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!
