San Val is Gone....So Ebay It Is!

Since I left the hobby for several years, my go to source for anything G Scale, succumbed to the recession of 2008 and closed it's doors. I was saddened to find this out especially since it was a great source, the prices were fair and it was close to home.

I picked up a copy of Garden Railways magazine only to find several suppliers were out of business as well. So I turned to Ebay....I know, many of you have had bad experiences there, but I have seemed to do Ok.

I picked up a Piko Mogul, Aristo FA-1, for well below what they were selling for on Ebay...lucky I guess. I picked up a few pieces of rolling stock, all were in great shape except for the caboose and I should have known something was up when they only posted pictures of it in the box.

I am still looking for a few other pieces, but for some reason, tank cars and flat cars seem to go for much more than anything else. I will keep looking as there are bargains to be found.

Going through my boxes the other day, I came across a plain brown box that I had forgotten about. It is a box car that San Val trains had custom made in 1998. As I remember, I paid about $59 for it then and it was a limited run, 50 or 100....I cant remember. I put it out on the rails today and took a few laps around the layout...my wife would never let me run it when the kids were little.

Getting an Idea From Your Head to Fruition...Harder Than It Sounds

After laying the track and doing some testing, I decided I wanted to add a water feature in the far corner of the layout. As a kid, I remembered a ride at Disneyland, Mine Train Though Nature's Wonderland. I thought somewhere in that ride, the train passed behind a waterfall between two rock tunnels( I was wrong, by the way). I decided to try and sketch out my idea...that turned out to be a disaster, since I am lacking any drawing skills. Since my sketch looked nothing like what the vision in my head was...I decided to just try and build it without a sketch or plan.

I purchased a small, round pond liner that I sunk into the ground.I watched MJMTrains video on making concrete mountains and set out to Lowe's for some supplies. I gathered up some chicken wire, cement, redwood posts and heavy duty paper towels and headed for home. I started trying to figure this all out without a plan and pounded a few posts into the ground. Got some chicken wire rolled out and stapled into place. On the first go round, I used weed cloth dipped in cement and laid it over the chicken wire. It wasn't cooperating with me and I was getting frustrated.

Once I removed the weed cloth and started using the heavy duty paper towels, things went a bit better. There was some trial and error on the part of the cement mix, but I got it dialed and started to work for me. Since you would be able to see "through the waterfall" and to the back of the tunnel, I needed to paint the concrete. I continued to add bracing and chicken wire and my idea was starting to come together the way I envisioned it.

I added a couple of faux stone, foam tunnel portals that I had seen on a video on You Tube. The ones pictured are from my 2nd attempt at making them. They don't look too bad but they are out of scale a bit. I continued to add cement to the mountain and form it into the shape I wanted. I placed a 3 gallon bucket in the base of the pond and pored 3 gallons of water into the spillway and let it flow into the bucket. It looked OK, but I saw how to tweak it to get more water and to flow over a wider area.

I made a template for making trestle bents and started to rip down some redwood. I started with 3, but then made a few more as it didn't look right. After the holidays, it was time to finish the mountain and waterfall, problem is...I am now rethinking the waterfall idea. I'm not sure I want my locomotives and rolling stock to have the potential to get wet. So back to the drawing board I went. I racked my brain, re-thought the design and I am still stuck. Right now, I am thinking about finishing the top half of the mountain without the waterfall. I am thinking of painting the pond liner to match the surrounding colors, adding some rock and make it a dry cavern crossing. I think I'm gonna think on it for a bit more. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.

Night Time Motion Shot

Overview and Track Testing

After I got all the track laid and ballasted, I started testing it using track power and my Aristo Lil Critter. After a once over with a scotch brite pad the Critter began to move....and then stop....then move again...then stop. You get the picture. I played with a few of the rail joints to find they were loose and not making good contact. I tightened up the rail joiners and finally got a complete lap around.

Track Testing!

Since my wife said that it had to be simple, I knew that battery power/RC was in my future. I just didn't know what system would be best for me. I did a fair amount of research and finally decided on the Rail Boss 4 system from G-Scale Graphics. To keep cost down, I opted for a trailing car with the receiver and battery so I could use it with all of my locos. I will detail my experience with the Rail Boss 4 system in a separate post.

After looking at the this large oval of track, I decided it needed some scenery. I came up with an idea, but getting it from my head to fruition is a whole other story...and post.

Welcome to My Garden Railroad...Beginnings

I began in Large Scale (Garden Railroading) back in 1994 with a purchase of a Bachmann Big Hauler starter set. I began to accumulate track and rolling stock (mostly Christmas Cars). I had started working on an outdoor layout in 1996, I even had a friend, who was a terrific modeller and artist draw up a track plan and a sketch of the layout.

I built the retaining wall for this layout and begin to plan the sub roadbed. In 2000, we decided to sell that house and move into bigger digs.

As we searched for our next house, I kept looking at the back yard to see if it would be suitable for a garden railroad. Some were, some were not. We chose a house that was really not conducive for a railroad. The first Christmas in the new house, I laid track in an elongated figure 8 in the back yard for the holidays. I spent hours sitting there watching the train go round and round, but the big problem is that it took up most of the grassy area where the kids could play and where we would set up tables when we entertained large groups.

At the same time, I got my hands on a 1969 Camaro convertible project car....needless to say...the trains fell by the wayside. For the next few years, I would set up a circle of track around the Christmas tree and spend hours on the floor watching the train go around the circle. After a few years, I stopped even setting up the track.

Fast forward 10 years...in the summer of 2015, I decided to remove a section of grass that never really grew and lay down pavers. Since the people who owned the house before us did a crappy job of cutting the concrete next to this area, a square paver would not butt up to it correctly. I decided to leave a 4 inch gap and fill that with small stones between the concrete and pavers. One day I decided to lay a 2 foot piece of track in the gravel. At the same time, my daughter was pinning train related items on Pintrest for my grandson. BAM!...I have an idea...create an outdoor layout around the patio for my grand kids...at least that is how I sold the idea to my wife.

Since I had a ton of track, I really wouldnt need to spend a whole lot of money to get this up and operational. My wife had a few conditions, we still needed to be able to put a table and chairs on this patio when we had parties and it had to be kid friendly.

I started by laying a loop of track and then fit the pavers to the inside area. I didnt just want an oval, so I added a few curves and since I had a few switches, I added a passing siding. Once I had the track plan laid out, I started putting the pavers in. Once the pavers were in, I started digging out the area where the track would go. Most places I went down about 4 inches, lined the trench with weed fabric, pea gravel and then the drainage rock that would be the ballast for the track.

So that is how I got started in garden railroading and the beginnings of my new layout.