# Modest little RR, testing photos



## White Deer RR (May 15, 2009)

Long time lurker with small oval track through flower bed. Aristo 0-4-0 Passenger, Panhandle and Santa Fe with basic TE. People seem to like the photos, I know I do, so I'm giving it a try. My way of trying to give back a tiny bit. I can't seem to get "preview" to work, but I've checked the html and am using the image tags. If this doesn't work correctly I apologize in advance.


Here it is last year. 










And here it is today, after being cleaned up after a long, cold, wet winter. ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿










What's this? Definitely not something to let the section boss see, at least not yet. But the railroad operators have ideas. Crazy ideas about another oval on that useless patch of ground that just grows weeds. 










This could be an issue for the non-scale lawnmower, recycling bin and wheelbarrow. Maybe check out Split Jaw road bed? Kinda pricey. 










This will all fit together perfectly on the first try. Even more likely if it's raining at the time. Still, imagine it. Why someday, there could be a hedgerow of dwarf trees to block the wind (and the view of the wheelbarrow and recycling cart.) 










And then it will line up just right coming home. Or not. The stuff has some play in it, everything is pretty much Flex Track, right?










Some other odd notes: That long, brown strip stuff in the photo of the hoped-for new oval is simulated bark dust edging made from recycled rubber. Great stuff for a temporary roadbed, I had mine down for two years. No weeds grew through it, that's for sure. 

Eventually I decided the look of gravel was so worth it, but I saved the rubber stuff just in case. Might come in handy if an expansion ever happens. I sure like the way the quarter minus gravel locks together. 

Obviously I'm working in very tight quarters as land grants are very difficult to obtain in this kingdom. But I'm fine with the little Aristo going along nice and slow, and who knows, someday maybe it will go somewhere other than the current oval. 

You can see I'm using Aristo stainless steel track, not a huge issue due to my limited trackage. Worth it if you can swing it, IMHO. Have had no trouble at all with it, using a mixture of Split Jaw rail clamps and Aristo joiners. 

As there is very little timber in this country, we are awiting a small shipment of wooden trestles and a pre-built house from Sears and Roebuck. (Actually, more Aristo stuff. What can I say, I like relatively cheap and easy.) The telegraph office informs us a new brakeman and his wife are coming as well, and a passing cowboy said a sheep herder is headed this way. 

Well, thanks for reading, I sure enjoy seeing everyone's pics. ﻿


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

You are off to a great start. Thanks for the Pictures. Keep us posted how you progress. 

Be sure to show us your buildings when they arrive.


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## Jerm (May 7, 2009)

Very nice work so far; looks promising. I like that you're keeping it simple. I'm big on simplicity (as some might attest to  ). I've got a disused garden out front that really needs to be redone and I'm considering putting down a plain oval of track, hidden among the plants with little or no scale scenery.

Nice work.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Small is beautiful!

Check out "PDK's" "Daisy Beach Railroad:"

http://home.cogeco.ca/~daisybeach/


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## Larry Green (Jan 2, 2008)

My first G1 layout was an out-and-back with two switches and sidings. Spent many enjoyable hours with that one. The more you have, the more there is to maintain. 
Very nice. 

Larry


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## GG (Jan 1, 2009)

Very nice ! 

I can just visualize the flat car delivering refreshments to the patio 

gg


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## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By lownote on 05/15/2009 6:46 AM
Small is beautiful!

Check out "PDK's" "Daisy Beach Railroad:"

http://home.cogeco.ca/~daisybeach/ 





I have to agree with this, small is nice. If you have not I would recomend checking out the Daisy Beach as well. One of the recent Garden RR magazines had a great garden RR that was not too big but great looking (forget the name off hand)
Also chech out my pictures the Kittatinny Mt RR. I started out the same small but concentrating on the detail. Keep us updated on your progress. Looking good so far.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Delightful! Thanks for posting.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

A great start into the great obsession. 

If you water it before you go to bed at night, it could grow to twice the size by morning.


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## White Deer RR (May 15, 2009)

And thanks to all for the kind comments, will try to share more pics as warranted. There is a possibility of a scale gully washer happening, if the hose is long enough.


Will definitely check out the link provided of Daisy Beach. 

It's really great to have access to so much information as one considers putting a model railroad outside. Even if one does not utilize a certain idea, it's always nice to know what the options might be. So you folks who have a lot of experience might be helping more folks than you realize.


I'm coming at this kind of backwards..seems like lots of people were indoor modelers and went outside. I never had a train before the G Scale, and what do you know, last Christmas wound up with a Lionel Penny Flyer and a Disney monorail going around the Christmas tree. Out of scale to each other, but the kids didn't mind.


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## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice beginning and some nice photos to boot. I do see one problem though. When someone posts pix of his RR before its got a single structure on it and is already planning expansion, that's addiction.  Be warned, there's no known cure.  

Thanks for the photos. Really looking good.


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## White Deer RR (May 15, 2009)

I have never obsessed about any hobby, thank you very much. 


Now excuse me, I see that if I move the golf clubs in the garage and put them behind the bowling stuff, next to the badminton net and the charcoal, I will have more room for storing train items. Luckily no scuba tanks....


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## Matt Vogt (Jan 2, 2008)

Welcome to the non-lurking side of the MLS fence! That's a great little loop you've got there. Thank you for taking the time to share.

Matt


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

we all started similarly, mine before I hade to pull it up


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice. Thanks for sharing. I know that's how I got started one circle of track incorporated into my patio. Worked great for delivering refreshments







. Later RJD


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## GG (Jan 1, 2009)

Posted By aceinspp on 05/17/2009 12:56 PM
Very nice. Thanks for sharing. I know that's how I got started one circle of track incorporated into my patio. Worked great for delivering refreshments







. Later RJD






Yessss...... Isn't this is what its all about?


