I had always been more interested in HOn30 and always read magazines like SL & NG Gazette and Finescale Railroader. I was aware of Large Scale but never had the room to consider it. After we bought our house the idea did cross my mind but I had too many other projects to think about.
I guess it was the opportunty to purchase a LGB Porter at a ridiculous low price that really got me going. I got it with the intention of using it as a bookshelf display item. I added alot of detail and it sat there for a couple of months. I started looking into large scale and was fascinated by the posibilities. So I planned my layout, layed the track out and ran trains on the dirt.
Of course now I’m doing a finescale type layout in the garage but thats another thread altogether…
I remember seeing several layouts on the local tour and I was inspired. I had always done HO, but the idea of being outside and modeling with real dirt, rock and STEAM was too much.
When I was just two years old my uncle got me a LGB work train starter set. After that I was a train finatic. Everything and Anything about trains I knew by the time I was about 8 years old. Now I enjoy the hobby more than anything else (exept my family).
I’ve always wanted a model railway but could never devote any indoor space to a permanent layout. Back in the 60’s my dad had a HO layout in the basement and my brothers and I spent countless hours toying around with that. That layout fell into a rather sad state of disrepair because of it being in the unfinished basement. The early 70’s brought N scale on the scene and every christmas we would set up a temporary layout on a small piece of plywood covered with that green fake grass paper. The piece is still down the basement waiting for another chance I guess. I wanted to put the garden layout in about 5 or 6 years ago but my wife talked me out of it because the kids were still small and ran around the backyard with reckless abandon, kicking soccer balls and swinging wiffle bats. I agreed it wasn’t time yet. Finally, we put an above ground pool in the yard and that changed the whole yard. No more kids running around and whatever space was left was going to be a flower garden, with a train running around in it. Thats were it is today. Still have plenty of room to expand the road and can’t wait for this miserable winter to end. 3 more months.
Pete
A friend of mine asked me to help with his G,scale layout at a garden railway show,
I thought it would be a cheap w,end as I didn`t think it would be for me,as I modelled “OO”.
The large scale bug bit me! I returned home with a circle of track 1 loco & 2 wagons
now I have a garden layout & a reasonable sized collection of rolling stock.
The last 5 years have been great I should have changed sooner!
My next aim is to visit one of the shows in the U.S.A. the trip has been approved by my wife(she enjoys the hobby too) its now a case of timing!
The weather is not much of a dampener for me (excuse the pun) but summer is on its way at last.
The wife and I are always looking for new ideas for our watergardens!! We where at a local 4th of July craft festival and came across a display from a local garden center ! That display just happened to be a Large Scale Train display and I looked at the wife and said , you know where this would look great at!! Seeing that brought back alot of memories watching tha trains go by at the back of the house in my younger years[:)]!! The hunt was on,Train Shows, ECLTS, National Convention in Cincy!! And about 5yrs. later hopefully we can put some of the wonderful ideas and experience we have gained from people such as on this forum and meeting new Friends to the backyard this spring!!
Ron
Hey All,
Had done the HO thing for over 25 years. I was on ebay one day looking at Athearn stuff when I came across a mis-located item. Turns out it was Large Scale! Hmmmm…this looks pretty interesting. Lot’s of investigating later and my first issue of Garden Railways came home with me. I was sold. Less lawn to cut in favour of a garden with a train…right on. That was over three years ago. LOTS has happened since then. Love this big stuff. Will always have a place for HO in my heart…but this is muuuuuuuch better!!! Later eh…Brian. [tup]
It was LOVE, at first sight[:I] I went to buy an HO scale passenger train and there she was, sitting on the counter. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her shape, the colors. An Aristo Craft FA B unit in ,U.P. colors.
But saddly , later divorce, since then there has been many more a true love[;)]
When will this web ever end[?][:p][:D]
I attended a model train show in Nanaimo British Columbia one year and set up on the stage was the fledgling group of the Vancouver Island Garden Railway Club. I remember instantly thinking to myself THAT would look great in the backyard of my new home. I made some contacts and the rest they say is history…[:D]
My brother a neighbor kid and myself used to combine our Lionel train sets and set them up in the yard. We were in grade school at the time but made a real effort to build a nice looking layout. Unfortunately we had to take it all down at the end of the day. I count this as my first venture into garden railroading crude as it was.
