Paul,
Depending upon your beverage, “hoppy” railroading! As a relative newcomer here, let me say that this crowd is a dangerous bunch of enablers along the path you successfully started!
Aloha,
Eric
PaulMac - Have you heard of the Ottawa Valley Garden Railway Society, based, as it is, in Nepean? Might not be too far from where you live. Take a look - www.ovgrs.org
A lot of us here, and I mean a lot of us who don’t live ANYWHERE near Nepean, or even Canada, are either annual or frequent visitors to the Great American Invasion in July of each year. For instance, I come over from Eastern England…
Jon Radder and Ken Brunt here are just two such visitors - membership is FREE and that just has to be a good thing these days, right?
You might find that there will be others here to offer you any help you might need, people, that is, who live a mite nearer, but that’s the great thing about the internet - we are all just a keyboard tap away.
tac, ig and the Mount Gleep Underground Monorail Boys of the OVGRS.
Hello and thanks, tac Foley!
I did have the good fortune to visit the OVGRS a few times last fall. In fact, that was the very first large scale layout I had ever seen in person, so as you can imagine I was quite impressed!
It may be a bit hard to tell over the internet, but I tend to be a bit shy in person. The advantage of sites like this for me are that I can post a question without pressing any particular person to answer it.
Having said that, Fred has been very generous in sharing his knowledge and experience with me. Hopefully as we get out of lockdown, I will also be able to make more connections in OVGRS.
Aharrrrr. As both Fred and I say. No pressure, eh? I, too, am a mite shy, as I’m constantly telling everybody I meet. I’m also well-known for my extreme modesty, in fact, I’m probably THE most modest person you are ever likely to encounter, bar none. I even have a T-shirt bearing the legend - ‘I’m VERY modest, but then, I have much to be modest about.’
PS - just ‘tac’ will do fine. AFAIK I’m the only one here.
The World’s Least Exciting G Scale Layout has now been expanded!
6’ diameter curves with 10’ straightaways.
Honestly, it is exciting. I dreamed about this all winter while running trains in the basement.
Here it is in all its glory…
Hey! At least it isn’t ON THE GROUND!
…and why, zackly, is this least exciting G scale layout etc.? Fulfilling ANY size dream is a no small thing, trust me on this one.
That works!
Having for several years until they retired and moved out of state sometimes helped a friend with their garden railway which was part ground level and part elevated above yard’s slope, I can say from experience that railroads above the ground get easier to reach every year.
Indeed, ground level looks grand, and right, but it is difficult to beat a railroad which gets easier to reach every year.
tac Foley said:
…and why, zackly, is this least exciting G scale layout etc.? Fulfilling ANY size dream is a no small thing, trust me on this one.
Hi Tac,
The first non-public garden railway I ever saw was Fred Mill’s. Others have all either been on-line or in magazines. With those as a frame of reference, mine appears to be the least exciting railway I have ever seen…
Having said that, I am happy to have it,!
Paul
Forrest Scott Wood said:
That works!
Having for several years until they retired and moved out of state sometimes helped a friend with their garden railway which was part ground level and part elevated above yard’s slope, I can say from experience that railroads above the ground get easier to reach every year.
Indeed, ground level looks grand, and right, but it is difficult to beat a railroad which gets easier to reach every year.
Thanks, Forrest. Indeed, the height does help! After having broken my neck somewhat seriously about 6 years ago, I quickly found that a ground level set up would NOT work for me, no matter how much more realistic it would be.
Oh, that’s serious stuff! Glad you are here to participate in this madness, umm, I mean, wonderful hobby, with us!
I am a big fan of elevating the railroad! It is easier AND it limits my spending. A rainstorm in 2018 made me glad my railroad is above level, too, for climatological reasons:
Your railroad may be in the most exciting phase, as you are still free change your mind to set the foundation for what will come! Enjoy the process of crafting your vision of a railroad!
Eric
Forrest Scott Wood said:
Oh, that’s serious stuff! Glad you are here to participate in this madness, umm, I mean, wonderful hobby, with us!
Serious enough to force me to retire my previous hobbies, but thankfully we live in an age of very advanced neurosurgical knowledge and techniques, so it is not near as serious as it wounder have been 20 or 30 years ago, and so I am able to enjoy new hobbies like this one. 
Eric Mueller said:
I am a big fan of elevating the railroad! It is easier AND it limits my spending. A rainstorm in 2018 made me glad my railroad is above level, too, for climatological reasons:
Your railroad may be in the most exciting phase, as you are still free change your mind to set the foundation for what will come! Enjoy the process of crafting your vision of a railroad!
Eric
Oh, man, Eric, that is some serious rain! That amount of precipitation is not unheard of here, but it comes in the gentle form of snow, which can be inconvenient, but you don’t worry about it washing your stuff away or flooding your house.
I love your layout! At one point I was strongly leaning towards a raised bed, but the problem was I would’very needed to hire someone to transport the fill from the driveway to the yard, which would have raised the price a bit too steeply. Having said that, it does make for a nice kind of realism, which I know I would have preferred.
“Snow” is why I settled here! I’d shoveled enough of it… We actually considered raising things as you are doing, also for cost reasons. After trolling this site and others, there are a number of layouts that are exquisite examples of detailed realism in terms of modeling and operations using the method you are pursuing. Between termites, hurricanes, toddlers, and other destructive forces and CINCHOUSE’s desire to have a garden (and to make it harder to expand the railroad, I think!), we settled on the raised bed.
Elevating is easier to work with as you get older (or have back issues as you mentioned earlier). 6’ curves! The bigger equipment that’s available to you now! You could still do a filled in box. Pay a couple high school defensive and offensive linemen to move it, shouldn’t cost more than a couple hundred for 2-3 guys in an afternoon. 
Paulmac said:
The World’s Least Exciting G Scale Layout has now been expanded!
6’ diameter curves with 10’ straightaways.
Honestly, it is exciting. I dreamed about this all winter while running trains in the basement.
Here it is in all its glory…
Why, Eric, you have your layout in the middle of your pool!
Eric Mueller said:
I am a big fan of elevating the railroad! It is easier AND it limits my spending. A rainstorm in 2018 made me glad my railroad is above level, too, for climatological reasons:
Your railroad may be in the most exciting phase, as you are still free change your mind to set the foundation for what will come! Enjoy the process of crafting your vision of a railroad!
Eric
The English people are resourceful. Here’s one way of getting your layout above ground, compliments of our LSC brother in South Hampton:
It is a good bet that that one little zip tie securing each of the units together offers far more security and stability than its tiny size might suggest.
John Passaro said:
The English people are resourceful. Here’s one way of getting your layout above ground, compliments of our LSC brother in South Hampton:
John, That is resourceful indeed! I had at one point thought about trying to get my hands on some used cable pan to lay the track on, but really, this shows that with an open mind there may be other options more close at hand!