.   Ab Service Projects Garden Railroading Tips 25 Great Tips to Garden Railroading Taken from the experiences of members of the Upland GRS 1) Apply with a paintbrush sour milk and yogurt to man-made rocks to encourage moss and lichen growth. 2) Here is a great tip about using doormats available at Home Depot. The doormats are made of rows of green plastic fibers 1/2” high with about 1/2” of space between the rows, on a dark rubber mat. When you place one next to your large scale barn, you have an instant famer’s field. 3) How many times have you spotted an animal, or figure at the store and wondered if it would look roughly in scale when you got it home” Here’s a handy tip. Just measure your thumb from the knuckle to the tip, and figure on about one scale foot for each half-inch of thumb.For example, if your thumb is three inches from knuckle to tip, that’s equivalent to almost six scale feet, perfect for a male figure. 4) Here is a great tip for those that use POLA or other plastic models on your outdoor railroad. Instead of using plastic glue use Silicone Sealer (clear sealant) on joints to retard warping and separation due to changes in weather and California’s extreme sun. It last ten times longer than any model glue. 5) In these days where every penny counts, I have found a way to get that locomotive or rolling stock I dream of. The first thing you need is a 7 ounce coffee can. Next you should empty your pant pockets every night, placing only single dollar bills in the can. You will be surprised how quickly the content adds up. When you have enough money, drive, run, or walk to your hobby shop and buy that dream. 6) The next time you order coffee to go checkout the little plastic containers of cream. They are just about the size of a G-scale garbage can! Just cut off the plastic doo- dads on the top and paint the containers silver. 7) Need temporary bridge supports? Use LEGO bricks with a width of approximately 8mm to make temporary bridge supports. They fit perfectly into the bottom of the ties on the LGB track, and can be snapped together and taken apart to make different support heights. 8) I learned a trick from the companies that make cans of spray paint. They put a little metal ball in the can to help break up the sediment at the bottom of the can. Now I put three or four BBs in my jars of hobby paint. A good shake gets the paint totally mixed up. 9) For non-skid surfaces on footplates, steps and running boards on your steam and diesel locomotives, metallic woven ribbon from fabric stores is perfect. It’s easy to cut and glue, and when painted flat black, looks scale-perfect! 10) Pull Ropes for the bells and whistles on your locomotive. The cheapest, best, most realistic and easiest way to produce pull ropes for locomotive bells and whistles is to use cloth-covered twin wire (18” and 28” gauge wire). This wire can be found in the craft floral section of most craft stores. 11) Over the years I have tried many different types of glue to hold buildings together, standing figures to flat surfaces and signs to billboards. None have lasted over a year or two. Then I found the perfect clue “silicone sealer.” It seals out water, adds strength, can be colorless, and holds wood, plastic, and other materials together. 12) When painting objects outside I have found that model paints don’t hold up to our hot California summers. I have found that using exterior latex house paints works great. They will last for years! Get one quart of the prime and you can mix in colors to get almost any color you want. 13) Building a tunnel? Most people worry about height when they build a tunnel, but with is just as important. Many layouts have a curved section as the last piece of track at the tunnel entrance. So the train is still getting straight in the tunnel. Off-the-shelf portals are designed for straight entry/exit, and therefore, they are usually too small. If your track approach to the tunnel is a curve, the opening needs to be 10 inches clear horizontally. If the track approach is straight, a smaller opening will work, but test the design with a car that has a lot of overhang, like a LGB Santa Fe caboose #43714. 14) Have a hedge where your garden railway is going? Don’t remove it. Use the hedge to separate theme-type areas in your layout. Obtain a large plastic or concrete sewer-type pipe, carve out the hedge, and slip it right through the middle of it. You won’t have brush interference and the pipe can be painted green. 