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 Jon DeKeles Editor in Chief | He may seem like big bad Jon, but that's because he's a man of steel - born with trains and technology in his blood. No surprise he engineered the gene splice that gave birth to LSOL.com. | |
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 JD Miller Reviews Editor | The original tinkerer, JD took apart his first watch in 4th grade and now he's having the time of his life taking apart trains to show you what's inside. | |
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 Rick Henderson Associate Editor | Rick has more model train experience than Jon has years. He's LSOL.com's jack-of-all-trades from almost day one. He's reviewed, sold retail, and built trains, too. He's not grumpy, just focused. | |
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 Noel Widdifield Managing Editor | Since he's a card-carrying member of the NMRA and TCA, we all yield right-of-way to Noel's expertise when it comes to model railroading. | |
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 David Bodnar Electronics Editor | When you're ready to 'Bodnarize' your railroad, David's the guy who puts the pedal to the metal. Our resident power ranger is all about automation and remote control. | |
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 Jo Anne Sales Manager | What's a nice lady like her, doing with a crew like this? Joanne is the grand dame of discounts. Better yet, she'll keep your large-scale spending on the QT from spousal units if you ask politely. | |
Mike Evans: It's hard to single out only one manufacturer for best products, price, etc. Certainly LGB maintains the lead in overall quality. But I own several Bachmann locomotives and am pleased with both their detail and low cost. For track and control components, AristoCraft can't be beat. Garden trains may soon rival HO for variety and the numerous small firms getting into the more specialized areas. There are also many links out there to a lot of information, particularly LSOL with their weekly informative articles.
John Pletcher: I have garden trains from Bachmann, USA Trains and AristoCraft. As of yet I have not had to call customer service for anything as all has worked beautifully. It is really nice to see a ever expanding product offerings with great detail. As far as picking a best manufacturer of the year, that is tough since each garden trains manufacturer is tops in their prospective product nitches. One thing for sure, with all the wonderful offerings, it will give the large-scale railroad community more ammunition to attract more people into the hobby.
Jon D. Miller: Since I model in narrow gauge, Bachmann gets my vote for the best garden trains. The attention to detail on their Spectrum line is without equal. Dollar for dollar when comparing detail and fidelity to a prototype then Bachmann is great value for out of pocket cost.
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Important Topics
Bridges
Buildings
Couplers
Getting Started
Grades
How Garden Trains Work
Live Steam
Wheels
John Damkier: Most of my structures are plastic but I do have some wood buildings also. Most are lit with 12v bulbs tied into my Malibu light system. Most of the garden train buildings are heavy enough that they don't blow away. I glued the buildings (that are prone to blowing away) to floor tiles to keep them down.
Gary Lane: I have left buildings out all winter only to regret it spring time. Glues come undone on plastic. Small parts break with the building standing still. Mostly the amount of mud and dirt and bugs to remove is what motivates me to move the buildings into the unheated garage or under the covered deck for the winter.
Bill Waddell: Most of my buildings are made from kits (Pola or Piko) however, all have added detail which makes each more like a creation of my own. It could be a kit bash, color change, store bought details items or ones I hand made. Likewise, lighting is always added for interest at dusk or nighttime. It is be added to platforms, outside work areas as well as the interior of buildings. This allows more detail to be seen inside these buildings and something as little as a porch light makes the town come alive. It should be said however, that highly detailed buildings do require greater care and storage during certain seasons or when bad weather becomes a concern. For this I made boxes to size and bubble wrap.
Come see the first, the original and the best web blog dedicated to Garden Railroads. Remember: Some people talk about what they are going to do, and others actually do it. Come show people what you have done.