Garden Train 2.0 is progressing well. We are still waiting on the river rock that will be the base layer for the whole layout. But we wanted to test out as much as possible now. Here is the entire temporary layout with most of the trestle bridge. Using rocks from a local farmer’s field (Thanks Reeses), we will have a natural looking 4% grade leading up to the trestle bridge.
Next week the whole layout has to be taken out to make way for the river rocks. When the track is reinstalled, ballast will be added under the track and everything will be straightened and leveled.
I started this layout to test out the double crossover pieces. I have two of them close together without power between them. Someone told me I would have to have power between. I was misinformed. Both double crossover pieces transmit power to the middle section.
Then I added some turnout storage areas. Finally I pulled out some 3D printed items and placed those around for fun.
I thought this layout would last a couple days but it is simply fun to run so I’ve had it for more than a month.
A new car I have in this layout is the snow plow I picked up at the Columbus N Scale show in May. You can see it at the 3:45 mark in the video.
One year ago today we installed a garden train. A month after that, we decided to move to a new house. This will be our second garden train. It has three times as much track as the first and an overpass.
At this point, we are waiting on the landscaper to deliver the river rock that will be the base of the layout. The track will sit on pebble stone on top of the river rock. For the overpass I am building a trestle bridge.
Today we wanted to get an exact fit before the landscaper starts making changes to the yard that can’t be undone. I also wanted to test the engine’s ability to make it up the hills. The grade of the final version will be half of what this test is. I had a limited number of bricks and lumber available for the test run.
I started by cutting a 2×8 into 64 little rectangles to lift the track out of the grass enough to run. I knew the clearance needed for the overpass and used the bricks to rough that in. The trestle should handle the curves nicely, but the boards I had available today make the whole thing look crazy. It was very stable, but not pretty at all.
During the February blizzard of 2022, we created a Kato Unitrack loop layout that was 135 feet in length. It’s all DC. The ends each had a separate power supply that was turned to a slower speed, to prevent derailments. Each side of the concrete double track had its own power supply running at full throttle. This created four separate power sections. It ran for hours of entertainment without a problem.
We only had this layout for one day. I recorded it, saved it to the server and then forgot about it. We were in the middle of a blizzard and I must have had other things to think about. I ran across it this week and put together the video. One camera was used to shoot everything. Once the train started, it ran flawlessly and the power supplies did not need adjusted. I moved the camera to difference parts of the layout and recorded the train as it went by.
With company coming for Easter weekend, I had to put away the N Scale layout. With the table cleared, it was a good time to get the new garden train out of the box. Actually, it was a bunch of boxes. I picked up the passenger cars came from a show last summer. The caboose came from the Toledo Train Show in March and the steam engine was the prize purchase at the Mount Hope Train Show a week later. This is the first time all of the cars have been together. Work on the garden train will begin soon.
This Kato Unitrack All DC layout is 4×8 feet. There are four tracks that are interconnected with WX310 double crossovers. The beginning of the video shows how one train can traverse all four tracks in one giant lap.
Since I made the ultimate figure eight layout, I have liked the idea of a double reverse loop. This addition to the layout makes it easy to reverse the direction of any train going in either direction without requiring the train to backup at any time. The only problem with a double reverse loop is the size. I managed to fit one in using 249mm radius curves. These are the smallest curves that most of my engines will handle. Using these small radius curves enables placement of two loops side by side inside the larger outside loop. One of the small loops has the double reverse loop and the other small loop has most of the storage for the layout.
This is my first layout using three WX310 double crossover pieces. One property of these switches is that they do not conduct power through the switch. In my last layout I had a double crossover with power injector track on both sides. That was not possible in this layout because two WX310 pieces were separated by only curves. All my power injector track is straight. To solve the problem, I used terminal Unijoiner connectors between the curved piece and the WX310.
This is also my first layout with five power supplies. Each track has its own power supply. The double reverse loop uses the fifth power supply. Insulated Unijoiner (Kato 24-816) connectors were used to isolate the loop area. One power injector track was inserted into each arm. The polarity was setup so that trains moving left to right would be forward on the power supply and in the opposite direction would be in reverse on the power supply. Another set of Terminal Unijoiners was used to power the elevated section of the layout.
