This year, it seemed like all the grandchildren were really excited to be watching the garden railroad which was nice. It definitely held their attention for quite a long time!
Lukey enjoys running the trains so he definitely enjoyed himself with this little garden railroad. Then again, that should come as no surprise since he has always been interested in trains. I ran one of the trains for a bit but Lukey spent quite a bit of time running both trains.
These trains run on battery packs rather than power through the rails. I made sure both trains were fully charged the night before the barbeque and we had no problem running the trains all day long without a hiccup. They still had power when I brought them back indoors at the end of the night. Lukey and I control the locomotive and trolley using apps on two of my tablets so it is all wireless which makes things very easy.
This year, the grandchildren got to see a few new structures around the garden railroad. I added a train station (we already had a passenger platform), a coal storage silo, a truss bridge, and a pond under the truss bridge. I also added a bunch of people around the railroad and I ballasted the track on the front side of the garden railroad where most of the action takes place.
The kids liked running around the garden next to the trains. And, better yet, they did a great job at just excitedly watching and not touching any of this delicate railroad. That is always a worry with young children but we had no damage this year! These trains are big but they are still quite delicate and fragile.
I added this little pond scene underneath the truss bridge. Making this pond was more of a test of my pond-modeling skills... practice for when I build an indoor model railroad. I had some problems with this little pond so it turned out to be worthwhile practice. There are definitely some things I do not like with this pond. I'm thinking that in the future, I plan to have something larger and more significant under this truss bridge. This little pond will do for now though...
This little pond under the truss bridge is actually made on a large serving tray so I can store it in the house. I glued dirt around the edges of the serving tray and then embedded the serving tray in the dirt underneath this truss bridge. Nobody realized it was a portable pond until I pulled up this serving tray at the end of the night so it definitely blended into the landscape very nicely.
For my garden railroad, I chose to elevate the track. Most people run the track directly on the ground and then keep all the scenery at that same level which I find quite boring. It is like nailing track to a flat board and then not adding any rolling terrain. This particular little garden where I have built this garden railroad is not level so I elevated the track about 12 inches on the front side and about 26 inches on the backside where the ground dips lower. The track is level but the terrain is at different elevations. I have scenery from ground level to head level. The highest point of interest in scenery is this biplane diving down over one of the shrubs...
In this photo, below, you can see how the scenery and points of interest are stretched vertically. Lukey is standing in front of the pond and truss bridge with the pond at his feet while the biplane is actually mounted higher than his head!
I have lights for this passenger platform as well as for the train station at the end of the platform. I think I'm going to add a roof to this platform too. I also have more benches and more people...
This little garden railroad was enjoyed by all the grandchildren... oh, and me!
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