I’ve mostly been lurking over that last while, not that I was ever a prolific poster. I’ve learned a lot from LSC, but don’t necessarily have a lot to contribute aside from the occasional photo of my layout. Anyway, I was so busy with school (finally finished and now have a sheepskin that says I’m a bonafide “Auto Restorer”), life, and “stuff” that I haven’t posted much. This winter I didn’t manage to get any of the buildings from the layout inside to refurbish them, which is when I usually work on that sort of thing. I bought a few additional live steamers in anticipation of spring, but… between school activities being canceled for my three school-age kids and work going a little crazy, that got away from me too. Then in February I started having some shoulder pain and was diagnosed with moderate to severe osteo-arthritis in both shoulders–apparently all that humping a ruck and jumping out of planes in my misspent youth caught up with me. Three weeks ago I looked out my back window at the layout and realized that the grass had grown up so much that some parts weren’t visible, and the ROW was overgrown with sedum and juniper. Thus the title of this post.

I’m trying to decide what to do about having a layout in my backyard that I’m going to have trouble keeping up with. I used to visit Garden Railroad Gizmos in Wichita (Claudia’s store and associated layout) and always felt a little sad about the state of her layout, which was adjacent to the parking lot and which had apparently gotten away from her in much the same way that mine has gotten away from me. Part of the joy of GR for me has been both the trains and the gardening. That intersection of interests is what drew me to the hobby. But with my shoulders the way they are, I’m not going to be able to keep the weeds out–here in Kansas I need to spend a couple hours a week to keep things under control and I just can’t do it for more than very short stretches.

I’ve enlisted the help of my kids (the oldest one at least can tell the grass from the sedum) and there’s a high schooler at our church who is planning to be a botanist who will come do gardening for a small fee. And I can still put glyphosate on the ROW to keep off the sedum. But I’m not sure even those things will enable me to keep things in shape to run trains–especially in the spring and summer when weeds here in Kansas grow like, well, weeds. If I can’t manage to at least keep the track clear enough to send a train around a couple times a month, I’m thinking it might not make sense to keep the layout in its current form.

I know there are others on here with health challenges (more difficult than mine in many cases) and was wondering if anyone had thoughts or suggestions about how I might manage to salvage my hobby. Ideas that don’t include selling all my stuff dirt cheap

Dan

Sure

Put in an elevated garden railroad using the several methods that are out there, 4 x 4 timbers, PVC pipe, Etc.

Then put in an occasional raised bed to support the railroad, that you can garden and landscape. The ratio of bare elevated roadbed to garden bed is your choice

And once in, should be little or no time on your knees!

Hope this get you thinking

Jerry

Dan,

I was going through the same thing. My problem at the time was the constant freeze-thaw cycle during the winter. By the time spring arrived the layout resembled a roller coaster ride from DisneyWorld. At one point I had built a ladder type roadbed to try and keep the track work stable, but the frost heaved that up too.

I finally came to the conclusion that if I wanted a garden Railroad, I would have to build it on a raised platform. Fortunately I had visited other layouts that were raised and decided to use the features I liked about those and combine them into something that I thought would work for this location.

http://www.largescalecentral.com/articles/156/a-raised-road-bed-a-build-log-for-the-rgs-raised-layout

So far it seems to be successful.

That same are now.

On top of the above pictured sub structure I added dirt, so plants could be added. Larger plants have a planter box under them that extends below the layout.

And of course I realize too, that this method isn’t for everybody. It involves a lot of time and money to get to this level, but all I’m trying to do is offer another alternative for a garden railroad that I have found to be a lot easier to maintain.

That’s why they call it a hobby, I think. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

I have a hybrid layout, because of the terrain I have to deal with. I start on a chest high table, and the ground rises to meet it. Then I have a section on the ground, that I have to manicure each spring, because the track floats in the ballast. The mainline then goes onto a calf high table, then to a knee high table, while the track stays level. Glyphosate is applied each spring to discourage the weeds. It works for me, though I’m considering reducing the footprint of the layout as age advances. Maybe next year (I’ve been saying that for the last 5 years).

I’m kind of banged up form trying to out Marine my Marines, as a Navy Corpsman. When I bend down, I have scheduled at least 5 tasks to accomplish before I try to stand up, because it is so damn difficult to stand up, again.

The way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. You can do this.

Dan,

First, thanks for your service to our Republic!

Secondly, is there a way you can exploit your yard’s existing terrain? I know Kansas is not an alpine skiing destination, could you relocate the track to a raised portion of the yard more amenable to your situation, shaping the landscape as required to reach track, plants, and trains?

Finally, somewhere I saw a video of a guy who build a shelf-type layout right onto the outside of his house.

I close this sage advice with the caveat I have a flat yard and wouldn’t trust myself to nail anything to my house! We ended up building a small retaining wall, filling it with dirt, and, through a miscommunication, topping it off with 6" of gravel. Weeds and sedum alike go into the gravel to die in the heat of a tropical noonday sun!

Eric

Dan, look up Jerry Barnes who lives in central Kansas now. He is an excellent modeler and skilled at resolving RR problems. Following his recent move, he built an elevated layout for the same reason many of us have, because of rusty backs and knees. He posts occasionally on this site and you might be able to look him up under the directory. if you can’t find him, contact me and I can provide you his email address. A really good guy.

Think Chris Keifer is out that way as well Dan …perhaps you could have some discussions ?

Thanks, all.

I’d forgotten but Jerry is just down the road a bit (well, 45 minutes, but in Kansas that’s pretty close). I’ll have to get in touch with him again and maybe arrange to visit his new place and have him come up here, too.

I don’t know if a raised layout would work, but it’s something to consider. Right now my layout takes up about 1/3 of the yard on one end, which leaves the rest clear for the kids to play in.

That’s from last summer–you can see why I’d miss the gardening part, I think. Of course, everywhere you see alyssum and sedum there’s now a lot of grass mixed in, so you can also see why it’s getting away from me

Again, I appreciate all the input. I don’t want to give the hobby up, but I need to adjust how I’m doing it.

Bump

Dan Hall said:

…Right now my layout takes up about 1/3 of the yard on one end, which leaves the rest clear for the kids to play in…

Who needs kids anyway?

Wow, Dan, that is a beautiful layout! Please do the hobby a favor and figure out a way to transfer the obvious skill and passion to a raised layout!

Would like to see more, great looking, BB