Updates, Photos, and Cold Weather!

So has it been that long since the last post?  Apparently I need to post more often.  Even though I haven't been posting on this blog too much, I have still been running trains, and setting buildings for the last couple of months.  So I'll go through the updates for the last two months.

September:

Okay, this month didn't see much action.  However, I did end up cleaning away the weeds, draining the pond to half full, and fixing the bridge for winter.

October:  This month saw a couple of days of operation including one in the snow!  So here is the photos from that day:

November:

Today I have completed the basic station platform for passenger trains.  I also have secured all of the buildings in their final positions as demonstrated in the photos below:

 BEFORE...

 DURING...

 AFTER...

Changes include adding a platform to the station area, actually two, and putting wooden stakes on top of the brick to make it level.  I used my longest, widest car to test the clearances and they all check out just fine.  There is a pale green bird feeder that I plan to convert to a yard/ railroad office over the winter.  I also plan to move the lumber loading area to the runaround rather than have it at the end in the yard.  The yard will now be used for storage of cars not being used.

I have also added a 3 ft section of track near the runaround which is seen in the photos for storing extra cars and the spare locomotive if I am only running one engine at a time.

With winter coming on pretty soon, the railroad will be pretty dormant, however trains will still run on a good winter day with some snow.  I really don't know when that will be so keep checking in!

Welcome back

Well, a lot has been going on in the garden this summer, and I'm proud to say that the railroad is now fully operational!  Later on when it's not so hot I'll bring the trains out for filming again.  Anyways though, this post isn't really about the railroad, but more about what I learned building three railroads in five years.

I'll start first with the first railroad:


Built in 2008-09, this railroad was very simple, using section curved track, and four switches.  It was essentially an L shaped oval with a pond and a small yard in the middle.  you can see in the diagram below:

The railroad was quite fun to watch, but not much fun to operate.  By the time the big move came to South Dakota, this railroad was really just gathering dust.  I longed to have some operation in my railroad, not just display tracks and a loop.

But that doesn't mean this railroad had some good points too.  For a beginner, this railroad is quite fun, and affordable.  the design allowed operation from anywhere, and the train could be accessed from every angle.  The brick patio (grey blocks) allowed an operator to set tools and work, as well as pitch a lawn chair an watch.  There was also a railroad tie seat.

With that said, let's go over what I did right:

• I built the railroad so that it could easily be maintained and operated.  I allowed at least 3 feet of space all the way around the railroad except for the right side of the pond which went up against some low trees.  Ironically, that was the least troubled spot on the railroad.
• The railroad had easy access to electricity.  A 50ft extension cord could reach the railroad from the house, and was easy to pick up.  Since it was only one outlet though, I couldn't have anything else.
• I provided drainage fro the whole railroad.  The railroad had a large retaining wall about 2 1/2 feet in height running along the North (bottom) side as shown in the diagram by the red line.  Behind the wall, I had set a PVC pipe with holes drilled in it to provide drainage.  It ran from  the middle left, to the lower right hand corner, exiting on the right.  This allowed the pipe to have both a slope, and drain about 2/3 of the railroad.
• I made the tunnel short.  The general rule of thumb is to not have a tunnel longer than you can reach.  I can reach about 30-34" from one side.  I also recommend making an area of overlap, that can be reached from both sides.  So if I just use 30" for my reach, I can have a 60" (5ft) tunnel.  Really not all that bad.  This tunnel was only about 3ft long though just to break up the scene.
• And I packed the dirt before laying track.  As I filled the area with dirt, I stomped and stomped until the dirt was as hard as a rock.  I did this next to the retaining walls to so that I could see where weak spots were.  By the time I was done, the dirt wasn't moving anywhere.

Unfortunately, I also had a few things that I did wrong:

• I didn't properly lay the track.  I used rounded gravel for ballast, which doesn't settle.  I had figured that after years and years, the ballast would fill every nook and quit moving, but I was wrong I guess on that part.  For two years, I had to realign track every time I operated.  The track was also not staying together, as the joints were loose.
• I didn't secure the track together.  No matter how settled the roadbed is, I found you can't get a reliable connection from one piece of track to the other.  I was also running small locomotives, with only a few pick up wheels for power which made the track standards even higher!  So the locomotive could rarely get a solid connection, and so to counter that, I was forced to run the trains fast.  By running the trains fast, I was able to build enough momentum to carry the train across bad sections.  But it didn't look exactly beautiful.
• Switches were jamming.  With so many loose pieces of ballast, the switches constantly failed.  From that point on, I decided I wasn't going to rely on the switch motors, but rather through my own hand.  In other words, I was going the manual route.  I finally perfected that on the third time, which I will explain alter.
• I soldered track.  In order to fix the electricity problem, I decided to try and solder pieces.  I practiced on a couple spare sections (which I'm still glad I did, or else more sections would be ruined) and I tried soldering a few on the railroad.  First, I want everyone to know a couple things about soldering

1. First, the soldering iron needs to have a large output of heat for this much metal.  Remember that I am working with brass 1/3 of an inch thick, which absorbs a lot of heat.
2. Second, the track is outdoors in changing weather, with freeze thaw of water, and temperature swings moving the track has it changes temperature.

