#g-scale

Franklin Park Conservatory – The Revisit Part 2 – Paul Busse G-Scale Trains

The Paul Busse Railway Exhibit started July 1, 2020 and will be on display at the Grand Mallway behind the Palm House until January 10, 2021.

There are 9 trains in the scale of “G” across the 1122 feet of track.

There are 4 unique botanical themes on display. They include a Wild West Town, European Travel Destinations, Fairytale Land and and animal themed land called Who Lives Here.

Th…

What Train Do I Choose?

Since first starting on this garden railway adventure, I have been asking myself the question: What train should I be building? I know that way down the line I could end up with more than one. To start off with though, I wanted to have one line that I could be building and would represent something special. I have a friend who is really into the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. This is much like the train found at Knott’s Berry Farm and let’s face it… it’s awesome! Another thought I had was to attempt to recreate the Napa Valley Railroad as I love to visit there too. At this point, that seemed like quite the stretch as there really isn’t a lot on the market for that. As more ideas popped into my mind, I almost found myself getting frustrated. Of course when you feel like you’ve run out of ideas, that’s when inspiration strikes.

As I was dreaming about the future of the railway, I was thinking about some of my favorite train experiences. As I let my mind wander I started remembering train trips with my Grandparents, specifically with Grandpa. Any trip with Grandpa to see a train (or anything really) ended up being both an adventure and a learning experience. Two excursions in particular popped into my mind: The Mount Hood Railroad in Oregon and the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad from a trip up to Alaska. Alaska quickly became the favorite. Alaska was one of Grandpa’s favorite places and trips up there were always an adventure. We would hear about his fishing trip up there as a commercial fisherman in the 50’s as he put himself through school by fishing. On my first trip to Alaska, one of the highlights was getting to board the train in Skagway and make our way across the White Pass & Yukon Route. It is an incredibly beautiful trip and I highly suggest experiencing it.

Expanding the Line

There have been many ideas over how the railroad should be expanded. As the time came to expand, we decided that we really wanted the new portion of track to really go somewhere. The first permanent section of the railway was very professional and polished so we decided this next one would be the “out of town” section. It would be more rustic and would be like a trip into nature.  With this in mine, the yellow pad of paper came out and different design ideas that would fit in the yard were considered. After several attempts (and the realization that neither of us really like geometry), we came up with a working plan. As one birthday gift had already arrived, we were able to order track.

Mr. DAPs Railway – Expansion

As you can see, the track goes on a lovely route that curves through what will hopefully become a vibrant garden. In the future, we hope to add a rock creek (no water) and a bridge for the train to travel over. This is what the train looked like on my birthday right after we had finished.

A Surprise White Pass Birthday Present

As I mentioned before, I had decided that White Pass was where Mr. DAPs’ Railway would be heading. On my birthday, we went to a couple of train stores to window shop and dream about what the future could hold. The last stop made was at Milepost 38. I love this store. It’s clean. The folks who run it are friendly. It has great trains. They are all larger scale trains. It’s a great place to just go and dream. On that day, I figured I would find a White Pass car and perhaps come home with it. Little did I know what I would see in a display case. We were looking for a potential engine for the railway but that was more on the blue sky dream list than anything even close to reality. Then I saw a White Pass engine. It was beautiful. It was a pipe dream though and was way out of my price range. This is what I thought as I walked out of the store at least. The next day after we had dug and filled the new track bed with gravel, laid the track, planted a few plants, and run my original Santa Fe starter set train around the loop a few times, things changed. I present was pulled out and upon unwrapping it, I discovered it was that awesome White Pass diesel engine. The engine number is 110. The original was built in 1971 by a company called Montreal Locomotive Works. From what I can tell it is an RSD-35 series engine that was one of three built in 1971 by MLW.

Within minutes I had the new engine unboxed and powering around the tracks. It looks awesome.

What’s Next?

The track is fairly set for the most part for the Mr. DAPs’ Railway. In the future we might add one sideline that could lead to a roundhouse. For the most part, the next phase will be a focus on two part: Railway Cars and the Garden. LGB makes some pretty awesome looking cars that are both passenger and freight cars that would be incredible to add to the train. As far as the garden goes, the goal is to fill in anything that is dirt. Hopefully, this will create a great environment for the train to travel through. The great thing about a garden railroad is it is a living breathing hobby. It continues to grow (literally) as time goes by. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all develops and for now, I’m looking forward to the next spin around the track for the White Pass diesel. It really is a lot of fun.

Here is the “final” product as of a few days ago when we filmed the most updated video for Mr. DAPs’ Railway. Enjoy!

Make it a GREAT day!

Mr. DAPs

Mr. DAPs’ Railway – Spring Has Sprung!

Mr. DAPs’ Railway – Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has arrived and with it, flowers. The garden surrounding the railway continues to grow and hopefully soon will be flourishing. The main growth has come from the roses that are now starting to create some awesome natural tunnels for the train to steam through.  In the future, there will be some wire arches to help train the roses to create a more solid…

One of the struggles with having a backyard train can be nature. The very thing which makes the whole backyard train thing so beautiful and intriguing can also be the most frustrating.

Queue giant Jacaranda tree in my backyard. A beautiful tree, one of the tallest in the neighborhood, with the unique ability to drop thousands (millions?) of tiny leaves, sticks, and flowers into the backyard and on the railway. This isn’t the biggest thing to fall from the sky though. Once a year, the tree guys have to show up and trim said Jacaranda so that it doesn’t interfere with the wires and the neighborhood’s electricity.