15) Tired of track that looks grungy? The simplest way to clean used track sections is to use the top rack of your dishwasher! Just set the dishwasher on a normal wash cycle, taking care to use an “air dry” (and not a heated dry) setting. Using regular detergent for dishwashers will give you excellent results and track that looks like new. 16) I have finally figured out a way to change the little bulbs in the POLA light poles. I was determined not to let this little light bulb get the best of me. I found that if you take one of those most-always dependable, inexpensive Papermate Write Bros. pens and remove the cap on the end, the bulb fits perfectly in the capped end of the pen. It’s excellent for removing and replacing and no more broken bulbs! Of course, other pens may work also. 17) I have found that a structure made from durable wood can be given a stucco exterior by using a Spackling Compound. I use a large 1 1/2” round brush with soft bristles. The spackling compound is wetted a little so that it sticks thickly to the bristles. It is then applied to the wood surfaces by jabbing the bristles straight at the structure wall. Let it dry thoroughly, then repeat the process. Once the second application has dried, I apply two costs of exterior latex paint. The building I stuccoed has gone through plenty of rain lately and no damage has yet occurred to this structure. 18) Creating a Turntable motor: Here is a great idea for fitting your turntable with a realistically slow motor. Use one of the motors sold with a television/radio antenna motor. The motor is built for outdoor use, and it turns smoothly and slowly. Perfect for the turntable on our outdoor layout! 19) Have you ever had problems replacing light bulbs that have been outside for 5 years? They become frozen to the socket. The only way to remove them is to break them. Here is your solution. Before you put the light bulb into the socket use a Graphite Lubricant (LGB offers one). Coat the base of the light bulb. It will keep the bulb from rusting to the socket and will assure electrical conductivity for the life of the bulb. 20) I found that using lace for your ‘window treatments’ looks much better and lasts longer than the thin paper curtains you find in most building kits. The windows tend to look much more realistic. The lace can be long or short, straight or curved across the bottom, lace comes in white, off-white and in many colors. It can easily be glued on the inside of the glass, flat or feathered to give more of a three- dimensional look. Different colors used in different rooms lends an additional air of realism. And best of all, a dollar will buy enough for more than one building! 21) Here is an innovative method for reusing the old cleaning wheels from LGB 20670 Track Cleaning Locomotive; Take your old cleaning wheels and us them to make a cleaning block. Bold the two flanges together with the cleaning wheel between. Then cut off the big flange to match the smaller one. This makes a great handheld cleaner for use around switches and crossovers! If you have a cog railway, this cleaning block works well cleaning the rails where you have plastic rack sections in the center of the rails. 22) Here is a tip for protecting your signals and switches. Take a piece of styrene or clear plastic 1/8” or so in thickness, place your switch or signal on top and scribe along the outline of the switch or signal. On a switch, you only need to go as far as the moveable section of the points. Cut the outlined piece from the sheet and slide it under your switch or signal. Making sure there is no debris on top. Now you have smooth surface on which the mechanism can operate. You may want to paint the styrene to blend in or, if you’re using clear plastic allow it to remain clear so you can see the ballast. 23) For those using Aristo-Craft track here are some tips that will make your track laying job a little faster and easier. To keep those little Allen-Head screws for Aristo-Craft rail joiners on the tiny screwdriver, dip the tip of the screwdriver in a jar of petroleum jelly, then place the head of the screw on the screwdriver. The screw adheres to the screwdriver more securely and won’t fall off before you get it to the hole. Also, if you do lose a screw (in the ballast for example) there is a way to retrieve it without disturbing anything. The screw is stainless steel, but contains just enough ferrous metal to be attracted by an extendable pocket magnet. The magnet is very powerful, but you must pass it within about 1/2” of the screw to attract it. 24) If you are going to solder your rail joints then get no less than a 300 watt gun. You will be surprised at how much the performance improves over a standard 275 watt gun. 25) Ever want to check to make sure your electric current is making it from your power pack to the track? Try using a battery tester. The best one has probes at the end of the wires from the meter. Use the probes to reach the wires or track to check for current flow and strength. Using a 10 amp power pack, I set the control knob on the battery tester for 22.5v that way when full power is in the wire or track, it will show in the middle of the ‘good’ area of the battery meter. The flexibility of the probes on wires allow the easy access to hard-to-reach areas. You can also check for positive and negative power flow. If the battery meter “pegs” to the negative, reverse the probes or wiring. If you have a large layout and connect power to your track at several locations, you can also use this to check to avoid confusing positive and negative connections and avoid a short circuit.