NOV 20 Kittatinny Mountain Railroad

This is the second incarnation of the Kittatinny Mountain Railroad. My first garden layout was built in April 2008 and featured in the January 2015 Issue of Garden Rail. This first layout was one big experiment.

Built on a budget, it proved to be a great learning experience, gave many years of enjoyment and helped me gain the knowledge I needed to create a new garden railroad. When we sold our home, the first rendition of the KMRR was left for the enjoyment of the new owners to make their own and I took with me ideas of what I could do with my new layout.  

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The old layout was a learning experience for me. New to garden railroading, everything I did was trial and error. I wanted to try to save money by learning to build things and kitbashing.

At the time 1:22-1:24 scale seemed to be the best and most affordable option because there was so much available and at reasonable prices. In those seven years, I learned how to build and kitbash structures, rolling stock and locomotives. I also learned what appealed to me the most: running smaller locomotives, preferably live steam.

Putting our house on the market left me in conflict, should I rip up the seven years of work I had put into my landscape, or leave it behind, making it a selling point? When we sold the home, I did not perceive my railroad as a loss because the experience was the true gain; everything I learned from the trials and errors of the first project was applied to building the new version.

When we moved into our new home in October 2015, autumn was striking hard and winter was soon to set in. It didn't leave me much time to get a garden railroad up and running with the winter snows at our heels.

After a few days of getting the new house in order, I was given the green light to start building the layout and I set a goal for meeting the first step: I got as far as levelling the area and laying the track down before the snows hit in late November. I did not have the opportunity to ballast before the winter, and operations were suspended until April 2016. This gave me a long winter to fully plan my vision of the new 'Kittatinny Mountain Railroad'.

Like the old layout, I wanted to keep the backwoods logging theme, but I wanted to focus more on running live steam, leaving battery power an option but used to a lesser extent than steam.

That meant I needed to create a layout that was going to be level, raised in an area so I can prepare the trains easier, keep the layout close to an area for storing my trains, and have multiple areas for viewing the trains and the layout.

The new house and property ended up being a perfect choice for a garden railroad. The area I planned to use was an old flower bed next to the garage, giving me an area close by to store my trains. There was also a deck on the back end of the layout that was raised a few feet off the ground and provided a perfect spot for viewing the layout and trains. A slight slope in the area allowed me to raise one end up about a foot off the ground and turned into a perfect place to prep my trains without having to kneel on the ground.

Trackwork

I wanted a simple track plan using the least amount of points. My first plan was a simple curvy style loop with a long passing siding cutting through one end of the layout and few sidings for a yard area.

Then someone gave me an idea to create a double reversing loop. This proved to be ideal for what I wanted to run. It allows me to reverse my trains easily, I can run as one loop or two loops and point to point.

The track was first laid out using Aristo Craft track with the plastic sleepers. The ties were temporary because my plan was to hand lay my track using cedar sleepers. By using the plastic ones first, it allowed me to spike the wooden replacements one section at a time but still be able to run trains in between. I was never happy with plastic, I always felt the material looked out of place.

All the work hand spiking the track paid off and was well worth the extra work. Eventually, I would like to build my points so they match the wood sleepers on the track but that's something I am learning to do, and need to find the time to perfect the art.

Live Steam and Rolling stock

I always admired the charm of 16mm (1:19 scale on 32mm track) and 7/8th scale (1:13 scale on 45mm track) but since I was too invested with 45mm track and I was not willing to convert everything to 7/8th scale, I had to settle on 1:20 scale.

I was able to achieve the charm I was after by using locomotives from Regner Easy Line, Accucraft geared engines, Bellflower Cricket, and some smaller Roundhouse engines like the Forney and the Sammie. I always enjoyed the look of the smaller style locomotives and 4 wheeled rolling stock vs. the larger locomotives pulling 20-30 cars. In my opinion, geared steam trains are the best option for a garden layout because they can handle grades without having to add radio control. I wanted to keep the operations simple and manual.

I was never a fan of plastic for train cars or engines. Running a real wood car over the rails has a more realistic look and the sound of the wheels rolling on the rails allows the onlooker to anticipate the crescendos and decrescendos of arrivals and departures without being overbearing.

With this admiration for wood cars, I made it my goal to slowly replace all my plastic cars with wood cars. Some were scratch built and a few were bought as kits, and eventually, I am reaching my goal of full replacement.

Structures

Like my rolling stock, I try to build most of my structures. I feel building your own is what separates a layout from most others both in style and authenticity.

My first attempt at structure building was carried out using the stick-framed method, but over time, I learned better and more efficient ways to build structures.

Now, rather than using stick and frame, I find that using signboard is a much better way to build structures. I use it for the body including it is easier to cut out doors and windows and its ability to endure outdoor weather, especially at the base.

You can use any material to face the outside. I mainly glue wood siding using a pin nailer to hold the wood in place while the glue dries. With the goal of keeping a backwoods theme to the garden, I try not to overcrowd the layout with buildings. I do try, however, to give each building its own charm and uniqueness.

Bringing the layout to life

In addition to finding enjoyment in the artistry of gardening, making trains, evolving the character of the garden, I love to bring the layout to life by creating scenes and photographing them.

In videos and photography, characters are set up in role-play. I like using Little Plastic People for my figures. They have a cartoonish look to them and fit into my backwoods theme perfectly, giving that charm to the layout.

I experiment in taking photographs and videos during all types of weather and light, but my favourite works usually emerge after a light snowfall. There’s something about a live steam train dancing across a white-dusted landscape and emerging from a snow-covered bridge that connects the man-made world to the wonders of nature.

The 'Kittatinny Mountain Railroad' is always changing. Whether it is influenced by the change of seasons, storm damage, buildings ageing or new ideas popping into my head, improvements and adjustments are always occurring. What does the future hold for my garden railroad hobby? Time will tell. Maybe the next phase will be a completely elevated layout or an indoor layout.

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