Ok, I know there are some hippies on the MR forums, but are any of you outdoor trains folks doing something specifically designed to be “green” in the envirnmentalist wakko sense? Wind, solar, hydro-power wether modeled or actually operational?
What could be more green than planting gardens for our trains to run through???
There was a bit of chat about solar powered / battery locos on another site but the technology just isn’t there yet.
-Brian
Here in the EU we are possibly more “green” aware than in the US… My son runs his models off race packs with a solar charger (it takes 4 hours to charge). The garden is starting to be weeded and as we subscribe to the “Bio Dynamics” theory of gardening we have mulched down all the wood, paper and cardboard, mixed it with kitchen waste and composted it!!!
Matthews “shed” has a solar charged light bulb in it and so does the summer house.
My models all have on board batteries -no lights, no sound cards, just PWAM controllers and motors -so they are very energy efficient. My Gas and Electric bills for this (winter) quarter were £129 and £93 respectively for my 3 bedroom house. (Oh, we live just above the 58th N latitude line).
regards
ralph
Sorry -I should have explained!!!
“Bio Dynamics” is a system of gardening with minimal impact on the environment. “Organic” gardening has been classed a “all Cow muck and Magic”. The “Bio Dynamic” method is to see your garden as a place that should run itself without the use of chemicals or human effort -etc.
Level Zero BD: The carrot fly attacks your Carrots
Level One BD: You plant Marigolds amoungst the Carrots and this confuses the Carrot fly -which lays the eggs on somebodyelses Carrots.
Level Two BD: You plant Sundews AKA Bladder Worts amoungst your Carrots. The Carrot fly are attracted to the Sundew -WHICH EATS THEM!!! (Then you compost it and fertilize the soil!)
Similarly we have a lawn sown with meadow sweet and camomille which attract polinating insects to the garden and NEVER EVER NEEDS MOWING…
Snails and slugs are controlled via small stones with silver spirals painted on them -this attracts rooks and crows. We even have a hedgehog house with 2 hedgehogs resident and 1 toad lives in the toad/frog house -all of which enjoy a diet of garden pests.
Aphids are controlled via a collection of plastic straws which act as winter homes for ladybirds and other predators…
So, yes I suppose I am one of those Hippy Eco Wackkos -but I am happy like that and I don’t have to do a lot of gardening or pay high fuel bills!!!
regards
ralph
I keep telling my boss I can work from home in the train garden with my laptop. But unfortunately, they want to see a face and a chair occupied by a body. Think of all the fuel from driving that could be saved, not to mention office space.[:(]
Yeah I am abit green but my wallet ain’t!
Toad
Never thought much about the “green” issues, but in looking at what I have done it seems I have given a nod at least to the environment as a whole. I use cardboard for weed matting, mulch from the local landfill, and recycled building materials for roadbed and buildings. My plants are local species of wildflowers or evergreens and insect control is natural through the ladybugs and mantis that found their way into the flowers.
I’m putting out nearly zero pollutants in the form of chemicals and by using recycled materials I consume no petroleum energy or raw materials. So I use electric rail power- the total usage in a month isn’t nearly as much as a plasma TV uses in an hour. Since my power comes from a nuke plant I again am not using or producing hydrocarbons or raw materials.
So do I get my “Green” achievement badge for my school blazer?
I have lighted my station with solar power. Also have solar powered lighthouse in the pond. That’s about it so far!
I had solar powered thingies that looked like carriage lamps on a hook in the garden before the big D…However, they don’t work so well in the diningroom now.
I’m of the belief that I never buy a car in it’s first model year. I shall sit out this whole green thing until I see that it’s not a hoax perpetrated by someone looking to relieve me of my hard earned cash.
I DID buy a bicycle for my birthday and am working my way up to biking all the way to work from home (12.6 mi. one way), but that is for the strictly selfish reason of my own health. If it wiins me points with the tree-hugger crowd, BONUS!!!
Mark
…I politely decline to post an accurate reply to the above quote on the grounds that the first time I posted on the internet about it, I was plagerised by a dozen columnists, radio and TV commentators and called a “flat-earther” by some dweep named Baby Bobby. [soapbox]
Well HEd, the Earth is “flat” where I live…
Byron C.
Then why post a thread that YOU know will cause you pain and heart felt greef? IF all these so called media people and a person jumped you? Why the name calling?
You need to grow up and get your daddy underwear on, because life aint abox of choloates there or here.
Toad
I have checked up and as we source our Gas and Electric from “Southern Power” (that is southern Scotland!) our electrical generation ratios are as follows:
Wind 12%
Hydro 55%
Wave 5%
Nuclear 28%
They also supply us with Gas from the Siberian Gas fields in pipelines and tankers. But we only use that mainly in Autumn and Winter quarters
I think I am greener than most of my neighbours -Southern Power are also the cheapest on the market in the UK -although E-On may soon be. My reason for being green is that it saves me money!!!
regards
ralph
The best way to go green is to plow under your lawn and instead, plant wheat and wildflowers. Would look a whole lot better too in my humble opinion
Got another one better FJ&G, don’t build all these “new” subdivisions when we have house/s/es that all ready need demo. Rebuild on that lot.
I like when they say we are fleeing crime…well crime goes where it wants. Even family violance.
Toad
great point!!!
MS-13 in the burbs
smart growth.
(me, I’ll just take a houseboat and be gone)
Yepo, we got that now in the country…blue/red…MS-13…Pitch Fork painted…etc…
About the only “green” thing I do is solar powered lights for my buildings. SWMBO will not allow me to plant, select, or trim any of the vegitation. The only thing I’m allowed to do in that respect is water and feed as instructed by her.
Guess we’re “green”. Nothing grows other than wild/natural ground cover around our layout. Even the water feature is from a natural artesian spring. So in wet years it runs, in dry years it doesn’t.
