PIKO America General Electric 25-ton switcher

piko_callouts

Piko 38502 Blue Goose William Zuback Manufacturer PIKO America LLC 4610 Alvarado Canyon Road, Suite 5 San Diego CA 92120 www.piko-america.com Price: $199.99 (Track cleaning version is $229.99) Paint schemes: Denver & Rio Grande Western and painted blue and yellow but unlettered. Track cleaning version is painted yellow and black with Clean Machine/Maintenance of Way […]

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Create inspired spaces

Garden Railways

In the Spring 2019 issue, Nancy Norris shares photographs of nine public spaces designed to inspire you. We’ve assembled all of the related links here for you to access quickly. Gabis Arboretum at Purdue University: tinyurl.com/gabisarboretum A “The sedum spectrum,” June 2013. B “Using red in the railway,” June 2014. C “Massing plants to frame […]

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Winter running on the CPR Joy Division

trains running in winter on a garden railroad

Name: Kent Johnson Railroad Name: Canadian Pacific Joy Division Location: Milwaukee, Wisc. Scale: 1:29 Theme: Modern-era branch line in Western Canada Description: The sun was making a weak effort to shine over the CPR Joy Division garden railroad on a cold January afternoon. Even so, I still wanted to capture the inaugural run of my […]

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Model the desert

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The skeleton of a desert in progress at Scott Kennedy’s East Bay Union Railroad at one end of his dogbone trackplan. A flagstone plateau supports the track and retains soil while a dry creek provides drainage and a footpath. Nancy Norris In the fleshed-out desert, a dwarf, blue-green olive tree (Olea ‘Little Ollie’) flanks the […]

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High tech modeling for garden railroaders

PETG_Strings

3D printing has become less expensive and can produce higher-quality prints than ever before. Most people limit themselves to PLA or ABS filaments. These two plastics are quite common and can even be found in your favorite big-box store in the most common sizes: 1.75mm and 3.0mm. There are others out there with advantages and […]

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Building an outdoor garden caboose

she_sheds

Photo 1 Sun has set but modeling continues in paradise—a building for building railway gear, rain or shine. In this caboose, the author keeps kits under construction, trains ready to run, parts drawers, a tiny fridge, and an electric kettle. A train runs through it. Garden tools hang just inside the end door. Rungs lead […]

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Build plywood tipper cars

tipper_cars

Eric Schade Starting in the December 2018 issue, author Eric Schade explains how he built tipper cars from scratch. Download his drawings here and follow along to build your own cars. […]

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