Hello fellow garden railroaders. I've been lurking around for a while and decided it was about time to introduce myself properly and join in the fun.
I became interested in garden railroading about 10 years ago when I was in New Mexico. I went to open houses for about a year and became fascinated with live steam. Ignoring all advice to pick a scale, location and era, I acquired a rather eclectic collection of locomotives from Roundhouse (Billy, Katie, SR&RL and Silver Lady) and some 78n2 locomotives from Accucraft. Everything runs on 45mm track and my original layout featured scenery, rather than structures because of the mixed scale and countries.
I moved to the high plains of West Texas last year and I'm in the process of building a new layout designed (raised and level) to accommodate live steam. Because the layout has sections of track that cannot be reached from the perimeter, I started looking for a battery powered "rescue" locomotive and discovered the Bachmann Lyn. I converted it to battery with the RailBoss/Mylocosound/battery combination in a trailing car.
Although originally intended as a rescue locomotive, I have become quite fond of the simplicity of running the battery powered Lyn with Accucraft SR vans and wagons. I bought a couple more Lyns as backup and will probably renumber one and claim the L&B bought a second Baldwin. As a result, I have decided the layout will have a British appearance this time around, which probably explains why I joined this forum. I will primarily run the Silver Lady with Accucraft W& L rolling stock and the Lyn(s). The SR&RL will make an occasional tour of the British countryside; much like the Flying Scotsman did in the US.
Anyway, looking forward to advice and guidance, especially on sourcing buildings.
Roger Kruse
Here’s a photo of the current layout under construction. Dimensions are 32' x 20' x 2' and minimum radius is 6.5'.
Loosely based on this track plan with a 45 degree crossing to keep it level.
I became interested in garden railroading about 10 years ago when I was in New Mexico. I went to open houses for about a year and became fascinated with live steam. Ignoring all advice to pick a scale, location and era, I acquired a rather eclectic collection of locomotives from Roundhouse (Billy, Katie, SR&RL and Silver Lady) and some 78n2 locomotives from Accucraft. Everything runs on 45mm track and my original layout featured scenery, rather than structures because of the mixed scale and countries.
I moved to the high plains of West Texas last year and I'm in the process of building a new layout designed (raised and level) to accommodate live steam. Because the layout has sections of track that cannot be reached from the perimeter, I started looking for a battery powered "rescue" locomotive and discovered the Bachmann Lyn. I converted it to battery with the RailBoss/Mylocosound/battery combination in a trailing car.
Although originally intended as a rescue locomotive, I have become quite fond of the simplicity of running the battery powered Lyn with Accucraft SR vans and wagons. I bought a couple more Lyns as backup and will probably renumber one and claim the L&B bought a second Baldwin. As a result, I have decided the layout will have a British appearance this time around, which probably explains why I joined this forum. I will primarily run the Silver Lady with Accucraft W& L rolling stock and the Lyn(s). The SR&RL will make an occasional tour of the British countryside; much like the Flying Scotsman did in the US.
Anyway, looking forward to advice and guidance, especially on sourcing buildings.
Roger Kruse
Here’s a photo of the current layout under construction. Dimensions are 32' x 20' x 2' and minimum radius is 6.5'.
Loosely based on this track plan with a 45 degree crossing to keep it level.
