Spring, 1998 - By the spring of 1998, I was where hundreds of garden railroad wannabees are at this very moment: I had about 60 linear feet of trains and not one working foot of outdoor trackage. It was time to do something, at least, while I figured out where my "ideal" railroad would go. Though we had a ridiculously large yard, no place in the yard was quite right for a railroad, unless I wanted to annihilate traffic patterns.
In the meantime, there was a blank space in our side yard that was so heavily shaded, almost nothing would grow there. In a few hours one day, I pulled the weeds, dumped a couple bags of mulch, and pieced together an oval using 10'-diameter curves and a few straight pieces. I laid the track right on the mulch, not a permanent solution, of course, but it got some rails down.
For the most part we didn't even run power to the rails; I used our original Bachmann Big Hauler, complete with alkaline flashlight batteries, and a remote control that operated on a walkie-talkie frequency. I also put out a couple plastic toy buildings and let the thing sit out in the rain all summer long. Sure, there weren't many operating possibilities, but the kids enjoyed making the train stop and go. When the track got uneven (a frequent problem on a mulch bed), I'd just "fluff up" the mulch a different way. And family members who came over thought it was cute, even if a little weird.
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