Garden Railroad Landscaping Ideas



Garden railroad landscaping can be fun for the entire family. With small scale trains and miniature plants, this is a perfect project for the landscape. Those with an interest in model trains will be especially delighted with this landscape feature.

Railroad gardening is catching on. Some of the public botanical gardens even have such displays.

Garden railroads can be enjoyed year-round in warm climates as well as cold winter climates (see the photo of the garden railroad landscaping for the Winter).

A railroad garden requires careful planning. The plant size should be in proportion to that of the railroad. Generally, miniature and very dwarf plants are used. Why not visit the various garden railroad websites to see examples of what others have done? This will also give you a good idea of what plants folks are using.

Your budget is really the only limit when it comes to buying the railroad equipment for this landscape feature. There are affordable and luxury models available. As with all mechanical things, a certain amount of maintenance is needed. So build this cost into your budget if you’ll have to pay someone else to do it.

Since these projects are intended for year-round enjoyment, evergreens are most often used. Among the evergreens are conifers and broad leafs, such as hollies and boxwood. During the winter, these will still offer a vision of beauty. Use enough deciduous plants to provide some season interest. Flowering bulbs, annuals, and perennials, all of suitable size, can be used so long as they don’t overwhelm the design. Rock garden websites may also have good plant suggestions. That is true because most plants used in rock gardens tend to be either miniature or dwarf.

As with any landscape design project, the design principles still apply. If you don’t incorporate these principles into your design it will be dull and uninteresting. Those principles include contrast, repetition, form, and texture. Choosing evergreens with colorful foliage will go a long way in fulfilling these principles. The repetition can be done by repeating a color, a texture, or a form.

For garden railroads, slow growing plants are best. Those with a faster rate can overwhelm the scale of the design.

With all plants, check to see what the mature size will be. Choose ones that are the proper range, and they’ll never need pruning. During the planning phase make a list of the plants you want. Nurseries may be sold out by the time you order or arrive at the store. Avoid disappointment. Order early. Shop early in the season. And have some alternatives in mind in case they’re sold out. That way you can move ahead on the project.

Planning the railroad garden is an exciting time. So is the planting and construction phase. The real enjoyment comes when the project is complete, something the whole family can enjoy together.

Your Garden Railroad Resurrection

Is your railroad overgrown? Covered with leaves and twigs? Do your trees look like bushes on steroids? Do your trestles need repair? Do your turnouts and track require mechanical and/or electrical repair? Are your buildings hidden behind dirt and grime? In need of repair and painting? Need better bases? Do you feel overwhelmed? Maybe it's time to reurrect your garden railroad and clean up the yard at the same time!

Preparation

Get your family and friends together and have a garden railroad resurrection party. You will need to define the tasks needed to get your railroad up and running, and select those to be done by others. Complete the tasks that you feel you must do yourself before the work session. To prepare for the workday, collect tools and materials:
- For Cleaning Buildings
- buckets, water, Spic & Span, old toothbrushes, paintbrushes, lawn chairs,
tables/benches/sawhorses to work on
- Track Work
- track, ties, dry wall screws (if used), track cleaner, level, ballast, bucket,
stiff brush, connectors
- Plants and landscaping
- trimming tools, shovels, rakes, brooms, containers for trimmings and debris,
kneeling pads(?), garden stools
- Repairs?
- lumber, tools, nails/screws, paint, glue, building base materials
(Hardibacker/cement board)
- Prepare or buy food and drink for the volunteers (any vegetarians?)
- Have water/lemonade/soft drinks and snacks on hand

On The Day

- Do not plan to do any work on railroad yourself -- you will be too busy.
- Lay out tools, equipment, and materials before people arrive
- Define tasks for people
- Direct people to tasks, remembering that some have special skills.
- cleaning up leaves, branches, debris
- trimming trees, ground cover, shrubs, plants
- cleaning and repairing turnouts
- cleaning, repairing, and reballasting track
- preparing building bases, laying additional track(?)
- cleaning, repairing, repainting(?) buildings
- repairing trestle, bridges, cribbing
- cleaning and repairing water features, relaying stone borders
- Answer questions (What should I do?, Is this trimmed enough?, Do you have __?, etc.)
- Find tools/materials when helpers need them
- Plan to take pictures before, during, and after the work session
- Have a train available to run to check repairs and to celebrate completion of the work
- Prepare to be amazed at what your friends can accomplish!

Garden Railroads Defined

Question: What are Garden Railroads?