Last year, the trimming of the Jacaranda tree was no big deal. It literally happened during move in week and there was nothing to worry about falling branches crushing. This year, a completely different story. This led to the decision that it was time for the Jacaranda tree to depart rather than have tree trimmers dropping branches on the garden and railroad each year. There were also some safety concerns with how lopsided the tree was as it continued to grow further and further over the house.

To play it safe, I decided to temporarily remove the track for Mr. DAPs’ Railway in an abundance of caution. Looking back on the whole process, I’m quite glad that I did this. Large logs and g-scale train tracks do not mix. Even if they are were to mix gently, I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be a good thing. The tracks were removed and stored safely in the garage and then it was time for the tree guys to arrive.

Over the course of two days I watched as these tree guys masterfully removed the giant Jacaranda tree. They climbed the tree and tied each branch/log to the next section of the tree so that it could be lowered rather than just dropping…and potentially causing damage. Due to the nature of the project, two teams ended up working on the tree. They were also joined by a safety team to ensure the process went on without hitch. The tree finally was cut all the way down and now only a stump remains (which will be removed soon as well).

Mr. DAPs Railway – Jacaranda Tree Removal

Once the tree was gone, it was time to get back to work on the train. I, once again, laid the track out on its bed. This time, it was readily apparent that the process was going to be a lot nicer. There were no leaves, flowers, or sticks falling on me as I placed each piece of track in place. Once it was all together, I re-connected the power and cleaned the track. I did a quick test to make sure everything was working. Thankfully, it was.

Mr. DAPs Railway – Jacaranda Tree Removal

Seeing that the tree was no longer an issue, a trip to Home Depot was in order. There, some flowers were purchased. These flowers would branch out about 12-14 inches and require little water. I also picked up some herbs to go in the garden as well. As you might notice, the South (left if facing the wall) end of the Garden Railway has more herbs with it transitioning to flowers on the North half. While they look a bit sparse at the moment, they should fill in around the garden and also on the mountain as time goes by.

The future of Mr. DAPs’ Railway will now involve polishing and expansion. I’d like to get another train for the garden. I’d also like to expand it East from the North end of the railway. The goal here would be to offer to switches, one on either side of the tunnel, to allow a train to cross over into a second windy loop running East and West in the North backyard. In a perfect world, this would also allow for two trains to run at once. We’ll see how ambitious I get with that though.

At this point, it is time to maintain the current setup and save for the future. I can also start measuring and planning for the future. This will actually be important as it will impact the future growth of the rest of the backyard. What do you think of the developments for my railroad? What kind of train do you think would be fun to add to my g-scale garden railroad? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Make it a GREAT day!

Mr. DAPs

Tunnels are great things. They are not only cool to see a train go through, they also give the impression of leaving one place and going to another. They also create interesting visual centerpieces to look at. With this in mind, I decided to start figuring out some tunnels for my Santa Fe train.

Mr. DAPs Garden Railway – First Attempt – Santa Fe Train

The first “tunnel” that I put together wasn’t actually a tunnel at all. Instead, it was a grate that I had around that I had propped up with four wine bottles and grown herbs on top of. For the train, I stuck with the four wine bottles as legs and then added a big pot of flowers on top of it that hung over beautifully. This created a colorful overhang for the train to travel through. It wasn’t a permanent thing but it was fun while I figured out how to make some more permanent tunnels.

Mr. DAPs Garden Railway – First Attempt – Cinder Block Tunnel Foundations

For the more permanent tunnels I decided that first and foremost they needed to be strong. I had quite a few rocks laying around the edge of a garden that looked horrible in that place but would look great to build a mountain with. However, I didn’t just want to pile rocks on top of my trains. So instead, I used cinder blocks as a foundation and put some pavers on top for the ceiling of the tunnels.

Mr. DAPs Garden Railway – First Attempt – Rocks Go Atop the Cinder Blocks

Once the basic structure of the tunnels had been built, it was time to start hauling rocks from the front yard to the back yard. The idea behind this was to cover as much of the cinder blocks as possible. Then, once all the rocks were in place I could plant some foliage into the center of the cinder blocks and these plants could grow out and cover both the cinder blocks and rocks and create a more natural and colorful look.

Finally, I added some pavers around one end of the train where I had some runoff issues as the garden wanted to bury the track when it would rain. I used some basic plastic stakes to help keep the pavers in place against the hill that wanted to move them.

The next phase would be to actually build the garden around this garden railway. However that wouldn’t be happening quite yet. Instead, one of the dogs decided that the garden railway would be a great place to start digging. After fighting back and fourth for several weeks (maybe even months), I decided that this was a losing battle and that things would have to start over. The second attempt was a LOT more successful than the first. However, I learned a lot from the first attempt that really did help me when I went back a second time. It also gave me a lot of ideas for the future of my train as it continues to grow in the future.

I was pleased with how the first attempt turned out. It was especially fun to watch right before dusk as my little Santa Fe train would snake its way around the yard and through the tunnels. The best part was watching the headlight head into and then out of the tunnels and light the way.

What do you think of my first attempt at a Garden Railway? Do you have a model train (bigger or smaller)? What would you like me to write about next with my railway: my ho-scale train or the second attempt with the g-scale railway? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Make it a GREAT day!

Mr. DAPs

The First Attempt at a Garden Railway – Part 1

A year or so ago I visited a friend’s house. It had been a few months between visits and imagine my amazement and wonder when I discovered that he had installed a train in his backyard. It was gorgeous. It wound its way around the entire yard, was embedded into the patio, and had a wireless remote control. The moment I saw it I know that HO Scale was not the only train for me. I had always…