         That means that the track moves around, and so the joint eventually breaks if not done perfectly.  So I

         quit trying and eventually replaced the sections of track.  I'm currently using the soldered pieces on

         sidings and on display tracks in my room.

So with that said, there was a lot I did wrong that I knew I needed to fix.  That brought me to my second railroad:

The second railroad was built in 2010 and lasted until June, 2011.

The second railroad never really got close to being done, but it was still a learning experience.  this railroad was meant to fit into the front yard, so it was narrow, and short in length.  In other words, this was a small railroad.  It would have looked like the diagram below:

As you can see, the railroad isn't much.  Now this railroad was bordered by sidewalks on two sides (bottom and left) with a fence running on a third side (top).  Then the trees (brown circles) and house (yellow box on the right) with a pathway round to the backyard kept the railroad from getting any bigger.  I managed to run trains for about 1 month before I had to tear it up and move again [we were in a rental house for that year].

Now as an ornamental lawn piece, this would have been fine.  If no one is really serious about operating a railroad, and just wants a train to run behind a mountain, then this would suffice until something larger is built. However, this really didn't serve my needs.

Things I did right:

• Besides repeating what I got right last time, I also tried to give a little more accessibility to the railroad.  With two sidewalks, and a worn pathway, this railroad was maintained from all sides, with no trees to duck under.
• I made the pond look more realistic.  on the first railroad, the pond was okay, but it still looked like a large bathtub.  So this time I dressed it up with rocks around the edges.  In the winter, it would freeze to the bottom, so I didn't bother putting in plants.
• The pond pump had a net around it.  My first pump failed due to clogging, so the second pump had netting around it.  I still have to clean it off, but the pump is now protected.
• The roadbed was solid.  I finally came up with a solution to my roadbed problem.  I installed cinder blocks like what you can see here:  http://riksrailway.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-did-i-lay-track.html  (about this time I started blogging, and Rik found my blog a while back.  Since then, we've occasionally talked, but this is one good idea from his vast website.  The cinder blocks kept the roadbed level.  By encasing the blocks in the dirt, the foundation didn't move and inch, and I was able to wire the track easily.  I never did ballast the track, which would have made it look better, but I had to move again.

Things I got wrong:

• I still didn't connect the track properly.  Though I didn't really solder the track, I tried other methods of connecting the track.  Such experiments include: plastic strip ties, twist ties, running paperclips through the joiners to tighten them, cleaning the track really well, and gluing the track to the cement.  None of these had any affect on the conductivity.  And so the joints failed, and I had to constantly realign the track.
• I made the plan too boring.  Even if I had built the railway completely, I knew I wouldn't really like it after a few months.  So I kept this in mind for the planning of my next railroad.

The third railroad was being thought up in my head for a long time, and in late 2011, I began construction on it, still working out the details as my other posts will serve as testimony.  This railroad is by far better in many ways.  I first decided to work out the electrical connection problems before I really did anything permanent.  I came up with a system where the track is screwed down to a block of wood, and wires are connected via a screw going through the wire, and brushing against the track.  On some joints, the track is connected with rail clamps to keep the track from moving around.  I also ordered new track to expand my collection and provide a longer main line.  The final track plan is below:

Okay, it's not the FINAL plan, but it gives you the general idea.  This railroad is definitely a big step for me. I did several things which I never did before.  I was met with new challenges, and came up with some good (and not so good) solutions.

