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4 minute informational video
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 Jon DeKeles Editor in Chief | He may seem like big bad Jon, but that’s because he’s a man of steel – born with trains and technology in his blood. No surprise he engineered the gene splice that gave birth to LSOL.com. | |
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 JD Miller Reviews Editor | The original tinkerer, JD took apart his first watch in 4th grade and now he’s having the time of his life taking apart trains to show you what’s inside. | |
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 Rick Henderson Associate Editor | Rick has more model train experience than Jon has years. He's LSOL.com's jack-of-all-trades from almost day one. He's reviewed, sold retail, and built trains, too. He's not grumpy, just focused. | |
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 Noel Widdifield Managing Editor | Since he’s a card-carrying member of the NMRA and TCA, we all yield right-of-way to Noel’s expertise when it comes to model railroading. | |
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 David Bodnar Electronics Editor | When you’re ready to “Bodnarize” your railroad, David’s the guy who puts the pedal to the metal. Our resident power ranger is all about automation and remote control. | |
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 Jo Anne Sales Manager | What’s a nice lady like her, doing with a crew like this? Joanne is the grand dame of discounts. Better yet, she’ll keep your large-scale spending on the QT from spousal units if you ask politely. | |
Bob Gentile: Bridges, love building Howe Truss Compression Bridge. One thing to keep in mind, it would be nice to have a bridge that goes with your Garden Railroad era. If you are modeling modern and running Diesels, I guess metal bridges would look nice. My choice of wood material would be redwood, cedar or cypress in that order. I have a romance with Howe Truss bridges, just something about them that catches the eye. I have built several of them will over 6 ft and with a double track main line.
Larry Bangle: I took a metal wall stud. laid it open side up,and slid a 1x4x4 block at track joints and each end. before I slid the track and 1x4's in, I attached (screwed) a 2"x6"x8" cedar block on each end for embutments. The holes in the stud let rain water drain out. the 1x4s make the track stay in the trough perfectly,as the curve on the stud grips the ties on both sides.It was supposed to be temporary,but it worked so well,I sprayed it brown and it has been in place for two years with no problems. It is not a high bridge (about 6" off the ground) but it lets all surface water run off a 10' area that otherwise would be wet area holding rain water. The cost is only the price of the metal stud and paint.
Mike Evans: Sometimes it's best to just keep it simple. I have used a simple redwood plank for the track base and then fastened 3" wide thin redwood strips to the edges; looks like a regular thru girder bridge (from over 10 ft).
Roy Powers: I made 5 bridges out of western red cedar. The planking for the ties is Popsicle sticks with the rounded ends cut off. The metal truss rods are 2-56 threaded rods.
Updated every 5 minutes
Important Topics
Bridges
Buildings
Couplers
Getting Started
Grades
How Garden Trains Work
Live Steam
Wheels
Rick Henderson: Good track work is about the most important part of building a Garden Railroad if you want reliable operation of your Garden Trains. Before a person starts out to even design their layout on paper, they should take time to learn about track grades, easements into grades and curves, reverse curves, turnout sizes, how best to place them and clearances. If you take your time to understand what is necessary for reliable operation and stick with the minimum standards you establish, the track you lay will last and not need to be replaced when some new item comes along. There is no need to replace what you have if it works until you ware it out.
Jon D. Miller: Poor operation of garden trains on a layout, in the end, always leads back to bad trackwork, no matter the type rail used. Just like a building, if the foundation is not done correctly, that which follows will always develop or give problems.
Mike Evans: We (our club) rebuilt using Aristo brass with large radius curves and mostly 5' sections. What an improvement! First each joint has those neat stainless steel screws and an expansion slot. Using conductive grease, we had no continuity problems in over 600' of track with only two track feeders. In our area, temperatures range from 115 in the summer to 20 in the winter. The built-in expansion of each joint spread this over the entire system so that there wall almost no situation with track expanding off the roadbed or shrinking on curves. We avoided fastening the track except across bridges so it could float freely as much as possible.
Come see the first, the original and the best web blog dedicated to Garden Railroads. Remember: Some people talk about what they are going to do, and others actually do it. Come show people what you have done.
