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2 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. | |
Joe Fotschky: Buying garden trains is not a wise investment if you plan to retire on the profits you make. Buy what you like and play with them. If some one gives you the line about collectors item, won't be around long etc etc. run like the wind a way from that person and spend your money else where.
Scot Osterweil: My biggest mistake was with what I planted near the right of way. I like the garden trains running close to the plants, but in some cases I chose plants that either: a. flop across the rails as the season wears on (e.g. Irises); or b. constantly send up new shoots that intrude on the right of way (Coreopsis).
Joe Slimak: My biggest mistake was not having a track plan before installing the falls and pond. Had I moved both of them 6” more towards the center of the layout, I would have been able to run 2 tracks around the outer edge. Haste makes waste.
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.
