A California-inspired garden railroad is what you can see in our Morning Glow Railroad. It was developed after watching numerous videos, reading many Garden Railways magazines, then determining the type of garden railroad I wanted to construct. Its theme is based on the type of natural setting that I enjoyed the most, namely a vacation […]
Common name: Brass buttons, creeping gold buttons Latin name: Cotula fallax, C. hispida, or C. lineariloba Plant type: Perennial Plant size: 2″ high x 10″ wide USDA Hardiness Zones: 5-10 Cultural needs: Somewhat xeric, sun or part shade Renamed Cotula fallax, this semi-evergreen groundcover is not to be confused with other popular fern-like Cotulas, […]
Budget work train for DIY’ers A budget work train made its way into my life since I needed a project to work on to de-stress from the rigors of graduate school — for a price a grad student can afford. Wrecking crane I wanted my budget work train to center around two main cars, a 250- […]
If you want a structure for your outdoor layout that will hold up to the elements, consider using clay. I’m an art teacher and when I began my outdoor railroad it was my first choice of materials for my buildings. You can buy clay from local sources or online. Most catalogs sell it in 50-pound […]
By Frederic Williams Rohm and Brian Michelson I grew up in central Pennsylvania where my family had been long-time residents. My garden railroad is based on the Pennsylvania Railroad circa 1900; my grandfather and uncles worked on the PRR. The premier Pennsy passenger train of this era was the Pennsylvania Limited, which began making the […]
Common name: Weeping Norway spruce Latin name: Picea abies ‘Pendula’ Plant type: dwarf conifer USDA Hardiness Zones: 2-8 Cultural needs: Moist, well drained, slightly acidic soil; sun to part shade Plant height: 18″ if prostrate; 10-12′ if staked Dark, evergreen needles on drooping soft branches make weeping Norway spruce an attractive specimen tree. Garden railroaders […]
How did you get started in the hobby? I received an HO scale model kit of a steam locomotive for Christmas when I was 14 years old. I had fun following the instructions, then building a railway to run it on. I also liked building outdoor villages with buildings and roads with toy cars and real […]
Garden Railways Editor Hal Miller shows step-by-step how to illuminate a PIKO cabin kit with an inexpensive solar-powered path light available from a home improvement store. […]
Garden Railways Editor Hal Miller shows step-by-step how to illuminate a PIKO cabin kit with an inexpensive solar-powered path light available from a home improvement store. […]
When I built my outdoor railway – on three sides of my house – I never intended to sell it. I thought I’d be teetering behind a walker at 90, running my live-steam engines over rails I had built to last a lifetime. I like building strong, “permanent” track, which gives me a feeling of […]
Common name: Dwarf crape myrtle Latin name: Lagerstroemia indica ‘Violet Filli’ (Filigree series) Plant size: 6-24″, depending on the miniature variety Plant type: Shrubs and small trees USDA Hardiness Zones: 4-11 (or grown as an annual) Cultural needs: Well-drained, slightly acidic to acidic soil, full sun The miniature crape myrtle in the photo, one of […]
Garden center owner Walt Uebele had an idea—build a garden railway to keep the husbands and kids entertained while the wives shopped. Little did he know that folks of all ages would love watching the trains run. Watch an interview conducted by Production Editor Rene Schweitzer about the railway and its beginnings, only on Trains.com! […]
