Garden Railways

Vern

Trainz Maverick
Apologies if this has been broached before, but was wondering if anyone has considered the logistics of doing an outside/garden model railway? NB: I mean a proper small scale (up to O gauge), running round the garden like the one that used to be in Daventry, Northants (which was OO), not miniature railway size i.e. 5" or 7.25" gauge. For starters we would need some massive oversized houses and fence or wall panels, the other challenge might be vegetation. There are some 1:1 scale quite tall trees kicking about on the DLS, up to 50m but these are still too small to represent even the average garden conifer, viewed from a OO perspective.

Perhaps that can be our next big venture?
 
Yes, Vern, I raised this some time ago and made a number of assets as a trial run including a shed to house the rolling stock, a cottage to set the scene and so on - but there was no interest so I ditched the idea. This was to a garden railway scale, I can't remember exactly what at the moment, bit I cetainly didn't get much on one baseboard. The assets - yes, there was also a greenhouse - may be lurking around on an external drive and I'll check. Oh, I also attempted a track base with log edging. And a lot of my other creations could fairly easily scale up.

Let's see what the reaction is!

Ray

PS I also made others for an experiment in N gauge - again no interest and it looked as though 00/H0 were firmly in control.
 
Wow! What other delights are you hiding on your hard drives Ray? Mark me down as being interested as well.
 
Thanks for reminding me. I've been busy a) adding to my latest layout and b) sorting out a grocery delivery - washing everything possible!

Ray
 
May be you guys have been here long enough to remember 2X. Someone from New Zealand posted with a route made with everything twice normal Trainz scale. It didn't catch on. I made a loco to run on it, it did feel that every thing was heavier. Is that what you are thinking of?

Narrowgauge
 
Well, that's two interested in G scale! It would need quite a few baseboards.

Ray

My own preference is OO or maybe O in the garden, take advantage of all that space. Although I do remember admiring the old Archangel steamers years ago - which I think were a kind of provisional 1 gauge - when the odd outdoor layout featuring them appeared in Railway Modeller.

I was trying to work out what size a real house would have to be in the sim to scale against a OO railway in the garden. Comes out at over 500m high (based on a 25ft high house x a factor of 76). A 3ft rose bush would need to be 70m tall! A 6ft fence would be 140m, etc. etc.

I think my maths is correct. So unless there is some way of scaling or resizing objects within Surveyor, you would need a set of base items for each scale - well HO/OO could use the same and I doubt anyone would bother with N or Z in the garden.
 
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I have to declare an interest in G scale, although due to the climate here I model indoors. G scale is generally scaled at 1:.22.5. This compares with HO at 1:87. Four times the scale does not seem such a big deal on the face of it. But apply that across every dimension! WHen you first pick one up the weight of a G-scale model loco is impressive.

My 11 metre by 3 metre modelling space is quite a challenge - basically the HO equivalent of an 8' x 4' baseboard. I moved from HO to G scale because I fell in love with the huge steam loco's, and the reliablity of G-scale running (sand, grime, unreliable electrical contact, and the other enemies of HO are not scaled up in the G-scale train room :)). In Trainz I model an Australian prototyped route (WeddinNSW). It is over 200 kms in length. In G-scale I very loosely model a German narrow-gauge line only a few kms in length, with much 'compression'.

I probably wouldn't bother constructing a Trainz G-scale model - both satisfy a different aspect of railway modelling for me.
 
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00 scale is 1:76 (4mm = 1 foot). So to make Trainz routes appear to be 1:76 scale models, the artefacts to create the simulation must be 76 times "real" size. I made my models - table, chair, cupboards, etc. - using real sizes in GMax, then made them 76 times bigger by scaling them up by 7600%.

0 scale in the UK is 1:43. Artefacts to simulate an 0 scale layout in Trainz must thus be 43 times larger, a factor of 4300%.

G scale being 1:22, the artefacts to create the illusion nust be 22 times larger than real, a factor of 2200%. The larger the scale, the smaller the artefacts to create the illusion.

So, a table 2' 6" high in real life would, for 00 scale, be 55' high, or 16.8 metres (as used by Trainz).

For N scale experiments (1:148 UK) I used a scaling factor of 14800%.

