This past weekend (September 14) the meeting of the infamous Southern Idaho G-Scalers went on in Boise and I was unable to attend, so I had my own Garden Railroad Show at the in-law's house in West Boise. I have been planning to install my portable track that served as the lower level of our Thomas the Tank Engine display train (in Emmett in June) in my wife's garden and I finally got it done.
Since I already had the roadbed cut out and the track ready to lay, all I had to do was cut some stakes to support it and install it. A garden railroad in two hours! So here's the show; no one actually attended besides myself, our little girl and our two puzzled cats so here is the virtual show for all to see....
The title photo above shows the southwest corner of the layout with the potatoes to the right, some 'flowers' below and the roses in the background. Sorry I am not great at describing the flora like Garden Railways Magazine, maybe you can tell ME the exact genus and species of these!
As we proceed around the layout an overhead view shows a little of the detail of the simple track bed: 3/4" plywood 6" wide with 6"x6" plywoood cleats screwed between joints. The track is Micro Engineering code 250 weathered aluminum rail on ME tie strips. The rail sections are 6 feet long so that is the length of the straights. The curves are about 45" radius which made the six foot rails exactly 90 degrees and only the inside rail had to be cut a couple inches to join up. The roadbed in the curves ended up being 24" long and 30 degrees each. It is all screwed to the tops of 2x4 stakes about three feet apart and lined up by eye.
The backside of the layout along the shed and through the forest of tomatoes. The Bachmann EBT caboose looks too large for the Porter and it is. The flat is one of Bachmann's 20' 1/24th scale ones so looks more fitting.
The far curve by the roses is next. The white roses here look like an unplanned plume of steam and smoke. The stick on the right is not part of the track support but is solely to hold the rosebush off the track. A few poplars are sprouting in the garden (one near the bottom of the rose stake, another inside the curve) and will be transplanted out soon.
An overview of the layout and the train passing the poor tweeked garden obelisk (a fine product of LTD Commodities).
As a temporary layout it will be gone with the garden in a matter of weeks so the track is not attached to the roadbed (actually the power is just connected with aligator clips so for the photos the train was pushed!) The track is not the truest, but everything seems to work.
Well, that's the tour. I hope to bring the rest of my cars to Boise (I have a dozen assorted Sumpter Valley freight cars) and take some more photos soon.
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posted 21.09.2002