Garden Railroads are a large scale model railroads which are run mainly outdoors on permanently installed track. They get their name from the fact that they are installed in the garden, and usually landscaped with living plants to add to the scenery. These trains are available in a number of scales and gauges which are designed to represent tracks in the real world. Garden railway trains are available with a variety of running systems, from DCC (Digital command control) to some remotely operated children's trains.

Answer:

Garden railroads are subset of traditional model railroads. The hobby includes a variety of scales and gauges, but they are all large enough to require outdoor operation (which allows proper, true-to-scale layouts).

The most common garden railroad scale is G scale, which is 1:22.5 scale and is usually operated on Gauge 1 track (1 3/4 inches or 4.5 cm), which is a form of narrow gauge. Standard gauge for these railroads would be gauge 3, which represents 4'8.25" inches in the real world. (Gauge 1 is a narrow gauge that represents 3'3.33" inches.) Here are some other configurations:

* 1:8 or 1 1/2 scale, commonly used for ride on trains, but also used to model 15" trains on gauge 1 track.
* 1:13.7 (7/8 scale, where 7/8 inch = 1 ft.)
* 1:19 (16mm) scale on gauge 0 track only, where 16mm = 1 inch,
* 1:20.3 or 15mm scale, where 15mm = 1 inch
* 1:22.5 'G' scale where .533 inches = 1 foot
* 1:24 or 1/2 scale, also a commonly available doll house scale, where 1/2 inch = 1 foot
* 1:29 used only for standard gauge on gauge 1 track, where .414 in.= 1 foot
* 1:32 also called 1 scale, where 3/8 inch or 10mm = 1 foot.


Gauge: Gauge is the space between the tracks, which for these trains is usually either 0, 1, or 3 gauge, which will represent 3' narrow, 2' narrow, or standard gauge, depending on the scale of the train used.

Track Types: These vary depending on personal preference. Some garden railways run on stainless steel track, while others use brass track from particular companies.

Fixed or Temporary: Most garden railways are run on permanent track which is left outdoors all year round. The rolling stock (trains) and sometimes buildings are stored indoors when not in use (depends on what the buildings are made of and the climate in which the system is operated)Some children's railways can run on the same track as permanent installations, others use temporary track.

Gifts for Enthusiasts: To buy a gift for a garden railroad enthusiast, or to run your own train as part of a club layout, you will need to know the gauge, scale, operating system, and type of railway they model. Many enthusiasts also model only cars that ran on a particular historical line during a particular period.

If you're considering jumping into the garden railroad hobby, we hope you'll join us!

Garden Railroad Track Building Begins the Journey

The first step in your new garden railroad is to plan the layout and design of your garden railroad track.

There are many, many ways to lay your garden railroad track outdoors, none of them right or wrong. We prefer using a method similar to that of full-size railroads.

Dig a trench 2"-3" deep along the line where you want your track to go. Fill the trench up to the level of the bottom of the ties with crusher fines, decomposed granite, or some other crushed rock. Do NOT use pea gravel or squeegee. This is river rock, and the stones are round. They will roll against each other and against the track, and are unable to securely hold the track in position. Crushed rock has "teeth" and, when tamped, will lock against itself and the track.

Tamp the ballast with a stick or a brick to seat it and level it. Place the track in position, level it up, and fill the trench with more ballast. The top of the ties should be even with the top of the trench. Tamp the ballast around the ties until it is firm. Do this with a stick, and take your time. It will take a while to properly ballast and tamp, but this is time well spent. After all, enjoying your garden and landscaping is the motive behind the "work".

Track will change with the seasons. It will contract in the winter and expand in the summer. The ballast method allows the track to move freely, eliminating the buckling rails and broken ties of track rigidly fixed to a wooden or concrete base. Also, if you live in the frost belt, frost heave will move the track around, perhaps necessitating a once-a-year realignment. Ballasted track makes this an easy operation.

What's the minimum radius track I should use?

Most trains will negotiate the smallest radius available, which is LGB's #1100 curved track. This is 2' in radius, making a 4'-diameter circle. However, this is far too tight for realistic operation. A general rule of thumb is to use the largest radius you have room for.

Aristo-Craft has track that is 10' radius, making a 20' circle. Though this is a matter of opinion, I feel that a radius of 7' or 8' is about the minimum on which a train will begin to look realistic going around it, and then only if the rolling stock is fairly small. Large stock needs larger-radius curves. If you use flex track, you can make the track go where you want it to, and not be constrained by the pre-made curvature of sectional track.