Why this hobby?

So you think you are interested in starting a new hobby. How about one that combines an age-old hobby, gardening, with a more recent (1850s to present) pastime, Model Railroading.

We call it GARDEN RAILROADING and it can be done outside as well as inside. Unlike some outdoor hobbies, Garden Railroading is a year-around endeavor. Equipment manufactured for this hobby can be operated in all kinds of weather, offering you a range of excitement and diversity not offered in other hobbies. You will get to work with your mind as well as your hands while developing something uniquely yours.

As your project grows you will develop expertise in gardening, carpentry, electronics, painting, model building, engineering, history research, and much more. But you don’t have to do all of these or any of them to enjoy this diverse hobby. You can concentrate on the things that most interest you now, secure in the knowledge that as the months or years go by you can branch out into each and every aspect of your hobby as the mood strikes you.

People who have started a Garden Railroad just for their own gratification have often discovered that it ends up being an activity that the whole family partakes in. Kids of all ages enjoy model trains and what better way to spend some quality time with the kids and grandchildren. The time spent with them will teach both patience and the joy of building something with their hands.

Most appealing to everyone is that the equipment used in Garden Railroading is large enough to be enjoyed by all ages equally. Its movements and sounds are realistic and the larger size makes it easy to work with. Even those who aren’t interested in the trains themselves will marvel at a garden that has movement in it.

With something like 500,000 model train hobbyists in the U.S. and Canada, modeling trains is becoming more popular each year and Garden Railroading is a large segment of the hobby.

There are a lot of excellent resources available in print as will as on the web to help you get started in your Garden Railroading hobby. We have listed just a few here to get you started.

Scale

As it relates to model Rail Roading scale is a ratio of modeling size to prototypical size (the actual size of the original).

The common scales used in model railroading are:

These are generally accepted worldwide however some manufacturers stray from these standards.  For example, G scale is sometimes referred to as being 1:24.