So then, the things I did right:

• I finally have a reliable wiring system that uses 12 gauge wire screwed down next to the track so the screw touches the track and provides a connection.  Rail clamps make up the joints on the switches and in known trouble spots.  I have a few extra should any other problem areas develop.  
• The yard is unique with a track plan that allows for a train to leave, and only come back to the yard by backing up, or by backing out and coasting back in.  This gives the feeling of a real yard connected to the main line.
• The bridge is now secured to somethings solid, the ground.  I have 9 inch nails that go into the ground to serve as support for the bridge.  Do I expect it to last?  No, but the railroad won't be here too long anyway.
• The ballast being used can lock together to form a tight bond.
• Again, I kept the Railroad within about 50 ft of a power source.
• I finally have a storage solution.  One thing I never figured out how to do is properly store the rolling stock and locomotives in a dry spot.  I now use a large tote with a lid that I store in the shelter next to the house.
• The power supply has a selected location.  This whole time, I was just connecting the power pack to the track and pulling it apart when I was done.  I mounted the power pack to a 2X4 and I have it set up so the whole thing can slide on and off of a fiberglass pole.  When I want to run trains, I just slide it on, plug it in, and I'm good to go.  
• I am also trying to get into the habit of good maintenance.  Up until now, I was just trying to figure out how to care for the railroad.  Now I am cleaning track, cleaning locomotives, and testing everything regularly to make sure everything runs smoothly.  I'll go into detail on a future post.
• Finally, the trains are now running in tandem.  The reason for this is that one locomotive will stall easily, but with two, there is more power, and one keeps the other moving over the rough spots.  unfortunately, the locomotives don't move at the same speed, so this can't be a final solution to the problem.  If I can't get the track clean completely, perhaps another locomotive will be needed so that full trains can run.

Even though I still have most of the railroad put together, there are some things I wish I could redo:

• I should have had a more stable area for the ballast.  The railroad basically has ballast sitting on the ground.  Even though the railroad is only short term, it still bugs me that the track can still move around.
• The ballast is also a little too big.  Just a minor annoyance, so I'll keep it in mind for the next railroad.
• The power supply is too small.  I just use a train set transformer which delivers 1 amp. of electricity.  So my power pack is maxed out.  The next railroad is going to need a bigger power pack.  Unfortunately, the next railroad might not be for a while, so I don't know where I'll be then with my collection of train items.

As you can see, I tried to learn from my mistakes, and hopefully you can take this as advice for your own railroad.  I believe this is what anything in life is about, gradually getting better at something so you master it in time.  Even the greatest modelers in this hobby had to start somewhere.  For me, it was a small railroad in the yard.  For you, it could have been a train set, or a magazine that inspired you.

This is also what this blog is about, showing everyone that this isn't hard, and is a fun, rewarding hobby if you take your time to do things right.

Speaking of 'right'  I also want to leave this post by saying that everyone will find the method that suits you best in time.  There is no 'right' way to build a railroad.  Some of the experts tend to forget that (including me, and I'm no expert!), and so we always have to be reminded about this.

Thank you and stay in tune with this site, there are good things in this blog's future!

--jjw2795

Track Ordered

Yet another milestone has been reached for the Smokey Timber Logging Co. Yesterday as the track has been ordered to complete the line.  However, one item was not in stock, so I may have to wait a while, oh well!  Who cares, right!  Anyways, I'll post again when the track arrives.

Fingers crossed!

Attention Garden Railroaders

I have a new site available for anyone to display their garden railroads without the hassle of creating their own website.  The website is www.onlinetrainshow.com and has the purpose of allowing people to display their model railroads, garden railroads, and models on the web, free.  Think of this like a train show or an open house, but on the Internet.  You don't even have to leave your computer or home to host an open house now!

You can contact me by commenting below, leaving me an email at jjw2795@gmail.com, or by going to the site and submitting an inquiry at the bottom of the home page.  Thank you for listening everyone!

--James Willmus

The First Train!!!

Yesterday, this project has finally become reality with the first train on the first operational section of track.  Prior to this, the train was running, but only to test the track.  Yesterday the first logs rolled into the now under construction saw mill, which is great.   Here are some photos commemorating the achievement:

Buildings

Of course, what's a railroad without towns and industries to support it?  Well, it ain't much of a railroad then is it?  One thing I wanted to do really badly is gain structures.  In my mind, structures are everything that is man made, except for those created by the railroad.  Those railroad owned structures, are most times classified as "track-side structures" which is a different topic.  Anyways, let me go over what structures I want on the railroad:

• Sawmill facility including;  sawmill, kiln, storage
• Town buildings including:  General Store, station, freight depot, saloon
• Bridge
• Log loading facility (TBD)

For the General store, and Saloon, I am using old birdhouses, which have been redone.  So far, I have the general store finished, and is seen in the photo below:

The general store is on the left.  The station building (right) will be a lean-to structure and will be next to the store.

These buildings are featured in the video at the bottom of the page.

The station, and lumber building, are made from an old box that was broken.  The Station is a half open shelter for passengers to sit in.  The General Store will sell tickets for the trains, and the overall scene is supposed to look very back-woodsy.  Here are several photos of the station and the lumber storage building being constructed:

 Here is the first look at the lumber storage building.  As you can see, it is pretty rough shape.

