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.
Update for April, 2012 - We haven't been in touch for months because we've been rebuilding this web site and several related sites in ways that aren't obvious to readers, unless we screw up. Since 1998, all of our train web pages have been on the same exact web server. I know that when we all have more memory in our phones than we used to have in our hard drives, this is hard to believe. But we had gotten so cramped for space that when we wanted to add new features, we had to go through old articles and reduce the resolution on the photos. Our ISP did offer us a bigger server, thank you, but their new Windows-2XXX-based systems couldn't support some UNIX features we needed. So after much experimentation, we found a provider who would give us much, much more space on multiple Linux servers where everything would fit and work very well, thank you.
On the other hand, being so cramped meant that Family Garden Trains™, Garden Train Store™, Big Indoor Trains™, Big Christmas Trains™, Big Train Store™, and several smaller sites shared literally thousands of files. So separating them out has been a difficult operation, and we will still be working out the kinks for months to come.
At any rate, we wanted you to know that we haven't given up on garden railroading or experienced some catastrophe, rather we're trying to make space to add and expand features we just plain didn't have room for. Sorry I haven't been more on top of things, but our combined sites have something like a thousand how-to articles alone, not to mention all the menu pages and the information-only pages. Eventually we even hope to move the Family Garden Trains™ site itself to a larger server. But moving the other sites out will buy us some time. Besides, since it's the grandaddy of them all, and nearly every other page we support has multiple references to it, just getting all the links straightened out will take serious time. And let's face it - a lot of HTML shortcuts that made sense fourteen years ago don't look so clever today.
That said, hopefully when we're done, this site and it's "sister sites" will be in a position to go another 14 years.
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 shows the general breakdown of our articles, as well as a few recent or especially helpful articles. Clicking on the list will either take you that portion of our Primer page or to a table of contents for that topic particular (if available). Updated, April, 2010, with new and updated articles.
- Introduction to Garden Railroading - Help getting a handle on the worlds' fastest-growing model railroading hobby, including:
- Garden Railroad Planning Articles - Help planning the physical, operational, and aesthetic aspects of your garden railroad, including:
- Garden Railroad Construction Articles - Cost-effective and easy-to-use techniques for building your own garden railroad, including:
- Garden Railroad Plant Articles - Articles about planning, planting, and cultivating the "garden" part of your garden railroad
- Landscaping Tips for Garden Railroaders - Ponds, retaining walls, and more, including:
- Installation and Lighting - Powering your trains, lighting your buildings, and more, including:
- DC Power Demystified - Describes the kinds of DC power used by model trains and the technologies that provide that power. Also provides an overview of "analog controllers" for track-powered trains. New January, 2011
- Building a Simple Power Cart - Jim Satterfield's tips on building a "power cart" to attach your power supplies and remote control receivers to your railroad quickly whenever you are ready to start running trains. New May, 2010!
- External Structure Lights - Wil Davis' article on adding industrial-style lights to your buildings. April, 2010
- Low-Voltage LED Garden Lighting - Using LED fixtures that have been "wired" to work in 12-volt systems - more light, less power, a few drawbacks. Updated December, 2009
- Garden Railroad Structures
- Articles about creating and improving buildings and bridges for your garden railroad, including:
- O Gauge Outside - Using O gauge trains and accessories outside.
- Garden Railroad Maintenance Articles - A new but growing section on how to keep your garden railroad operating properly, including:
- Real-World Trains and Operations - An introduction railroads in general and the kinds of operations you can consider modeling in your back yard, 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
- The Little River Railroad - A standard-gauge logging railroad that used incredible compromises and combinations of equipment. Includes many unique modeling possibilities.
- Little River Railroad Northern Division A unique locomotive that is fully restored and running in south-central Michigan.
- Rail Cars and Busses on the Little River Railroad - with more modeling ideas for your own empire. New, March, 2009
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Introduction to Mallets - Anatole Mallet's designs allowed a locomotive to use steam twice. Learn about these steamboat-sized centipedes to your railroad. New, June, 2010
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Articulated Locomotives of the USA - Pete Eggink gives us an overview of Articulated locomotives, which had hinged frames to allow very long locomotives to go around curves. New, August, 2010
- Reference Information and Things to Think About - Miscellaneous topics that are important to most garden railroaders.
