The model railway was started in 2003. I was limited in space and resources and needed something that would be small and inexpensive! Traction seemed to be just the ticket.  After all, a single trolley car could replace a long train that you'd find on a typical garden railroad, and if I wanted to get into the freight business, a three or four car train pulled by an electric locomotive would be prototypical. And I wanted to see how actual, working, trolley wire would function in an outside environment. 

The railroad has about 135 feet of track and a maximum grade of about 4% -- steep for steam railroad standards, but all in a day's work for the average trolley line. Routine maintenance, keeping ahead of the weeds and chipmunks, keeps me busy enough that I'm glad I didn't opt for something bigger. And I shouldn't have used aluminum rail on the bridge, and maybe that grade is just a bit too steep, but, it works. Would I do things differently a second time around? Some, but overall, I'm happy with what I have.

The links on this page cover a variety of areas of the railroad building process. Not everything that I tried worked. The less-than-successful endeavors are included along with the ones that worked as planned. After all, this is a hobby, and we can each benefit from the others' experiences -- good and bad.  I've also included links to a few of my favorite vendors.

And speaking of links, here are two rides as the crew members see the railroad:

Updates will probably be few and far between as I've run out of space and have more equipment than I can possibly ever use. But stop by from time to time as the movies are most likely to change, and, maybe, another project will be undertaken.

The interchange track:

6/09