 And here is the station.  the board in front was added so that the building would look more enclosed.

 The buildings were cleaned up with a sanding sponge.  the coarse texture of the sponge softens the wood, and gets rid of all the dirt build-up.

 Here is the back of the structure, before sanding.

 The lumber building needed scaffolding to be put in place to give the lumber building two stories for lumber storage.  To install the scaffolding, the roof had to be ripped up.

And here is the structure at the end of the day.

Below is a short video which goes over structures.  Please excuse my voice, as I have a sore throat.

Rail Clamps after a few days

The Aristo Craft rail clamps I bought have been sitting, attached to a few sample pieces of track for a few days now (since Thursday).  For the most part, these clamps have held, however, I found on a couple o the joints that clamps had loosened up a bit.  I simply got a screw driver out to fix the problem and I tightened them a lot.  At this point, I have a few suggestions for these clamps that I didn't think of:

• When ready to operate trains, the clamps should be checked and tightened where necessary.
• The track should have as few joints as possible and flex track should have extra long pieces of 2X4 under them with at least three ties from each piece of track under each piece of wood (block should be about 8" long).
• sectional track that is curved, especially tight curves, should have at least two screws in each end of the track pieces for reinforcement.
• Switches should have all joints clamped to keep everything in line, passing sidings should be constructed so that the two parallel tracks are connected with a piece of 2x4.

Initial Review of Rail Clamps

Yesterday I received the first shipment of rail clamps for the new railroad.  These clamps are Aristo Craft clamps which have had mixed reviews.  However, being that the whole set of 10 was $10  and that I only have ten so far, if I don't like them it isn't the end of the world for me and I can go with Split Jaw clamps which I like too and work better so I'm told.  Also, this kind of clamp hasn't had much for reviews, so I'm hoping to fill a gap with this review today.  So let's take a look at the clamp from Aristo Craft:

Out of the box, these clamps look okay.  The clamp consists of two screws, and a brass square that has a lip to hold the track down.  To tighten the clamps you have to use a Philip's screw driver (either a #2 or a #4 sized head) and turn the screws clockwise.  From my knowledge of bolts, the thread needs to be very tight (say 20 rings per inch) in order for a screw to hold onto tow pieces of metal like the clamp and track.  The Aristo Craft clamps seem to be a bit light for threads so I wouldn't trust these clamps to hold the track by themselves, however I devised a method of securing the track that might work better.

Because the screws weren't up to par, I decided to reinforce the joint.  The best method that I could come up with for connecting the two pieces of track was to take a 2X4 block of wood and screw the track pieces to that block as demonstrated in the photo below:

 As you can see, the clamps now only serve the purpose of connecting two pieces of track together to provide electrical current.  The 2X4 piece of wood connects the track sections together and forms a flexible joint that is also strong.  For people living in moist climates where the wood would rot, I would suggest using HDPE pieces instead of wood.  The HDPE is half plastic, half plywood and holds up to moisture a lot better.

 The result also gives me a raised bed of track.  When ballasting I simply pour ballast between the ties until the ballast is up to the bottom of the track.  With this method, your railroad may also be more immune to washouts and erosion because the track is supported every few feet.

Railroaders I would recommend this clamp and track method to:

• Beginners who want to experiment with different track styles
• Railroaders on a limited budget (these clamps are almost half the price of Split Jaw)
• Railroaders who want a cheap, viable track solution who run track powered trains.

Railroaders I would not recommend this rail clamp and track method to:

• Railroaders who run battery powered or live steam engines (you would be wasting your time with this clamp in that case)
• Railroaders who cannot use wood or HDPE lumber under their track (this would be people with severe frost heave, a lot of moisture, or a ton of freeze thaw).
• Railroaders who are unable to support their track in any way but the "floating track" method.  This is because these clamps are not strong enough to hold a joint together on their own, therefore buying from split jaw might be best.
• Railroaders who want very real track.  This method has about six to eight screw heads showing through the track, plus lumber showing through the ballast.  I do not care about realism that much, but some people might turn away from this because of the bulky, "toy" like nature of this method.

I will have to further review these clamps later on when the track is installed in the garden, but don't let that alone stop you from testing these clamps yourself.  You might be surprised at how well they work, especially when you use these clamps with the method of connecting track that I just devised.  If you have any further information, comments, concerns please state them in the comment box below.  Thank you and I hope you enjoyed this review.

1st package arrived today!

