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4 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. | |
Tom Smith: We see thousands of kids and young families get excited over the garden trains and many take home a club membership form never to be heard from again. We need to do some follow up with the ones excited enough to want to take an application with them. The cost and size of the gaden trains hobby can be prohibitive to many. It is my thinking that a personal call and invitation to a meeting or our own layout might give the opportunity to get a better look and feel of what we do. It would also give a better chance to really talk over what is involved in getting started with Garden Trains.
Rick Henderson: I think many a child that is exposed to garden trains at a young age has a great chance to return to his roots after he has experienced other pursuits in life. I started with my dad at the age of seven on weekends. For about 10 years I was deeply interested in the trains but as a military family we moved often and I was starting over often. This background interest in trains kept me returning to the hobby in various scales through the years when I may have been sidetracked by necessities like women and work. But I always came back to trains because of the exposure I had as a child. Now after fifty years in the hobby of model railroading, I can’t think of another hobby I would have enjoyed more. My hope now is that my daughters give me grandsons that I may encourage to take the right track, not to mention inherited my garden trains.
John Damkier: I agree that children should be exposed and encouraged to play with trains. I do not think that large-scale is required. In fact, HO or N is better as the kid can start out with a smaller layout that the parent can afford in cost and space. This stuff is just too big for most people and parents are not going to turn their yard over to their child. Start them small, they will migrate to G when they are older.
Updated every 5 minutes
Important Topics
Bridges
Buildings
Couplers
Getting Started
Grades
How Garden Trains Work
Live Steam
Wheels
Edward Stempien: I have a small garden trains set-up in my back yard. In it, I have incorporated three bridges, all scratch-built. The bridges create the system. I wish that my terrain (flat coastal South Carolina), were more conducive to the use of bridges. They lend realism to the garden railroad and give the opportunity to fantasize at being a Civil Engineer.
Ed Frey: Bridges on a Garden Railway are of almost universal appeal. Ever notice how many ads, magazine covers, and layout photos show the trains on a bridge? I can't imagine a railroad without bridges. Maybe it's because of the aspiring "civil engineer" in most of us, but more practically, it's usually because we need a place for water to go, we have a topographical gap to cross, or we need to get one track over another. Based on comments from our railroader and non-railroader visitors to our garden railroad, they are seen as focal points that add interest and plausibility to the right-of-way. Besides, I just enjoy building them
David Clapper: Bridges and railroads share a long history. The railroad's need for a nearly level roadbed made bridges necessary where the common wagon roads in the early days tended to follow the contours of the landscape. So, a garden railroad without a bridge is quite unusual.
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.