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## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By vsmith on 05/17/2009 10:20 AM
we all started similarly, mine before I hade to pull it up  





















So Vic when are you going to build a new outdoor RR? You need something to show off all those great kitbashed locos.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Sorry. No room & no permission, so thats not happening









But dont be sad, I'm already adding a little something to the portable


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## White Deer RR (May 15, 2009)

Those other little railroads look great, gives me some ideas. Sidings are definitely a possibility. Thanks again everyone.


It's not much, but I painted the Aristo passenger depot in colors that are more prototypical of "my railroad." Long story short, I was sent a Panhandle and Santa Fe passenger set instead of Pennsylvania RR, but it was with my permission. Honestly, at the time I knew nothing much about railroad history, although I've always loved history in general.


Then my kids and I researched Panhandle Santa Fe, which was a subsidiary of ATSF. Then we looked at where it went through the Panhandle, and my kids liked the name "White Deer," which is the name of a still existing town and was the name of a land development company in the Texas Panhandle. White Deer is about 45 miles, or so, northeast of Amarillo.


ATSF had many one story wooden frame depots that the Aristo passenger depot resembles. So that's the story and I'm sticking to it. So here is our little version. The real depots had diamond pattern black shingles, I think, but I'm nowhere near being able to produce something like that.


The hole in the ground with the craft sticks under the track is where we hope to place some trestles to span a dry creekbed.


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## Matt Vogt (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks great, WDRR. Keep us posted on your updates - you are off to a great start!

Matt


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## Tom Bowdler (Jan 3, 2008)

Another inspirational site to check for a small garden railway is that of Garden Railways columnist Jeff Young whose railway philosophy, construction and operation has pleased him and many others for a goodly number of years. Check out his web presence at http://ca.geocities.com/[email protected] 
I think you'll like what you see, 
Tom


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## White Deer RR (May 15, 2009)

Good link there, Mr. Bowdler. I took a quick look and I like Mr. Young's ideas. I think he has a good point about not making things too busy, definitely something to consider. The artistic considerations are interesting. I kind of like the idea of a somewhat minimalist approach, but with consideration of the purpose of the railroad and structures. Several very fine small railroads have been pointed out to me and it is very enjoyable to see the creativity.


So as long as I'm posting I'll throw in some photos. Here's one showing the Sears-Roebuck (ie, Aristocraft) farmhouse:












And here's one showing that I cut up two Aristocraft 8 3/4 plastic trestle bents to make a min-trestle that will go in the "dry creek bed." It will possibly go where the popsicle sticks are located, if you can see them, in the photo above. I cut the Aristo bents just above the two holes I presume are injection sites, and then again across the bottom. Only thing I would do differently is to use the pieces with holes as stringers rather than diagonal braces, but initially I intended to use them as sill plates. After gluing most of it together I found I needed the extra two longitudinal pieces, otherwise it was too wobbly.


﻿










The mini-trestle isn't much but I had fun doing it, and it gives me ideas on how to put these things together. I'm way, way, way far away from band saw territory. The only things I ever modelled as a kid were a couple of airplanes, and I tended to get the model cement all over everything. It was great if you liked B-17's with fingerprints.


If nothing else I can see just how much skill so many of you folks possess. 

I managed not to glue my fingers together and I opened a window while using model cement, so that's good!


Best to all.


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## White Deer RR (May 15, 2009)

So here's where we're at, the Sproutling Assistant Engineer has purchased some animals, some of which are quite um, heavy. Anyone take a buck like that you deserve a prize of some kind.


The Aristo farmhouse is clearly too big, as experienced folks will know. But it made the family happy. Good times for all.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Aristo's houses are all, I think, in 1:24. I haven't actually measured. It's not any more too big than the station. Also as a house it's REALLY small. The station is really small as well. That is, they are scaled too big for 1:29, but they are models of very small prototypes


When we got a set of 4 aristo heavyweight coaches, it really brought the scale issue home. A platform capable of handling 4 heavyweights would have to be around 8 feet long! And that's just four coaches--mainline passenger trains in the late steam era could commonly be 10-15 cars. To make a realistically scaled passenger depot you'd need a huge amount of real estate, like 40 feet.




It's one of the many reasons people end up modeling narrow gage. i like the look of the mainline stuff and I grew up around mainline, standard gage. We have mostly standard gage, mainline stuff. But I think narrow gage probably works better aesthetically.


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## ohioriverrailway (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi White Deer and welcome to the zoo. I heartily agaree with the above sentiments to keep it small and simple -- at least until you find out what your limitations are as to time and money -- not to mention space. I picked traction to model because it seems to require less space (and less expense.) Looks like you're off to a good start. Keep us posted.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Use the Delton Aristo Classics to solve some of the length issue, they are 1:24, but older smaller cars. As part of the tight radius compromise, shorter cars look more realistic running on our track. Reduces overhang and derailments as well. I like the shorter length on the freight cars with 4 wheel trucks a lot better than the 20' shorties with 2 axles. 

I have the same Sierra Passengers cars and behind the Hartland 4-4-0 look like right out of the Western Movies! The 0-4-0 is actually a switcher and would work the yards, they waddle too much to drive at speed, prototypically that is, for you use it's quite good. 

Not all depots had full length platforms, many times you would walk the gravel and use a conductor's footstool to get on the train. Another way was to board early and walk the length inside, usually with kids in tow. 

John


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