Hello.
I am a 46 year old man who has been involved with HO and N for around 35 years. I have subscribed to MR for a good part of those 35 years and look forward to each months magazine. I have started looking very hard at building a Garden Railroad but I have a couple of quck questions for you pros.
1-I am disabled and have a hard time with bending and heavy work. Would planning lets say a small outdoor Garden Railroad require a lot of heavy work?
2-Just how much cost is involved when undertaking a Garden Railroad?
Land is not a issue as I live on 2.5 acres but it is the cost due to living on a tight income.
Great site and any replies would be appreciated.
Mark
You can build a raised layout. If you have some $$$ save away, you could hire someone to haul in rubble and build a sort of brick or block wall to hold it all in. Alternately, you could have redwood benchwork done and have the layout atop that. Sort of like this…
Welcome to the real world of model railroading![#welcome]
It’s tough to build a garden railroad when you are disabled and on a tight budget, but not impossible. The best suggestion I can think of is to contact your local Garden RR club and become a member. Then you can ask the members to help you with the harder parts of constructing the railroad.
For the tight budget you will have to be creative. You can build your own structures from scrap wood garnered from fruit crates or similar, you can use wild flowers and native plants to landscape with (lower cost and no maintenance) and you can build your own rolling stock and cruise EBay and flea markets for the “deal”. DO NOT skimp on a power supply or your track work, money spent here is an investment, not a waste. Ridge Road Station in NY has the lowest prices around for track, but you can Google around and comparative shop online. You can build your own track as well from home cut ties and aluminum strips- build sections on the work bench and transfer to the railroad as required.
Read the forum and ask lots of questions! It takes imagination and creativity, not money, to build a garden RR.
Good luck and happy railroading!
[#welcome]
I agree a raised line is a good idea tho harder to get a prototypical effect . i have seen posts set in the ground linked with timber to give a trackbed at the desired height . If you can get scrap timber ie pallets it would saye money . Alternatively concrete blocks set in the ground on mortar can be economical as they are fairly cheap . both methods involve some labour tho.The main cost is track , I favour aristocraft for strength and ease of use . Having used LGB and Peco it is superior to both . Track is cheaper if bought in bulk and I source most of mine from Ebay . I would suggest it as a source for all your requirements .If you have any existing solid feature such as a path or low wall consider running the track on or slightly raised from it to reduce groundwork. It will be well worth the effort of construction , I am on my third garden layout and it is a real pleasure seeing it come to completion.
I agree that a raised roadbed is very, very important for someone with a physical disability as well as most chronologically challenged folks. I’ve compared the relative cost of building raised “platforms” versus building earth and stone raised roadbed and my conclusion is that the platforms are much easier and more cost-effective. In the past I’ve built and will soon be rebuilding my RR on 3 foot high by 4 to 6 foot wide tables 8 to 10 feet long connected lengthwise. They’re built out of pressure treated lumber frames with galvanized corrugated metal roof panel tops and are covered with soil. The average cost is about $9 per foot not including the track. If the open bench work bothers you, the fascia material will add a little to the cost. It’s more expensive and time consuming than ground level but it sure beats crawling around on your hands and knees trying to get things done.
Walt
Hi Z For Me
[#welcome]
First off inspite of popular belief a garden railway is no more expencive than a decent HO layout.
Its all in the way you achieve the desired result.
If you buy everything it will cost an arm and a leg, if however like many on the forum you make and bash some of it the cost can come down in great big amounts.
Don’t short cut on locomotives, track civil engineering or power suplies
everthing else can be whatever.
In some areas the cost is a bit blurred as is it RR or garden expence.
In your case it would seem from your comments that raised track is a must
Or as I call it track on a stick there are several ways of building raised track
all of which will require some heavy work at some stage and some more than others.
I think some assistance in that area would be a good idea.
What do you call small? you have more room to get carried away with than most of us.
regards John
Mark:
Welcome to the site.
Like anything else in life planning a garden railroad has absolutely no expense involved. Building one, on the other hand, can be very espensive. I guestimate the cost of my GRR to be about ~$6.50 per foot of track. The estimate includes the cost of track, switches, rail clamps, bridges and abutments, sub-roadbed crushed rock, roadbed ballast crushed rock, garden fabric (helps cut down on unwanted plat growth through the rails) wiring (track power and switches). I’m sure an elevated road would cost a little less, but I figure $6.50 a foot is a good planning figure. Not all construction must be done at once. In my case there are five distinct “phases” of construction planned over a ten to twelve year plan.
In your planning process, I would recommend that you plan for the ultimate goal, and then section it down into sectional phases of construction. In each phase have all the switches (turnouts) installed as “stub sidings” so that they can easily be expanded upon. In my own case the original “phase” of construction was the most difficult as it included a tunnel on a curve under a waterfall. That was due to land constraints, (and I would NOT recommend anyone else do it, but if you have to do it, it can be done.) All of the turnouts were in place for each of the expansion phases. Each phase in turn has gone a little more easy that the others.
