Here are five tools for a garden railroad you can make or obtain cheaply. 1. Make a ballast broom If you do a lot of reballasting (or ballasting) on your railway, take an old 4-inch paint brush and attach the handle with screws to an extension pole about 3 feet long. This becomes a mini-broom […]
Section: Build a Garden Railroad
Build a Model or Structure
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Pros and cons of solar lighting in the garden railway
Solar lights are convenient and are available in a wide variety of styles. You just put them where you want them and you’re good to go. The sun charges the battery during the daylight hours, and the lights come on after dark. On a good charge, they may stay on all night, but they’re supposed […]
Common scales of large scale trains
Common scales of large scale trains: Most of us have had this experience as we got started in garden railroading: You go to the hobby shop or look online, looking for equipment for your new railroad. It’s all large scale and it all looks good. But the more you look, the less comprehensible your choices […]
Drawings of the Mogul steam locomotive
Drawings of the Mogul steam locomotive […]
Build plywood 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. […]
PDF: Build the Arnold S. tugboat
Download the plan to build a 1:24-scale tugboat. Part 1 Part 2 Note: This PDF is formatted to print on your home printer. Most pieces are formatted to fit on a 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper. For larger parts of the plan, you will see “break lines.” Line up the break lines to create […]
Build a sugar industry caboose
Thomas A. Yorke Thomas Yorke presents the third of three scratchbuilt projects in the August 2018 issue. Download these full-size drawings of his caboose and follow his instructions in the magazine. You will also need the basic flatcar drawings from the April 2018 issue for this project. Note: This drawing is broken into two pieces. […]
Build industrial-railway tank cars
Thomas A. Yorke Thomas Yorke starts the second of three scratchbuilt projects in the June 2018 issue. Download these full-size drawings of his tank cars and follow his instructions in the magazine. You will also need the basic flatcar drawings from the April 2018 issue for this project. […]
PDF: Build Gull Pond Station
Download the plan to build a 1:22.5-scale station. To learn more about converting this to another scale, see our free conversion chart.Click on the icon to download this PDF project.Part 1 Part 2 Note: This PDF is formatted to print on your home printer. Most pieces are formatted to fit on a 8.5″ x 11″ […]
Build an industrial-railway flatcar
Thomas A. Yorke Thomas Yorke starts the first of three scratchbuilt projects in the April 2018 issue. Download these full-size drawings of his flatcar and follow his instructions in the magazine. […]
Visit the OS&F Railroad
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