The lattest venture started when my wife and I saw a large scale coach (LGB I think) sitting on a shelf in a hobby shop and said, almost in unison " I really like the size of that train car".
A few months latter we bought a home and started building our layout the following spring. I have never regretted the switch from small scale to large scale although I am now building a “micro” layout in HOn30 and enjoying that also.
I wanted to get into model trains when my kids were small but I worked too hard and wasn’t prepared to invest the money in it.Decades went by, changed wives and houses and took up coastal yachting but after many years my knees are going and I had to do something less strenuous.
So I recalled wanting to get into model railways and looked into it, the news was that if you want to get into outdoor railways the only way to go is G scale. I was also advised that the only way to go was LGBand I took a starter set home that very day, plus a lot of second hand track.
Had it going for a while in my garage, then I built my RAGS (Rough As Guts) just about 30 metres of track slung together around the pool. It had to be temporary as we were going to move.
The move took place and here we are on Kawana Island with a much better built reproduction of the old Rags layout plus another 10 M, thi is what we call area 2. We have just completed area 1 which is a long run into a complex reversing loop, all done with, tropical plnts and decrorative gravel and stones to an oriental theme.
Area 3 is in the planning stages at this time; unfortuneately my house doesn’t have a back yard as such, just a series of courtyards and joining the sections up in this instance isn’t easy, as the pump house for the pool is in the middle.
I have 3 trains; a small fun unit set in the late 19 th century, pulled by my Stainz loco with 5 carriages all a different colour, this is just a development out of the original starter set. Another is the LCE or German Ice train but my main train is DR Mallet engine pulling some Golden Mountain coaches very powerful and full of class.
They are all under the control of an LGB digital MTS complete with cordless remote to allow me to go to each area and still be able to control things.
We like to sit out of a night and warch the lights go round and the reflection in the pool and get slightly sozzled. This is and all year round
My dad and I model in HO scale but i was always drawn towards the large scale displays. I was also fascinated with the garden railroad at Fairplex, Pomona. There was always something new to look at on the constantly changing layout. So at the end of my eighth grade year I decided to buy a starter set with plans to expand to a garden railway when my funds recovered from the purchase.
I picked up a battery powered Big Hauler set after Christmas one year at a most ridiculous price. Liked the look and feel of the size and have been adding to my collection ever since. Several years ago a friend who had a large collection had a stroke and gifted me with quite a bit of track. Last year I finally built an elevated 150 ft loop with 2 reverse loops, a passing siding and a 3 track yard with donated and used material. Will expand as material becomes available.
I had been in n-scale since the '60’s,but had to put it away while converting the train room into kid’s room. Then about ten years ago, I watched my bro-in-law plan his. Gave him a little help, and acquired a Bachman Big Hauler. After that, I slowly added stock and rail. Last year ran mail rr for the Convention!
I’ve been in N and HO since 1970, then I read the review of the Riding Railkits beginner kit in MR and GR - I was hooked on the idea of a model train I could ride on. I now have an RS-3 and some track, and big plans,
I’ve been in N and HO since 1970, then I read the review of the Riding Railkits beginner kit in MR and GR - I was hooked on the idea of a model train I could ride on. I now have an RS-3 and some track, and big plans,
We were @ Yankee Candle in Deerfield and liked the train running along the ceiling!The Boss said that would look nice down cellar! We went with the O-scale (lionel),it did but after a while the engine was chasing the caboose! She did not want a second track put up! I conned her to go with me to Charles Ro again and see some REAL trains! I had a gift cetificate and our garden neaded something.Sue @ Ro’s was great and she asked if my wife liked to garden, no turning back! The price of USA compered to LGB at the time helped! Garden Railroad Mag. was a god send! She still says I didn’t know how much you liked trains (since childhood).
As a kid, I was into HO scale, which became O scale when I went to college. My mother gave me a G-Scale train set for around the Christmas tree, and I got into live-steam from there. My next project will be larger yet. Maybe, someday, I will build a prototype scale line. [:D]
I GOT IN TO GARDEN RR AFTER I SAW IT ON TV AND IN THE NEXT TOWN FROM US WAS AN OUT SIDE LAY OUT. I BEEN RETIRED 3 YEARS AND EACH YEAR IT GROWS BIGGER, THEIR IS A POND ,A WATER WHEEL, A WATER FALLS,BRIDGES, AND SOME BUILDINGS . COME ON SPRING TIME ???BEN
