Finally discovered a way you can mix your wife’s love of weeding and your love of model locomotives, huh? As the young up and comers say these days, g gauge is definitely the bomb! Your toy locomotive hobby doesn’t have to shut you down in the basement with the Morlocks anymore. But how to begin? Your outdoor space will have a big say in the type of design you go with.  That said, there are some fundamental considerations when you are creating your g scale train setup.

Use the topography of your yard to frame the choices you make in terms of track layout choice:  One of the best choices you can make is to use the particulars of your yard as one of the main factors in deciding the type of train and the design of your g scale model railroad plans. If you live in a wet, frigid climate and have snow and precipitation as a fairly constant cover for your yard, consider having a covered track. If your yard is packed with fruit trees and vegetable patches you’ll have fun snapping up ways that you can whirl your track through it. Climate and terrain are just as important as spatial considerations for g gauge locomotives.  These topographical features, however, can also greatly help the realism and the complexity of our railroad designs.

Play peek-a-boo with your track setup:  One of the best ways of increasing interest to our g scale model railroad setups is to use the bushes and trees of our back yards to enhance the visual interest of our track design.

 Winding a track behind a column of bushes or shrubs can add visual excitement to our tracks by obscuring our eye line of the train and track. The lazy way is to run your track through a bush, but if you’re really ambitious you might design a mountain pass or rugged  gorge right in your back yard.  There is something really wonderful too about seeing the g scale locomotive make its way obscurely through the dark shadows behind a line of bushes.

Don’t fight with the big stuff:  If you have a completely empty yard then this is not a consideration, but since most of us have things other than trains and grass in your back yards, your best bet is to take these backyard landmarks and work with them.  Waterworks can really add a capltivating element to your garden railroad. Little garden dwarves around a pool featuring a bridge with your locomotive tracks can really make for a enchanting effect. Use it.

Don’t forget landscape accessories; they’re not just for the little trains anymore:  Finally, to really develop the full reality of our g scale model railroad designs we are well served by incorporating features like whistle stops and tunnels to make our model train worlds as realistic and intricate as possible.  The designing, constructing and detailing and weathering of these little landmarks and features can be one of the most fun and fulfilling aspects of a model railroad.  It is much more rewarding to spend in rainy Sunday afternoon detailing and coloring a model train whistle stop than watching reruns of I Love Lucy.

G scale model locomotives are so hot right now, you shouldn’t be surprised if you neighbors are willing to empty their wallets to come over and see your design.  But the actual reason to take part in this rewarding activity is that it is just good old fashioned fun!

Here is more information on G Scale Model Trains. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.