A Trainz baseboard, 720 x 720 metres, represents 9.47 x 9.47 metres, slightly under 31' x 31' in 00. On this basis, when creating a 00 virtual model railway I use an approximate scale of 2 metres Trainz = 1 inch imperial. Each 10m x 10m square thus represents 2.5 x 2.5 inches. This can be checked using the Trainz ruler spline - and is near enough for me without too many other calculations!

Baseboards for all other scales can be calculated and measured similarly. I personally use each 10m x 10m square to represent 5 inches in N scale, and a baseboard measures around 15 feet square. One baseboard for a garden would give a plot 32.7 metres square to cultivate.

I am aware that HO scale, as used elsewhere, is slightly different, but if OO/HO is good enough for Peco, it's good enough for me. In any case, artefacts come in diffent sizes.

Finally, whatever scale is imagined, you get no more length of railway along one baseboard. However, if like me you want to ensure that you can re-rail any derailed Trainz on the layout by keeping all tracks within arm's reach, about 2'6", you get twice the width to play with in N scale - and much less in 0. In the garden, it wouldn't matter - you can just walk round and pull up a few weeds at the same time.

Ray
 
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So here's a shot of my experiment in G scale in TS12:

Garden-railway.jpg
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This was a circle of track on a raised log base in front of a house and shows the garden wall and a couple of shrubs, using normal size Trainz trees. There was also a patio, a greenhouse and a timber shed. No further detailing was done as at the time there was no interest.

I should still have the limited range of 1:22 artefacts stored in the TS12 folder. But for the time being I want to continue my newest layout!

Ray
 
Oh I do like that Ray, - it looks an awful lot of fun. No pressure and you go ahead with your layout, - but when you get some time spare it would be nice to see these 'G' scale assets on the DLS.

Those coaches look strangely familiar, - I wonder where I've seen those before?
 
No worries Ray. I've got a couple of prototype and several other model routes I'm working on at present.
 
Update: this afternoon I retrieved my Garden Railway experiments from TS12 (stupidly deleting the garden shed in the process - no matter, I can build another - the materials are not too costly!). The build was already 3.5 so OK for T:ANE and I just needed to add a temporary image. They have just been sent to the DLS so maybe within a day or two ...

There are nine: two shrubs in planters, an empty planter, a cottage, semi-detached cottages, a greenhouse, a red brick wall, a red brick pillar for the wall, and a sixteen inch track ned - think from memory that the sixteen inches refers to width in 1:22 scale.

All that can be done with the track bed is to create a continuous circuit and users need to supply their own track and raise it to sit on the track bed.

Please remember that these were experiments to try a variety of assets. Many of the normal Trainz assets can be used, for example, trees lowered so that only the foliage shows, making small plants iin this scale. An unlined road can become a garden path - and so on. Other creators could use what they have already made, just increasing the mesh by 2200% - no need to alter any texture files, only the name and KUID.

Ray
 
That's really excellent, - thank you for doing this Ray. There's still some odd things with Seaton I'm still frowning at, but they should be sorted soon enough and then I'll be looking for something else to do. I've managed to master laying O gauge track and getting the points/switches to work so having a play with a garden railway might make for a nice change.
 
My latest 00 layout in an urban setting - no sign of any greenery! - is taking shape nicely but the fiddle yard looks much bigger than the scenic area!

Ray
 
My latest 00 layout in an urban setting - no sign of any greenery! - is taking shape nicely but the fiddle yard looks much bigger than the scenic area!

Ray

I know what you mean! I started then stupidly abandoned a version of that big Basingstoke layout that pops up whenever you search for model railway plans (along with all the Pinterest doodoo, but I digress). The fiddle yard for that was a work of art with multiple levels and interconnecting lines. Unfortunately I also managed to delete the plan which I had to stitch together from about 25 separate clippings, which I will need to do again if I decide to have another go...
 
My latest 00 layout in an urban setting - no sign of any greenery! - is taking shape nicely but the fiddle yard looks much bigger than the scenic area!

Ray

That's the thing with fiddle yards representing the rest of the railway they really do have to be big to hold all the engines and rolling stock needed to run a useful session.
 
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