railroad in your back yard this year. The following list is just a sampling of recent or especially helpful articles:
- Go Outside and Run Your trains - A very short list of things you need to know to get started. - Updated April, 2008
- Building a Garden Railroad on a Budget - Get into garden railroading without breaking the bank.
- Real-World Trains You can Model - A summary of your basic choices, followed by a list of reading resources for learning more. Unique resources you'll find only on our pages, including:
  - Thirty-Inch Railroading - The trains that "did more with less," and went boldly where no one else has gone before or since. New, April, 2008
  - Small but Mighty - 30" Power - The unique "real-world" steam locomotives that pulled 30" trains. New, May, 2008
  - The Little River Railroad - A standard-gauge logging railroad with common carrier aspirations. This Smoky Mountain railroad used compromises and combinations of equipment that hardly anyone would believe today if it wasn't for the photographs. Includes many unique modeling possibilities. Five new articles, August, 2008
- Introduction to Garden Railroad Construction - An overview of the various recommended construction methods, with guidelines to help you decide which method is best for you
- Is Aluminum Track a Viable Option? - With brass track prices rising, more people are looking for a cheaper alternative. Will it work for you?- New, June, 2008
- Painting Plastic Structures - A detailed procedure on how to prepare plastic buildings for years of unique, attractive service.
- Desert Accessories from Playmobil Products - How repainting carefully-chosen toys can add fun details to a Large Scale desert landscape, from our sister site Big Indoor Trains™ New, August, 2008!
- New Article: Refurbishing Garden Railroad Roadbed - Why you should do things right in the first place, and how to fix problems without starting from "scratch." - New September, 2008
- New Article: Cast in Concrete - Ben Hartman's Stone Houses - A depression-era artist's "rock-solid" technique for making miniature outdoor buildings that have lasted 60+ years.New, September, 2008
- Introduction to O Gauge Outside - The first article in a series that will show the "does and don'ts" of building an O gauge garden railroad. Provides links to many other articles about using Lionel and MTH trains outdoors, including:
  - Evolution of the B&P Garden Railroad - Part 4 - Installing Atlas Nickel-Silver O-Gauge track on HDPE Roadbed New May, 2008
  - Fred Young's Ground-Level Arizona Railroad - A ground-level railroad O-Gauge Outside railroad that has lots of operational options and some unique ways of adapting to the Arizona summer sun. New February, 2008
Letters to the Editor Section - Answers to questions about garden trains. New questions and answers, from July, 2008!
My garden railroad, the New Boston and Donnels Creek - with many new photos and links.

Special Features

Trees and Trains - The Holden Express - a Photo-Journal from Family Garden Trains(tm) A detailed record of our visit to a unique professional garden railroad in Kirtland, Ohio (near Cleveland) in mid-July, 2007. Lots and lots of photos you can click on for a bigger view. This railroad closed September 23, but the photos are still online, because they are seriously inspiring.
Other Free: Garden Railroading Magazine Articles (Archive). - Other articles that don't "sort" easily into the categories on the "primer" page, but which are still "wholesome and useful for most purposes."

Other Family Garden Trains™ Resources

Blog-Like Articles - An attempt to keep in touch, including:
- New May 2008! The Hazards of Leadership, Part 1 - Observations on the risks of thought leadership and how they apply to providing information about our hobbies.
- New April, 2008! Why Garden Train Clubs Need Web Sites - Improve communications inside and outside the club; grow the club and grow the hobby.
- New January, 2008! How Can I Help? - Here are some ways you can give back to the hobby in your community, as ways you can help us help the hobby worldwide.
- A Gorgeous Garden Railways Book - Garden Railways editors Marc Horovitz and Pat Hayward present photographs and descriptions of the most impress garden railways they've encountered (and they've encountered a lot). A great source of ideas. - May, 2006
Free Large Scale Signs and Graphics for use on your own railroads. New Building Textures, March, 2008
New April, 2008! Finding a Garden Railroad Club Information to help you find likeminded folks in your area.

Garden Train Buyer's Guides - Descriptions of the products you will find most useful when you are starting out, with links to multiple suppliers when available.

Reader Alert! Family Garden Trains™ has learned that Boscov's department store chain has a limited supply of certain Bachmann Large Scale train sets at up to 70% off list price! These are going very fast at this price, so don't wait. For more information, check here.
Garden Train Store - A "virtual" storefront that provides pictures and descriptions of the products you are mostly likely to find useful when you are beginning and expanding your railroad. Links to multiple suppliers are included when available.

Best Choices for Beginning Garden Railroaders - A one-page catalog designed to save you time and money by helping you locate the most useful (and generally the most affordable) products for when you're first starting out.

Garden Trains for Kids - What do you buy someone who's not ready for big expensive models but wants something of his or her own to run? Several solid, weather-resistant trains with superior play value are suggested.

Starter Set Catalog - A description and catalog of several quality train sets that you can use to start your Garden Railroad.

Big Christmas Trains™ Catalog - A description and catalog of Christmas Trains for Large Scale and Christmas Village users.

www.HalloweenTrains.com - A whole new page devoted to spooky railroad collectible fun. Start your collection now.

Trains and Villages for Every Season - Describes On30 (indoor) display trains for St. Patricks' Day, July 4, Halloween, and more!

Big Trains Store™ - On30 is a fast-growing hobby that can use resources from O gauge railroads, collectible villages, and even from Large Scale - In fact many Garden Railroaders have On30 trains they run inside during cold weather. The Big Trains Store™ buyers' guide describes On30 and O gauge model trains for building indoor railroads.

Other Resources - The following club links will help you learn what other people in southwest Ohio are doing with trains outside.

The Miami Valley Garden Railway Society (Greater Dayton Area, Ohio) New format and features, January, 2008,
Big-Trains List - The original garden railroading mailing list. New link, February, 2008,
The Columbus (Ohio) Garden Railway Society
Greater Cincinnati Garden Railway Society
Carillon Park Rail and Steam Society.

What Members of the Large Scale Community are saying about Family Garden Trains

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Note: Family Garden Trains™, Garden Train Store™, Big Christmas Trains™, Big Indoor Trains™, Big Train Store™ and Trains-N-Towns™ are trademarks of Breakthrough Communications™ (www.btcomm.com). All information, data, text, and illustrations on this web site are Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Paul D. Race. Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically forbidden.

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