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My name is Paul D. Race. The photo above is from me recovering from a day of letting kids run trains on my garden railroad. This took place in the year 2000 and is described in the Archives section of the Family Garden Trains(tm) site. My beard's gone white since, but it gives the general idea. It also explains the animals on the roof of the building in the photo.
I am a professional writer and a part-time folk and gospel singer. I am also a former youth minister and college professor, with advanced degrees in Bible and Writing. You'll note that none of these skills have anything to do with tools, building, excavating, carpentry, or anything of the sort. So the overall message of the New Boston and Donnels Creek pages is that it doesn't take specialized knowledge or skills to create an attractive, reliable, and above all enjoyable garden railroad. In other words, if I can do it, you can do it. In fact, the New Boston and Donnels Creek pages started in late 1998 before the Family Garden Trains(tm) pages, as a way of encouraging fellow beginners. The Family Garden Trains(tm) name and pages came in 1999 as readers began asking for more information and I realized that the site needed better organization.
Why Family Garden Trains(tm) Got Started - I bought my first Large Scale train when modern garden railroading was in its infancy, and there were few folks nearby to learn from, so I figured a lot of stuff out on my own, making more than my share of mistakes along the way. That said, once I had a short list of things I knew would work and a long list of things that I knew wouldn't work, I began publishing what I had learned to help other people. Since about 2001, I've been recruiting other hobbyists and industry professionals to help me review and error-check my articles; in cases, when I've come down on one side of a potentially "controversial" issue, I've invited folks who felt the other way to express their opinion, and incorporated their comments into my articles as well. That is why, although my name is listed as author on most articles on the Family Garden Trains(tm) pages, I often use the first person plural ("we") to describe decisions that have been made.
Become a Part of It All - I don't have a huge sign-up sheet, or chat rooms, or a pay-per-vew membership requirement or anything like that - I don't have the time to keep track of such things. But I do want to make Family Garden Trains(tm) at least reasonably interactive:
In other words, when I say I want to hear from you, I'm serious.
Why You Should Be Encouraged by My mistakes as Well as my Successes - This goes back to the "if I can do it you can do it theme." I'm more dangerous than Tim Taylor with most tools, I'm from the "measure six times and still cut it wrong" school, I don't work well from plans, and I don't follow instructions well (a sad confession for someone who writes instructions for a living). Once I get away from the PC and out of the realm of ideas into the real world, I need lots of visual cues. When I'm planning something, I need to visualize things to think them through, which makes it really hard to plan something like a landscape or garden railway "from the ground up." Sometimes I go out and just stare at the dirt pile, trying to figure out if I'm doing things right, if I'm getting the result I'd hoped for, or whatever. This may explain my arguably silly approaches to things, like stomping around in a circle to tamp down the "roadbed," or "installing" a pond mostly on top of the ground then dumping dirt around it. When it works, I tell you about it. When it backfires, I tell you about it. When someone else tries the same approach and gets entirely different results, I tell you about it.
Even when I'm working with something as precise as a model, I usually try all the "right" ways to do something then stumble on a silly way of doing things that works better for me.
In addition, I don't have a local hobby shop that carries this stuff, so I never get a chance to try anything before I buy it. I also try to keep my total investment at any given time under a certain amount, which means that when I see something I really want, I make room for it in my budget and house by selling something else. So my purchasing habits are probably a little unusual, too, by a lot of folks' reckoning, but I'd rather have a few things I was happy with than a bunch of stuff that doesn't really do it for me. (For more ideas about buying and selling garden railroad stuff, see my Primer article, Where to Buy Garden Railroading Stuff.)
So I'm not saying "Do things my way." On the contrary, I'm only hoping that my attempts will build your confidence to try new things and get out of your comfort zone. The best result of this site would be if you decided, "Well, if this Race guy can do it, anybody can," and you went out to your garage and got a shovel and started digging a hole.
This photo is from me singing "City of New Orleans" at an MVGRS annual picnic several years ago (since then the "white" has spread a good deal). Let me know if you want me to come to your club and make a presentation (and maybe lead the group in a sing-along of railroad songs).
To learn more about what makes my railroad work and what could be improved, see the following links:
Return to New Boston and Donnels Creek RR Page
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Note: Family Garden Trains(tm) and Big Christmas Trains(tm) 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 by Paul D. Race.
Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically
forbidden.
For more information, please contact me