Building a Temporary Garden Railroad

The First Installation

We decorated around the base of the railroad with mulch and plants that the arboretum loaned to us, and with buildings loaned by several of the Cleveland-area garden railroaders. As you can tell in the photos, the little railroad was a huge success with the little kids going by.

When I was done, I brought the track, lumber, trestle, and viaduct home. Sadly, the trestle didn't make it, but everything else did. (I have all of the trestle pieces in a box somewhere for future reconstruction.)

In 2008, I set Thomas' track circle out on our well cover during a Christmas-themed open railroad. But the round-and-round action didn't hold kids attention nearly as long as the oval had held it the previous year.

The Current Installation

In November, 2009, when I set up for another Christmas-themed open railroad, I resurrected the oval and the little posts. Once again, the little railroad was a success. Apparently having an extra ten feet of track (5' each way) makes a lot of difference to kids. I was also pleased with how well the roadbed I had first cut and assembled in 2007 had kept its shape, even though it's been exposed to the weather ever since.

Reconstructing the whole "railroad" was so easy that I have thought of a dozen ways it might be useful - as a Christmas display in a front yard, or church nursing home lobby, as a garden railroad "sample" at a train show or garden show . . . . And of course it can easily be made longer and or wider simply by adding a few more posts and straight boards, which are no trouble to cut and install at all.

One additional advantage of this design is that it's one of the few practical purposes for the 48" track circle that comes with Large Scale train sets (besides going around a Christmas tree). When you install a "serious" railroad outside, you should use wider curves if you possibly can (l like to use at least 10'-diameter circles when I have room). But on a little display layout like this one, tight curves are just fine.

What kind of Track and Train Will I Need?

I know several folks who've used Bachmann track outdoors for a few days without anything major going wrong with it, so if you have a Bachmann train set, this might be a good use for the track. Be carefully handling it in really cold weather - the plastic parts get brittle. And don't plan on leaving it out indefinitely - it's not made for that.

Train - Any small train (like the kind you get in a train set) or single item like a trolley will do just fine. I have a couple Bachmann trolleys and an AristoCraft Eggliner that I can run to give Thomas a break.

Power Supply - If you use a train set, the power supply that came with the set will have more than enough power, though you want to keep it from getting wet. The Bachmann trolleys will run on even an HO power pack, since they require very little power.

How Much Lumber and Supplies Will I Need?

5/4"x6" Decking lumber - This will make the "stringers," the long pieces the track sits on. It also works for making the 10" "plates" to connect the stringer pieces and the "base" pieces that the little posts sit on.

To figure out how much decking you need for your stringers

• Add up the length of your straight pieces (that's the easy part)
• For each circle, multiply 3.3 times the diameter of your curves.
• Add a 15% "fudge factor" because there is almost always some unused (and unusable) remainder at the end of the boards when you cut them. The total stringer length for my example is just under 27'.

The appendix has a table of for the minimum lengths of decking you'll need for the most common preformed track diameters.

To figure out how much decking you need for the plates, count the track pieces you expect to use. In my case, I used 12 curves and two straights, so I needed 14 "plates" to connect them all. At 10" each, that's 140 inches, or just under 12'.

To figure out how much decking you'll need for the base pieces, count the number of posts. As you see below, I used 6 posts the first time I set it up and 8 posts the most recent time. 10" bases are fine. If you have 8" or 9" scraps, they'll do too. In my example, 8 base pieces x 10" equals 80" or a bit under 7'.

Total board requirement based on the above math is about 45'. Home Depot often sells 8' decking "seconds" pretty cheap. I might have made due with 6 boards, for a total cost of around $30-36, depending on what they were charging for lumber that day - remember you can use seconds, since you're going to slice and dice anyway. But for projects like this, I usually buy an extra board or two just to be on the safe side. (I can always take it back if I don't need it).

4"x4" Pressure-treated posts - On a portable railroad, you can usually count on a piece of straight decking that has had a chance to air out to stay straight for several months if you don't sit on it or something. So I had no posts under my 5' sections, only where they joined onto the curves. The first time I set my small portable railroad up, I only used six posts altogether. In my most recent setup, I used eight posts instead. I wasn't sure how much "adult supervision" the railroad would have, and I think the extra posts made it a tad more stable . . . .

