Garden Railway Forum

Nothing railroad related as I get that stuff whenever I want... My holiday gift to myself this year were a couple of books to add to my library: The first being the Collected Writings of Thomas Paine, which include "Common Sense" (have this work in a seperate book), "The Rights of Man...

Thanks everyone. I enjoy the ability to get outdoors and simply work like a machine. Saves wasting money on some fitness club.

The weather the past few days has been nice which allowed me to complete the cinder block retaining wall along the back side of the GLR. Although the fill is level with the tops of the blocks at the moment, once track laying begins it'll be scraped down as needed to allow for the 2% gradient. http:/...

I rather like the track layout! Thank you. It seems to be evolving from the original as I go. The plan had been to have the entire line elevated but that has been revised to only have the eastern loop elevated. The western loop will be at ground level as will the spur(s). In the unwritten backstory...

Howdy fellow modelers. Time for an update on the Gopher Light Railway. Although busy with my job, I've managed to continue to build up the r.o.w. and add small additions to improve it a little at a time since the last update. Cinder blocks recycled from other parts of my yard were used to construct ...

Decided to make a change to the east loop of the GLR today as I wasn't 100% happy with it these past few days. Flipped it over and tucked it more into the corner.

Details and pics on the GLR blog: http://glrwy.blogspot.com/

Now... off on my nightly run to Dallas.

Ah, but the ritual of filling, oiling, building up steam, running, etc, is pretty hard to beat with the live steam engines. Much more like a real railway experience. You might like it. It's cathartic. Doing what I do for a living, I need all the stress and relaxation relief I can get. I'm sure that...

Peter, input and advice is appreciated. My primary goal this fall/winter is to build up as much of the right of way from the eastern loop westernward as weather permits and let nature settle it in even more during the winter months with track laying starting around mid-April of 2012. As I've built u...

I dont think your unfired Ruby or Ida will like your tight curves much, have you considered geared locos like those available from Regner? Really with Live steam its best to use the largest curves available to you, I built my little layout using LGB R2 and it posses a serious challenge to my steame...

I dont think your unfired Ruby or Ida will like your tight curves much, have you considered geared locos like those available from Regner? Really with Live steam its best to use the largest curves available to you, I built my little layout using LGB R2 and it posses a serious challenge to my steame...

Nice. I like the way the tracks go under the steps. An idea I'll tuck away for the future.

@Gremlin... I'm an oddball over on this side of the pond in that I actually love the tight curves, the small engines and the short trains typically shown on this forum. Most large scalers over here want to run BIG engines with 100+ strings of freight cars with miles of track crisscrossing their yard...

Today was the first day of construction on the GLR. After fueling the GLR's primary earth moving and construction unit the Dwayne One with a couple of cups of premium black coffee... work began on the eastern loop of the line. The skies were overcast but temperatures were hovering in the low 60's en...

spooner:61345 wrote:Cut sleep(ties)can be hard on saw blades.
Keep up the good work and keep posting.

No doubt. I'd use a chainsaw for certain if I went this route.

The only downside of railroad ties is that having curved retaining walls becomes more difficult to achieve. I may go with brick or blocks. Jury is still deliberating the options as I'd like the layout to blend in with the yard as much as possible. If you were to lay the ties flat as they were origi...

I'm considering used railroad ties as the retaining walls as they're common and inexpensive in my area (the BNSF and UP run through here). That'll be eminently sensible and appropriate - just watch out for sap, tar and other miscellaneous "yeuk" that can and does leak out of sleepers - no...

I like it.

I'm sure I speak for many of us in saying we'll look forward to watching your progress. Are you intending a near ground level line, or are you going up on stilts? I want to keep the track elevation flat for the most part. The eastern loop will be at ground level while the western loop will be raise...

With the recent discussion about inactive members it was about time I chimed in again as it's been awhile since my last post. Since my last post the wife unit and I have since closed on the house and moved into the place about a month ago which is located on a .43 acre lot here on the west side of O...

My office back in January 2009.