This was a very fun layout. It took about 90 minutes to setup and get the power working correctly. The SCARM file is here.
Last Christmas I picked up a 3D printer. After watching way too many YouTube videos about 3D printers, I went with the Ender 3 v2. It is reliable yet inexpensive. The printing resolution is good enough for an N Scale layout. I haven’t regretted going this route at all.
The first items I printed were downloaded from Thingiverse. The engine house is one of those items. The version I downloaded from Thingiverse was HO scale. I scaled it down to N and printed it.
My initial goal was to create the structures I found in historic photos of Dola, Ohio. To meet this goal, I needed to create my own 3D files. I have used Blender to create motion graphics for many years. The GG1 animation I use in my video introductions was created in Blender. Below is a half rendered version of the GG1 showing the 3D wireframe on the right side of the photo.
Blender will export in all the common 3D printer file formats. All of the 3D printed items were going to be much less complicated than the GG1. Also, there would be no animation. A 3D print is made from a single frame of the Blender file. All I really needed to determine was the correct scale. I started with rail cars that I could measure using a caliper. I picked up an electronic caliper that would measure +/- 0.01 millimeters. My 3D printer has a resolution of 0.4 millimeters.
I did test prints like the one below. This is a hopper template, complete with a little handle. I could test out the fit using this template which printed in less than 15 minutes.
After I determined the exact size, I could make more complicated loads. Below is one Blender file with several types of loads for a hopper. I made these shapes using the terrain tool in Blender. The one on the left is mountains. The one on the right is river rock.
Eventually I was able to make loads that looked realistic by using the physics engine in Blender to smash objects and let gravity pile them onto the template rectangle. That is how I made the coal load.
The only downside to 3D printing is the print speed. The coal tower took a total of 17 hours to print. Of course, I didn’t sit and watch it print. Most of the printing happened while I was asleep. If you want something that looks great, it will take some time to print.
Mrs. Trusty’s great grandfather retired from the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1946. He lived in Dola, Ohio, and the train stopped in his backyard to pick him up for work every day. Chances are good that Grandpa Henry would have known some of the people in the picture below.
The largest feature of the 1922 Dola landscape was the coal tower. The signal tower is to the left of the coal tower. On the right is the Dola train station and the edge of the barber shop/pool room. The telegraph office was just behind the photographer in the picture below.
Based on pictures that I found in the Library of Congress, I have 3D printed the Pennsylvania Railroad stop in Dola as it was in 1922. 3D printed objects include the train station, barber shop & pool room, signal tower, telegraph office and water troughs with support buildings and water tanks. The water troughs were located between Dola and Dunkirk and were used into the 1950s. Railroad workers would keep the troughs full and in the winter build fires along the tracks to keep the water from freezing.
All the structures in these photos are gone. Hopefully the 3D printed versions created for this video will help preserve the history of Dola and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Many people have asked how to wire a reverse loop. This video shows the easy way, using common components you probably already have.
Two Power Supplies Kato 24-816 Insulated UniJoiner ($5 per pack) Kato 24-827 3-Way Extension Cord ($5)
All of my layouts have more than one track. Since everything I do is DC, I need a separate power supply for each track. Taking advantage of multiple power supplies, I wire the reverse loop to a power supply from a different track. This avoids shorting out the power supply and eliminates the need for a double pole double throw (DPDT) switch.
The illustration above shows a two loop track with a reverse loop in the center. A Kato 24-827 3-way extension cord is used to connect the outside track and the reverse loop to the same power supply. This setup permits using the reverse loop without stopping the train and changing the polarity of the inside track while the train is still in the loop. If the outside track is going counter clockwise, enter the reverse loop at the top. If the outside track is going clockwise, enter the reverse loop at the bottom. While the train is in the reverse loop, reverse the polarity of the inside track. The train will exit the reverse loop going in the opposite direct and the polarity of the inside track will be correct with no chance for a short.
