Pros and Cons to having a garden Railroad

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Summers here, and you know what that means. Cook outs, trips to the beach, and being able to run trains in the backyard. 

Continuing with the theme of garden railroads and G scale trains, in this blog I wanna go over the pros and cons to having a garden railroad. Is it really worth setting the train up outside, or are they better left inside in the basement. 

Pro: More room on the outside 

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Not everyone has that basement, attic, or spare bedroom(s) that are begging for someone to place some pieces of plywood with miniature houses and train tracks on top. Some homes just have more room outback or out front. 

Even if your backyard isn't huge, not all garden railroads have to be massive. Just find yourself a nice piece of land in the backyard to put some soil, a simple loop of track, and some flowers down, and you've got yourself a nice little garden railroad that you can show off to family and friends. 

Con: G scale can be expensive. 

Yes I know this is a "no duh" entry, but it's hard not to leave out pricing when it comes to model railroading. G scale can be pretty expensive and for good reason, as you're getting not only trains that are bigger, but that can also stand the weather and have a lot of detail to them. 

G scale trains can cost up to $600-$1000 easy. 

That being said, if your someone who just wants a small garden railroad with a train carrying 3 or 4 cars around a loop, there are G scale train sets, the bar isn't that high. 

One of the most well known G-scale manufactures LGB has train sets that are available for a little over $400 or cheaper if you know where to look, and there's always a chance you'll find a heavily discounted G scale train set at your local train shop. 

But for those who wanna go all in and get the bigger trains that require wider curves, get your checkbook ready: cause this is gonna sting. 

Pro: The bigger, the better 

As much as I love HO and N scale as much as the next guy, it's drawbacks can be it being too small to see the finer details for those with poor eyesight. 

With G scale, the trains are big enough to see all those details and then some, not to mention some trains come with extra details that can't be (or are hard to) put in smaller gauge trains. 

Con: The weather won't always be friendly to your layout

On one hand, you don't have to worry about spending hours dusting every nook and cranny of your garden railroad. On the other hand, mother nature won't always be so kind to your garden railroad. Depending on where you live, your garden railroad may deal with rain, wind, snow, ice, or even hurricanes and hail. 

There is an option of course of tarping down your layout and storing some buildings and locomotives inside, but there's still a good chance you'll have to do some clean up afterwards in order to get everything back on track after a harsh storm. 

Pro: Easy to plug in and set up 

Don't let the idea of it being outside fool you. Setting up a train set outside can be just as easy as setting one up inside. At most you'll need a waterproof electrical socket or a plug outside. Other then that, G gauge trains come with everything you need. 

Some G scale trains may even come with an RC remote, such as Piko's line of starter sets, eliminating the need to figure out where to put that transformer on the layout, or to even hide it with a building. 

Con: watch out for the wasp and bee's 

At least the bees have a reason: to pollenate the beautiful flowers that your train passes by on your garden railroad. 

What excuse do the wasp? Buzzing around and stinging people for sport. Here's to hoping the site and sound of a giant steam engine or diesel train coming their way scares them off, or better yet, they get squashed by said engine...

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