G Scale Model Railroad Layouts
Finally came across a way you can combine your wife’s love of back yard sun bathing and your love of model locomotives, huh? As the young kids say these days, g scale is definitely the bomb! You get to have fun in the sun while working on your own personal toy train theme park. Now it’s just a problem of how to do it? Your outdoor space will have a major say in the kind of design you go with. That said, there are some simple considerations when you are designing your g scale train configuration.
Use the topography of your yard to help you make the choices you make in terms of circuit design choice: One of the best choices you can make is to use the climate of your yard as one of the main factors in deciding the type of train and the design of your g scale model railroad layouts. If you live in the Arizona desert and your backyard is a rock garden, consider choosing a type of train and track that was typical of the American Southwest like the Sante Fe type locomotives that are widely available. But if you live in the hills of Berkeley or San Francisco and your back yard is somewhat inclined you will want to take this into consideration as well. The topographical particulars of your back yard are the main limit to your g scale model railroad layouts. Try to harness climate and terrain to aid your locomotive configurations.
Use the bushy growths of your yard and garden to increase the visual interest of your design: One of the best ways of increasing interest to our g scale model railroad layouts is to use the bushes and trees of our back yards to enhance the visual excitement of our track design.
Play peek-a-boo with the viewer by snaking the train through the natural features of the yard. The lazy way is to run your track through a bush, but if you’re really ambitious you might design a rocky pass or rough gorge right in your back yard. There is something really captivating 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. Got statues, let them take a role in your layout. A train track curled around a trickling stone fountain or past a spitting stone boy can make for a particularly eye catching feature.
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 train stops and round houses to make our model train worlds as realistic and intricate as possible. The planning, building and detailing and weathering of these structures and features can be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding 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 gauge toy locomotives are so popular right now, you shouldn’t be surprised if you friends are willing to shell out cold hard cash to come over and see your setup. But the real reason to take part in this wonderful pastime 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.
