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2 minute informational video
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 Jon DeKeles Editor in Chief | He may seem like big bad Jon, but that’s because he’s a man of steel – born with trains and technology in his blood. No surprise he engineered the gene splice that gave birth to LSOL.com. | |
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 JD Miller Reviews Editor | The original tinkerer, JD took apart his first watch in 4th grade and now he’s having the time of his life taking apart trains to show you what’s inside. | |
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 Rick Henderson Associate Editor | Rick has more model train experience than Jon has years. He's LSOL.com's jack-of-all-trades from almost day one. He's reviewed, sold retail, and built trains, too. He's not grumpy, just focused. | |
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 Noel Widdifield Managing Editor | Since he’s a card-carrying member of the NMRA and TCA, we all yield right-of-way to Noel’s expertise when it comes to model railroading. | |
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 David Bodnar Electronics Editor | When you’re ready to “Bodnarize” your railroad, David’s the guy who puts the pedal to the metal. Our resident power ranger is all about automation and remote control. | |
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 Jo Anne Sales Manager | What’s a nice lady like her, doing with a crew like this? Joanne is the grand dame of discounts. Better yet, she’ll keep your large-scale spending on the QT from spousal units if you ask politely. | |
Mike Evans: It's hard to single out only one manufacturer for best products, price, etc. Certainly LGB maintains the lead in overall quality. But I own several Bachmann locomotives and am pleased with both their detail and low cost. For track and control components, AristoCraft can't be beat. Garden trains may soon rival HO for variety and the numerous small firms getting into the more specialized areas. There are also many links out there to a lot of information, particularly LSOL with their weekly informative articles.
John Pletcher: I have garden trains from Bachmann, USA Trains and AristoCraft. As of yet I have not had to call customer service for anything as all has worked beautifully. It is really nice to see a ever expanding product offerings with great detail. As far as picking a best manufacturer of the year, that is tough since each garden trains manufacturer is tops in their prospective product nitches. One thing for sure, with all the wonderful offerings, it will give the large-scale railroad community more ammunition to attract more people into the hobby.
Jon D. Miller: Since I model in narrow gauge, Bachmann gets my vote for the best garden trains. The attention to detail on their Spectrum line is without equal. Dollar for dollar when comparing detail and fidelity to a prototype then Bachmann is great value for out of pocket cost.
Important Topics
Bridges
Buildings
Couplers
Getting Started
Grades
How Garden Trains Work
Live Steam
Wheels
Jon D, Miller: We have buildings constructed from plastic and wood with one of metal. Several of the more delicate structures are taken in after running sessions, however, for the most part the buildings stay out year-round. I prefer wood because it is more woody and properly treated holds up well in the weather. We have a number of garden train buildings that have been outside since 1993; they have held up well. Plastic needs to be painted to stop the effects of UV rays. Once painted the plastic buildings will give extended years of service.
Dwight Morgan: Most of my garden train buildings are plastic (Pola or Piko) but I do have some wood birdhouses and a fiberglass structure. I place my buildings on Corian type bases I buy from a counter top manufacturer. These are the sink and stove top cutouts he usually discards. When I build the kits I add a Lucite base for stability and so I set a couple pins in the Corian and match them to holes in the Lucite. This keeps the building from sliding around in the wind. The buildings usually come in for the winter just to save wear and tear.
Dara Legere: The buildings on the GreenCrow Railway are mostly made of Eastern Red Cedar. They are painted and will be treated with an outdoor varnish to add protection. I had a couple of bird feeders, which were converted to buildings, but they did not hold up very well. All garden trains buildings, bridges, and trestles are brought in for the winter.
Come see the first, the original and the best web blog dedicated to Garden Railroads. Remember: Some people talk about what they are going to do, and others actually do it. Come show people what you have done.