Even though this hobby can be very expensive, it is easily managed by taking small bites at a time. Have your ultimate goal in mind for each phase of construction and each new purchase.
First of all, thank all of you for the prompt replies and the in the manner in which all replies are written. I had almost given up on boards due to the idiots that post responces that are only slams and other non needed garbage. So far not on this site! It seems we have a dedicated and friendly bunch of guys and gals who enjoy our great hobby no matter which scale or how you enjoy our misunderstood hobby. There have been times when I have mentioned to a non hobbyist the basics of model railroading and they almost always say “oh, you set up on the floor some toy trains like my son does once in a while”. I have tried to explain to some that there are millions of us out there and around the world who take the hobby from being toys to a level where some spend a lot of cash on our hobby and most of these folks who really are born to run trains are true artists.
If anyone ever finds themselves traveling through Ely, NV. and want the thrill of your life, well, Ely has always been a small mountain town that has relied upon mining to keep this town alive. Ely has had it’s share of ups and downs in between the shut downs and up times that goes along with mining and just recently (two years ago) the very large open pit copper mine has once again kicked into full production and is forcasting a 10-15 year run so the good times are back! There is even talk of re-opening a older gold mine due to the price of gold and it’s continued increase in value. They are even planning a coal firing plant that is to begin construction next year.
Okay, back to what I was meant to speak about. Good old Ely has from the late 1800s two fully operating steam locos that were truly used for many years in this area in the mining field. They offer rides year round and dinner rides and the rest of the tourist stuff but what makes this short line that runs on it’s original line will allow you to rent, yes I said to RENT either one of their old steamers or one of their older deis
Hi Mark! I love Ely, it’s one of the best small towns I’ve ever visited. Having that beautiful steam railroad there is a huge plus, of course. Every summer I spend my vacation camping and exploring in central Nevada and usually visit Ely. In fact I’m hoping to get to Ely again this August.
Hey Ray and glad to hear that someone knows about Ely and the huge benefits that NV has to offer.
I hope that no one that lives here agrees with what I am about to say;
Yes Ely has it’s good and great things to offer but quite honestly and in my humble opinion, Ely could do much better when it comes to the downtown area.Either sell these run down buildings or sell them at a loss. We are in a moving forward boomtown that will continue to grow. Over the past three years our city leaders have messed up our budget to a point where we are almost or nearing bankruptcy. Instead of following their chain of command when it came to monies spent they or some chose to do things on their own. To make this short we are now feeling the effects with a 22% property tax increase and many other taxes that could have completey avoided. You may have noticed that Ely’s and White Pine County’s gas prices are always very steep-taxes. Downtown needs to either tough and sell off or flatten most of the older and run down eye soars as these dumps reflect on our town directly.
Back to our beauty, the only problem in our county is that almost all water flows underground to the Great Basin so we have few lakes and streams. I am sure that you are aware of Cave Lake and most important, Cummins Lake along 93 South that locals fi***hat pond the most. Camping is limited but remember that you can camp just about anywhere that suits your needs at zero cost to you. Just be aware of which hunting season we may be in and if decide to camp out on BLM or Forest land, well you may be in the line of fire so maybe if I were you I would tape a square portion of orange on the side of your tent. When you are heading to Cave Lake and just after you cross the bridge, keep a close eye on the right for a small camping area, it is almost always full but the draw to this spot is that is sits right next to the run off stream from Cave Lake and even has some shade. I promied to make my next note short so if you want some of the better out of towner
Hi Z For Me
Sounds to me like your biggest issuie is going to be the track bed
or more specificaly geting the suport posts in I would sugest looking into
a ladder type made from plastic wood or some light weight strong material.
Using the same aproach you would have to use eating an elephant one bite at a time.
You know your own limitations and came to us for usefull answers
which I hope we where able to give you.
I am not sure why it is but the garden railway people seem to be a better class of people more willing to assist be friendly and throw an extra steak and hamburger on the BBQ for you if your around at the right time.
So what thoughts have you had as to what you would like on the railway
bearing in mind its in the real world so needs to be a bit simpler than
some of the wonderous empires that can be found in peoples basements.
regards John
If you build the line raised on blocks or steel you can back fill once you’ve saved enough to put in a better looking wall around it. Fill with dirt slowly to build up the level at your leisure rather than trying to do it all at once, you could invite people round to operate and help with works trains at the same time!
Initial cost will be track and roadbed only, spread the cost of buildings and plants over the next few years. Make temporary buildings from card that can be used when you operate.
Good luck
Paul
If you Build it Waisst High and with wide curves, it will make it much easier to maintain and when you get “burned” by the live steam bug, you will easaly be able to run any live steam engine out there.