Lengthwise, 24" posts seem about right to me. By the time you've added flat "bases" and the roadbed, the total height is closer to 26". This brings the track near eye level for most children between 3 and 6, and also allows you to put trains on the track easily without having to bend over too much. Where I live, 24-26" rail height will also keep the right of way above most snowfalls, at least before Christmas. But, many folks I know build temorary railroads only a few inches off the ground, so your post height will vary depending on the setting, the age of your helpers, etc. :-)

2" Deck Screws - Get the extra, extra galvanized kind that works with ACQ lumber. You will need about 6 per piece of track. This is the kind you use to screw your stringers to your plates.

4" or 5" Deck Screws (for ACQ lumber). You will need about 3 per piece of track.

Measure and Cut the 2x6 Stringers

Selecting Your Template - Most garden railroad track comes twelve to a circle. This includes most track that makes a 4' circle, a 5' circle, and a 10' circle.

Cutting the Decking - Using the template you printed earlier, measure and cut the stringers (horizontal pieces) you need from the decking material. This example uses the smallest curved track pieces, which make 48" circles. However the principle applies to any track circle you buy, as long as you are using the correct template.

6. When you are done cutting the stringers, start on the "plates." Cut one 10" board for every piece of roadbed you have cut so far. These will be used as "plates" to join the roadbed.

Determine the "bottom" of each stringer.

Prepare Subassemblies

On this example, each subassembly was a six-piece semicircle. In the photo to the right I had laid the two semi-circles up against each other and put a loop of track on them to be sure I had the right angles, etc.

Screw Subassemblies to Posts

Attaching subassembies to your posts goes easier if you have someone holding a couple posts up at a time, and setting the next post or two up as you work your way around.

Begin by screwing a long deck screw through the stringer and plate right into the post. Do not fasten the screw down as firmly as possible, until you've got the whole "railroad" fastened down loosely. Now do the next post in each direction. Once you have the whole right-of-way lightly attached to the posts, lay your track pieces on top of the assembly to make certain you did the math right. Then remove the track and fasten the whole thing together. You may notice bumps or depressions in the soil that make certain posts "taller" or "shorter" than they should be. Usually a bit of gravel or a judicious bit of shovel work "fixes" the problem.

As you begin attaching subassemblies together, you'll be adding in stringers you haven't attached to the subassemblies yet. Usually this isn't hard, especially if you have help.

By the time your stringers and plates are attached loosely to the posts all the way around, you should be able to tell if any more adjustments need to be made. Again, when you're satisfied you have everything as leveled and centered as possible, go back and add the other long screws (at least two per post) and tighten down the ones you've already installed.

Adding Ornamentation

Buildings, etc. - Adding a few buildings, and some mulch and plants will really dress it up. That said, for my November 2009 railroad I was so busy that I was lucky to add the buildings.

Rope Lighting - Because this railroad would be operating after dark, I wanted to bring more light to the area. Having just installed rope lighting around our back deck, I thought it would be fun to continue the "look" with rope lighting around the railroad. I found an 18' piece of rope lighting at Big Lots for $6. It included little plastic clips that you would screw onto whatever you wanted to decorate, then snap the rope lights into place. 18' wasn't long enough to do the whole railroad, but it was long enough to do the "front" and both ends.

Before attaching the lighting, I used my circular saw to "smooth off" the corners. I thought they looked just fine the other way, but the rope lighting would have looked funny.

Here's an irony - considering that the rope lighting set was sold with the Christmas decorations, you wouldn't think that the little clips would shatter if you tried to snap the rope lighting in when it was under 60 degrees Farenheit. But they did. So I wound up with fewer clips than I should have had, and a slightly wavier look. Not to mention that about a third of the screws busted apart when I was driving them with an electric drill/screwdriver. Still, the rope light added a very nice look from twilight on.

Other Lighting - To make the railroad more visible after dark, I added a few lamps from a 12-volt LED garden lighting set I experimented with this summer. They are pretty bright for garden lighting, so I set them a few inches "out" so they wouldn't cast a bright glare right on the post.

I had other lighting planned for this railroad, but didn't have time to add it. As it turned out, the last small child to visit the railroad left well before twilight, so it wasn't that critical. I replaced Thomas with a Bachmann street car and let that run until the last visitor left. Unlike Thomas, the street car had a headlight (though I can't help wondering why these otherwise dandy toys lack internal lighting).

Conclusion

At any rate, I hope this gives you an idea of how easy it is to build a temporary and relatively portable "garden railroad" for any occasion when you want to have trains running out doors and you don't have a huge support staff or hundreds of dollars to spend.

I'd be delighted to hear any similar projects you've done. :-)

Please contact us with suggestions, corrections, photos, etc. And, above all, enjoy your trains.

Appendix: Decking Calculation Table