Hello
I’ve been lurking in the shadows of your forum for a couple months. Reading lot, checking out some pics and vids and getting the feel for the place. I thought maybe it’s time to join and say hello.
I’ve been looking for a hobby that could carry me through retirement. I enjoyed my HO train set as a kid and thought perhaps model railroads may be something I could get into again. Of course bigger toys now for a bigger boy so G-Scale has been what I’ve been looking at this time around.
I hadn’t seen a garden railroad up until about 20 years ago when I saw a couple displays at Art Knapp in Surrey BC (I was vacationing and am actually in southern Sask, Canada). I found it interesting, but unattainable at the time.
I do not have a huge space. Any project would not be an empire to be sure. I am not even 100% on the idea yet. I move around from 50-50 to 70-30 for depending on the day and what I may be researching at the time. This probably has to do with knowing how other hobbies haven’t lasted long so some reluctance to invest time and money in something new. It also appears I may be a lone wolf in my city which would be unfortunate as sharing of the hobby can only be done at a distance. This would make any g-scale hobby here more difficult to maintain (think of a gym buddy there to offer encouragement along the way and you’ll see my perspective on it).
I have been lucky to meet a couple guys who have answered some questions and in early June I’ll get the chance to see another railroad in person (but a 3 hour drive away) and spend half a day learning more.
What I have learned thus far is both good and bad. Bad in that there doesn’t seem to be the numbers in the hobby that there was even 10 years ago. I compared Garden Railroad magazine ads from 10 years ago vs. today and many vendors and manufactures just do not exist anymore. Good (or maybe bad) is that there still seems to be all sorts of technology still going strong and some incredible details being modelled. In some cases the choices are confusing to understand the differences.
So my plan, should I proceed, is to have a good plan in place that allows for many years of expansion and details without always going backwards and ripping out. I believe I could manage 150-200 feet of track that would also include an outdoor sheltered storage area to drive out trains and not haul them up from the basement every time I wanted to play. Stage one of the plan would be just a simple loop on the patio to run around while I plan stages 2 thru 10? 100?
Mentally I still have to overcome the idea of making some big changes to an already fairly planned out and landscaped yard and to ensure I am not going to tire of watching a couple/three trains run around the flowers or having to maintain the yard around tracks. There already seems to be shorter and shorter days of good weather and using them up in yard maintenance is becoming a “thing” I do not like. There is also a lot to learn about building some infrastructure to support the master plan to make it as interesting as possible. I also have not given a lot of thought to what may get modelled in terms of structures or if this would be just, literally, a garden train around the plants. I don’t fancy myself a model maker so that aspect may be sparse.
I have just finished a detailed map of the yard with existing, not moving, structures and trees and have to yet survey it enough to get an idea of what may need to happen with grades before planning something impossible.
While not doing that I have been trying to wrap my head around control systems, sound systems, track materials and making lists of questions to find answers for.
I’ve rambled on enough for now. Hopefully you guys will take it easy on me as I make these decisions going forward. I hope I have explained my thinking well enough that everyone understands it is a bit of a process for me and this is another step in the process.
Bart
