Initial concept in February 2002: To have a small oval of track with one train around a little pond that will be built in the otherwise bare backyard.

Planning Stage


• Talk to pond people - apparently bigger is better, need lots of flow, filtration, a waterfall would be good for aeration. Pond should be minimum 4 feet deep to keep fish.
• Read lots of anything that we could find on railroad construction. Try not to exceed a 3% slope. The bigger the curves, the better. DCC or not to DCC?
• Talk to the town bylaw/building permit people. Need permit for more then 30 inches depth of pond. Also need a permit if any retaining wall is more then 24 inches tall. Also needs a permit if any natural slopes are changed.
• Make some rough calculations on size, what to do with the excavated soil. Looks like we need retaining walls. Add trestles and bridges. And a tunnel. And a river. And a waterfall with another river. And a lower pond for the pump and to balance the landscape. And lots of walks and some stairs and sitting places. And And And....

Construction Stage


• Started with a retaining wall for the railroad station on the Easter weekend 2002.
• Lower pond was next and the river all dug out by hand.
• Rented a Mini Excavator for the big pond. A friend was kind enough to operate it for us.
• Brought in lots of rocks over many previous months in the back of the car. Bought lots of rocks, about 10 tons.
• Used 20 yards of gravel and sand and screenings.
• Used many skids of retaining wall blocks and flagstones.
• Buried 250 feet of drainage pipe, 600 ft of cable and 100 feet of 2 inch hose for the waterfall.
• Throughout the construction of the water features and walks, the position and incline of the rail bed had to be kept in mind.
• Installed felt cloth, liners, rocks and pumps.

Enjoyment stage

If the above seems like a mad scramble and a lot of work, well it was, but it was also enjoyable and healthy. I felt muscles I didn't know I had. Finally in late May we had the ponds in operation and some plants installed. Now I started building truss bridges and laying rail on 8 inches of limestone screenings. Occasionally ran a train back and forth. Pauline was a big help with planting. This enjoyable construction went on all summer with a lot of small changes and trial and error. In the fall we had two separate ovals running as many as 3 trains at once on analog DC power. We still had many temporary bridges and no turnouts.

Winter months


• Collected a number of locomotives and rolling stock and started planning for DCC.
• Built bridges and buildings.
• Started to collect cars and figurines.
• Started a birdhouse collection to be used for a village.
• Set up a test track in the basement and ran some trains.

Spring and summer 2003


• Added turnouts and sidings.
• Landscaped more, planted lots.
• Converted most engines to DCC.
• Made more bridges.
• HAD LOT OF FUN RUNNING TRAINS!

Technical details


• We use DCC on most locomotives, all DCC locomotives have sound.
• All rails are bolted together like the real thing.
• Maximum grade is 4% (I'm Swiss, never saw a flat railroad there).
• 2 separate ovals with 650 feet of track in total.
• Elevation is 5 feet.
• Minimum radius is 5 feet.

Conclusion

This is a great hobby with lots of challenges and many learning opportunities in landscaping, gardening, railroading, history, modeling, etc.. We also get to meet a lot of great people. Did our project get out of hand? Yes, they always do!! Is the project finished? Not by a long shot. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Would we do it again? In a heart beat!