Getting started in the garden
DCCWiki, a community DCC encyclopedia.
darlaol
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Garden railroads |
Getting started in Garden Railroading can be quite intimidating. This article is intended to get you on the right track to getting your first garden railroad operating smoothly. Hopefully, if you follow this advice, you won't go wrong and you will go on to a lifetime of enjoying garden railroading.
This is not meant to be a complete guide. It's meant to get you thinking about the differences between indoor railroading, and outdoor. Why would you want to do it? Etc.
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[edit] Beginner Sets
The first piece of advice to you is to make sure that the track, locomotive and freight cars you purchase are all of top quality, or the best quality you can afford. If you only remember one thing when you go into the Hobby Shop, remember to buy quality over quantity. As you get more into the hobby you will learn which manufacturers are better than others, and this takes time, patience, and most of all - experience.
Because beginner sets don't include DCC controllers, we don't recommend buying beginner sets. Sets are often not a good buy. Typically the rails are not meant for harsh outdoor environments, and are sometimes hollow which don't hold up well over the long term, and most of all, don't conduct electricity very well.
[edit] Before your first purchase
There are many things to consider before your first purchase.
- How much space do I have?
- What is the largest radius curve my space will handle?
- Smallest?
- What era do you want?
- Modem?
- Steam?
- Live-steam?
- What type of operations?
- Passenger?
- Mining?
- Lumber?
- Portable beer carrier?
- Location?
- Dessert?
- Mountians?
- Make believe?
- What do you want to do?
- Turn it on, and have trains run around?
- Switching operations?
- Computer control/human control (or combination?)
- Host large groups?
- All the above?
- Computer control/human control (or combination?)
This will help determine your radius, what engines to buy, what types of cars to buy, scenery, plants, track, etc etc.
[edit] Getting some cars
You will also need freight or passenger cars. Again, generally speaking, cars run from $50 to $l25. Make sure that their parts are rugged and they have sufficient weight to stay on the track. It's been recommended to buy gondolas and box cars for your first purchases. After you get a feel for things, and perhaps setup a few train stations, you might want to start up a passenger service
[edit] Track Selection
Main article: Track work#Track selection
To get the most out of your layout, it's best to decide early on the bay track for you. Please read the track work article for details.
[edit] Turning radius
Although the general turning radius article should be followed, here is some specific information for large scale trains.
This is a very frequently asked question: "What is the best radius for my garden?"
2 feet? 4 feet? 6 feet?
If you want to run every train engine around, you will need a minmum of 10 foot diameter (5 foot radius) cuves. Alot of people don't have enough space to accomadate this. Don't worry, there is plenty of rolling stock that can run on 2 feed radius curves. It's a matter of deciding what you want to run first.
It's been argued that trains will look better and perform better on the larger diameter curves. However, if you have a small space, don't worry, you can still run a great layout. No, you won't be able to run an Aristo SD-45 around your 4 foot diameter track, but you can run many smaller engines and have just as much fun, if not more.
There have been stories of people taking out their small diameter tracks to make room for biger diameter tracks to handle the larger locomotives. They build a long train and go think "WOW", that's really neat. However, you've now sidelined most of you other small eninges so that only one train can run. After they've realized this, they put some small diameter curves and steeper grades in so that they can run their other engines. In the end, they ended up sidelining their larger engines.
[edit] Metal types
| Material | Pros | Cons | Recommended scales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stainless Steel |
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| Brass |
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| Aluminum |
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[edit] Ballast Types
For outdoors, we need to worry about ballast washing away in the rain, wind, and even general cleaning of the track. Here's a list of the different types of ballast people use.
[edit] Crusher Fines
- Crusher fines are the fine rock, not quite sand, from rock crushing operations. It's usually too big to be used as sand, and too small for aggregate. It will usually need washing and/or sifting to remove the dust from the "fines". It can be usually purchased at rock crusher operations.
- Advantages
- Looks good and to scale
- Disadvantages
- Normally you will either reballast often (like the prototype) or add weatherproof glue or cement to keep it in place
[edit] Chicken grit
- Chicken grit is made up of....and is usually dust free. It can be usually purchased at...
- Advantages
- Looks good and to scale
- Disadvantages
- Normally you will either reballast often or add weatherproof glue or cement to keep it in place
[edit] Pea Gravel
- Pea Gravel is... About 99% falls through the ties. Althoug it's much larger than scale so it's not prototypical, it's very low maintenance. Many modelers find that rain, wind, etc, has had no effect on it.
- Advantages
- Low maintenance
- Stays in place
- Doesn't wash away as easily
- Low maintenance
- Disadvantages
- Non-prototypical in size - slightly larger
[edit] Trucks and Wheelsets
- For outdoor railways, it's highly recommended that you change the stock wheelsets to metal wheelsets. The benefits are:
- Keeps track cleaner - plastic rubs off, and soon you'll have a nice layer of insulating plastic on those hot summer days.
- Lowers center of gravity
- Help wheels track better around your layout
[edit] See also
- Garden railroads - Main garden railroad article
- Track work - General track work information
