Our garden scale "empire" began on the pool deck of our old house. That was back in 2013. Ann found a train set advertised in a local "trader" type publication for $50. It was an older Bachmann "Big Haulers" starter set, the "Royal Blue", a B&O passenger train. It included the "ten wheeler" engine, tender, two passenger cars, a bunch of indoor track, and the power pack. Everything looked to be in good shape, so we said why not?
There was enough to build just an oval on the patio. We slowly started acquiring track and rolling stock and went from there. We expanded that oval to surround the pool, and from there, into the yard. By Fall of 2014 we had the track laid all around the side yard, including a water feature, complete except for the plumbing and pump. Then things changed...
Starting Over...
We bought our home here in Mount Dora with the idea that we could take our time fixing her up. Long story short, Fate had other plans for us, and we were forced to move much earlier than expected. All of that work on the first incarnation of the railroad was for nothing. We had to pull all the track back up and store it until we had time to plan our new pike here in Mount Dora.
(January 2016)
We lived here for over a year before we finally started getting our garden railroad back together. It was a balancing act
between restoration of our historic district home and the railroad. We managed to make progress on the railroad, in between
all the repairs and upgrades to the house.
The second incarnation, the first one here in Mount Dora, was planned as a "folded dogbone" with the loops of the dogbone stacked atop one another. The legs that would connect the loops were to stretch into two parallel runs along the fence. They would cross at grade about halfway between the two levels and at the other end of the back yard, then form a return loop back to complete the circuit. At least, that was the plan...
(June 2016)
We tried everything we could think of to manage the dirt in the back yard. We wanted to put sod down, but Ann says
it's too shady for anything to grow there. The trees must come down! Well, some of them anyway. Before we can have
that done, we must get the railroad out of the way. Time to say goodbye to our railroad for awhile... Again.
The short version is the railroad was once again on hold while we transformed the yard into something more than a giant patch of dirt. A yard we'd enjoy. A yard we wouldn't mind spending time in. Both loops were laid out and the track installed. We were in the process of fitting the bridge and the return leg of the lower loop beneath. We just couldn't seem to get away from that dirt, and that was the problem.
The yard looked worse before it looked better, much worse. The good news is when it finally looked better, it looked much better. The delay helped us to arrive at a better arrangement. It gave us time to step back from it, and better assess the way things should work. It allowed us to better fit the layout to the yard, and leave room for the dogs to play.
As we "remade" the back yard, we added raised beds for plants, a few at a time. We added a paver patio by the garage, a walkway there from the back "porch", and finally sod. At long last the dirt is covered! We worked toward this goal for years, and we were busy making the yard our own. We even added a sunsetter awning to shade the patio! Eventually another raised bed along the edge of the patio. Little by little, we made it a place to enjoy.
More Delays...
(October 2016)
It's been months since having to take everything apart just to get back to this point, and we still can't run
trains! It's time to get at least a simple loop finished. But that's easier said than done. Ann wants to remodel the
bathroom over Thankgiving break, as much as I try to convince her we'd be lucky to have it finished if we worked on
it until Christmas.
We completed the bathroom demolition over Christmas break, but as I feared, it was nowhere near remodelled. In fact, we were lucky to have functional toilet by the New Year. Only the floor was roughed in, the walls nothing but studs. We jokingly called it our "Throne Room". With the bathroom completely demolished and waiting to be completely rebuilt, it took another six months before we could get back to working on the railroad.
(August 2017)
We're back to laying track, but coming to the realization that we're almost out of straight track! How is this possible?
We had more than enough at the other house, and that yard was bigger! There's enough curved track to finish if we can
locate and purchase enough straight track to get us there. If I thought track was scarce before, by now it's such a
rare commodity, it may as well be made of unobtainium. Change in plans...
I'm rather upset with myself for not catching this sooner. I tried to plan out the entire layout, but kind of gave up on that, thinking even sketching it out on paper won't help give me any ideas. It's not so terrible though. I'll just have to move the lower loop to inside of the curves rounding the corner between the fences. If it will fit...
It takes some doing, and even more time, but I manage to fit everything and still only need two cuts of very expensive, and by now, probably irreplaceable track. So now that everything is in place and fits, it time to wire this thing up and runs some trains!
Let's Run Some Trains!
Starting with our flea market find 4-6-0 steam engine and tender, it does pretty good at first, but begins to have fits and starts here and there. Coupling on a few carriages, it does well enough for a few trips around the layout, but the engine wheels start slipping where it climbs and rounds the back corner. Not the outcome we were looking for, but at least we're running trains!
The change in plans to put a return loop in front of the shed meant the track wasn't quite sitting on the ground. By the time it passed in front of the shed and the patio, it was still a good 5" off the ground. This makes it difficult to get the mower and garden cart in and out of the shed, so we decided to just lower everything by that much to make it ground level.
(September 2017)
Thankfully none of this lowering requires taking the track or stringers apart. It's definitely time consuming though.
It's a good thing everything needed gone back over again and the grade checked. Those curves where the engine slipped
were somehow nearly a 4% grade, not the 1% they should have been! It took a few weekends to finally get it all done.
Another change in plans was the ground cover. What was once sod had been slowly eroded, beaten back into dirt beneath the dogs paws. We were saddened that all of our work to prepare and lay down sod was all for nothing. We just can't seem to get away from that dirt, and that's still the problem. Artificial turf is the solution. I joke that all we need now is a windmill, some bumpers, and a cup for our putting green.
But this stuff is no joke. It's thick, like carpet, and holds up to the constant pounding and wear and tear from our 100# german shepherd "puppy".
More to come...