- Other Articles about Garden Railroading and Large Scale, including:
Other Resources
- Letters to the Editor Section - Answers to questions about garden trains. New questions and answers, from March, 2010!
- New April, 2009! Garden Railroad Photo Gallery - beginning to sort out some of the better photos we've featured on this site in the past.
- My garden railroad, the New Boston and Donnels Creek - with many new photos and links. including:
- August, 2010 - Landscaping Rehab Continued
A brief list of the things I got done, a little bit at a time, on the busiest and hottest summer I can remember. Tasks included backfilling new retaining walls, finishing installation of a new "waterfall" fixture, planting conifers and sedums. On the other hand, weeds are what happen when you're mucking other plants. :-) New August, 2010!
- April, 2010: Landscaping Rehab and Idiot Tools - A "grocery list" of things I did to fix or update garden and landscaping problems that affected our railroad's appearance, functionality, and even safety. It may give you some ideas. It also serves as a reminder to do things right the first time. New April, 2010!
- 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.
- Blog-Like Articles - An attempt to keep in touch, including:
New March, 2010 The Holmes Identity, or How Not to Unsubscribe - Our newsletters get more popular every month - some months we spend more time adding subscribers than almost anything else. And the few folks who've had to unsubscribe for one reason or another have had no trouble figuring out our "unsubscribe" link. Except for a handful of folks who think they need to exercise some "nuclear option" for getting off the list, when all they had to do was ask (nicely or not).
- New December, 2009! Christmas-Themed Open House on the NB&DC RailRoad
- The Race family's second Christmas-themed open house included more lights, more trains, more music, and better snacks. Even if you didn't get there, we think you'll enjoy the report, the many ideas, and the many photographs.
- New December, 2009!
Family Garden Trains™ 2009 Bargain of the Year
- Our friends at Colorado Model Structures keep coming up with new ways to tempt us to make room for more buildings. This year's new offerings include a barn that actually looks like a lot of barns in the Midwest (picture it white with a green or silver roof), as well as other great new products worth considering. These models don't snap together like the expensive ones, and they need to be painted, but once they're properly painted and assembled, they will give you a tremendous return on your investment.
- New December, 2009! Check Your Phone Bill Yesterday!
- Once again I stray from my sites' hobby focus to get on my hobby-horse, this time about phone scams that your phone company knows all about and has done next to nothing to protect you from. This blog-like-article probably contains a lot more information than you ever wanted to know, but it also has some practical tips for preventing and dealing with the problem.
- Free Large Scale Signs and Graphics for use on your own railroads. Includes brick paper and other texture sheets, business signs, pre-scaled, printable building fronts, and curtains and shades for dressing up your buildings.
- Finding a Garden Railroad Club Information to help you find likeminded folks in your area.
- New July, 2009! How (and Why) to Write "How To" Hobby Articles - Our "business site," Breakthrough Communications™, has posted a series of articles to help you give back to your favorite hobbies by sharing what you've learned.
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.
 Garden Train Store - An extensive buyer's guide 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.
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 Best Choices for Beginning Garden Railroaders - A one-page buyer's guide 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.
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 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.
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 Starter Set Buyer's Guide - A description and catalog of several quality train sets that you can use to start your Garden Railroad.
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 Big Christmas Trains™ - Free projects, ideas, and buyers' guides for Christmas trains, towns, and other displays.
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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.
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Classic Train Songs - An index to a small but growing library of popular songs about trains. New format and features, 2010!
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Train Movies and Railroad Videos - Several of our readers have been shopping for movies about trains, feature movies that feature trains, and so on. This page is new, but growing. New, April, 2010!
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Other Resources - The following club links will help you learn what other people in southwest Ohio are doing with trains outside.
What Members of the Large Scale Community are saying about Family Garden Trains
Building a Garden Railroad on a Budget - Get into garden railroading without breaking the bank. 