Well the shipment of rail clamps has come in the mail today.  It is a set of 10 Aristo Craft rail clamps.  There has not been too much information to my knowledge on the internet about these particular clamps, and I thought I could fill a gap.  So tomorrow I will do a complete review of these clamps.  What I can tell you is that they look decent, look okay as far as durability, and through a simple method that I devised I think these clamps might work.  However, I cannot give a complete review for months because these clamps need to be in the garden before I take a side on whether I'll swear by them or swear at them.  However, I can give you the details about these clamps, and that is for tomorrow.  Good night everyone!

The question of what the yard will look like has been answered!

Well with some snow on the ground finally, so I spent the evening here in the house coming up with different ways of making a yard.  This evening I also cleaned and took stock of all my usable track:

• 4ft diameter curves- 9, one permanently attached to a switch.
• 1 foot straight sections- 4
• 2 foot straight sections- 2
• 3 foot straight sections- 3
• LH R1 switches, 3 one with a curve piece permanently attached.
• RH R1 switches, 2

This comes out to approximately 9ft of curved track, 17 feet of straight track, and 5 switches.

So with that in mind, I began to design the yard which will serve as the hub of the railroad.

Things I wanted in the yard were:

1. A freight house.  The freight house is an old bird house, but with some fixing up, it will work great. 
2. A place to get water and coal.  I have a water tower, but now I am in the quest of finding a suitable container for fake coal.  I won't need a tower, but an old hopper of some kind would work great.
3. A mill, or at least some place to store logs.  This railroad doesn't use water to haul the logs to the mill since the terrain is easier for trains than some places.  The trouble with hauling logs via water is that they get hung up in all sorts of places, so a railroad might actually be cheaper.
4. A platform of some sort for passengers.  With one passenger car, and at most two more coming, I don't need anything fancy, but a simple 2X4 painted well might serve the railroad's "passengers" good enough.

So with those thoughts in mind, I set out to design a simple yard, and here is what I got:

 Cat for size reference.

 Three switches provide most of the track age I need.  The spur in the lower middle of the photo will lead to the mill.  The tow track pieces running parallel in the middle of the photo will hold the freight depot, platform, and water tower.  The only thing I might change about this is I may add a spur to load/ unload cars as well as put them on and take them off the layout.

As you can see, the brass after being cleaned, polished, and fixed is all shiny.  The ties for the most part are okay, with only a few joints missing.

Based on what I have now, I only need at a minimum of six-eight more curves and 9-11 feet of straight track.

Cleaning a car.

I plan to make this thing an annual project, cleaning cars.  Each car on the STL will have to be cleaned and tested at least once a year plus service as needed.  The importance of cleaning is often underestimated.  Cars that are dirty, have misaligned wheels and broken couplers do not operate well, so it is important to keep cars free of dirt, wheels in good condition, and coupler mechanisms that operate reliably.  Here I will show you my method of cleaning a caboose:

 Step 1, assess the car.  This caboose had several things wrong with it that I didn't like:

1. Broken parts.  The plastic handrails, ladder, and under carriage all had broken pieces.  this is a very old piece of rolling stock (about 13 years old by now) and has been used and abused.
2. Dirt, the sides, inside, and under carriage all had loads of dirt and grime on them.  this needed to be cleaned off.
3. Wheels and couplers not lubricated.  The wheels are plastic, so I will probably replace them in the near future with metal wheels along with most of the "regular service" cars.  But that is another topic which I will save for later. The couplers also needed to be lubricated with some light oil.  Be sure to use oil that is plastic compatible and do not use too much of it.

 Step 2, pull the car apart.  the only parts I needed to separate was the roof and the ladder on the side.  As you can see by the photo this caboose has a lot of dirt in it on the inside as well as the outside.  Though dirt would have been okay on small lumber railroads, no one tolerates this much on the INSIDE of the car, where the crew sleeps.  Also, notice that the door on the left is slightly ajar, that is because a spring to hold the door shut is missing and will need to be replaced too.

Here is the handrail parts.  There were so many parts broken on this that I decided to replace all of the hand rails, with the exception of the ladder.  But that is for another day when I talk about REPAIRING A CAR.

 So here is the handrails removed.  the handrails that are left are the shiny brass ones long the sides of the car.

Step 4, clean the car.  With only water, the car got cleaned.  For RR cars this big I use the bath tub.  Be sure to clean off all the dirt that the cars leave in the tub otherwise your whole family will be giving you bad looks.  The water was warm water coming out of the shower head.  I used a paint brush too brush the little corners on the inside and polish the outside.  Now this car is good for the summer and will probably be cleaned i nthe fall.  A note for the under carriage, try to be careful when using the paintbrush there, some parts on the underside are fragile and don't tolerate harsh scrubbing.  But the results are pretty good, all that is left is to make new hand rails this weekend.