Starting a G scale module group
Use our experiences to save some headaches
Building a G scale module display is expensive! Gone are the days when the major manufactures would donate track or rolling stock to a fledging group. Unless one of your members knows ‘someone’, (we have no one like that in our group) the chance of getting any type of donation from those guys is tough.

Sure building a few personal modules to scenic to your whim is worth the money. But a club needs infrastructure. Generally the club would own the corners, the power supply (a spare makes two), various tool boxes, a yard, skirting and more. A rough estimate on getting started costs somewhere between $1000 and $2000. This based on your source for track, lumber and other necessary supplies.

OK, so your group can dig up enough to get started, but the cost to keep “in business” can be more than a few members want to pay. Starting out it’s hard to make money charging for your display. As your group grows and gets a reputation, you can negotiate for payment from many places, but at first you’ve got to bear the load. We charge for displays at many city celebrations, nurseries and hobby stores. However when we set up at retirement homes, children’s hospitals and airport events we pay the freight. Setting up on the lawn at tourist railroads generally gets us ride tickets and often lunch but no cash.

Having a donation box handy will always bring in a few bucks, but make sure if you have a formal organization that the money is accounted for. If you end up just being a bunch a friends running trains, itemizing your income/expenses is less important. Our success with raffles has mixed results. The prize must fit the spectator base to ensure they’ll pay a buck to win something they really would like.

A corporate sponsor is most desirable. Finding a local business that would like their logo painted on a box car running at every opportunity in exchange for a couple hundred dollars is a real windfall. With today’s computer graphics programs and the availability of folks who’ll make custom decals, this makes good financial sense to some businesses.

If you have a local business that makes a product which is appropriate to give as samples, like a candy or cupcake maker, having a module dedicated to their signage and giving samples will draw more folks with the possibility of getting something for nothing. Giving something away may really show up in your nearby donation box.

Our new club owned modules (corners, new yard and expanded passing sidings) are being built with used track. Someone getting out of G scale sold track to us cheap, so we’re straightening and re-using. This isn’t necessarily recommended for switches, but it’s a cost saving corner we’re cutting. Our recent decision to replace the LGB 1600 switches on our passing siding with LGB 18000 switches was handled by a plea to the membership to “buy a switch”. Enough members came forward with a pledge of $130 that we could make a discounted deal at a train store for enough switches for the changeover.

An enthusiastic member with decent carpentry skills and power tools is truly valuable. If one skilled person builds most of the modules the probability of them fitting together increases. A source of good wood is also important. Our choice has become poplar as the grain is reasonably tight, knots are rare and it really resists warping. Early on use of heart redwood in the attempt to keep weight down proved a mistake as the soft wood split, holes elongated and screws worked out. Stick with something hard.

A recent score at a cabinet shop brought us a bundle of cut-off, finished Luan plywood…for free. This is used for top decking, sub roadbed or panels to hold a pair of modules for transporting. Sure it’s not truly ¼” and it doesn’t have much structural stability but works in plenty of places.

As you progress into block controls and other “expanded” electronics, make sure you keep schematics, sketches and notes of wiring and misc. components. A safe repository for this paperwork can be a dedicated tub such as is listed in 10) below.

OK, lets address a few of the ‘givens’ of the DPSL to let you know where we are, where we came from, and maybe help plan your design.

1)	Our two main line tracks are 7 ¼” apart on center. This number was created based on a pair of LGB 1600 switches when crossing from one main line to the other. Although we no longer allow any switches crossing from one main to another, the number has stuck and works well for us…especially as locomotives and rolling stock gets longer and two trains passing on a corner still works.
2)	All modules are designed to end up with finished rail head 30” off the floor. Naturally when setting up outdoors (more than half our displays) on rough grass, this dimension needs to be flexible. The only other dimension that we strongly suggest to our members is the centerline of the outside main being 4” from the front edge of the module. Total width and length are the owner’s choice except as mentioned in 6) below.
3)	Our guidelines are not rules. This is a friendly club and it’s understood everyone has the power to act as they see fit. Our guidelines are also not hard and fast but dynamic and adjustable as our club ages and grows. However it must be stressed that some sort of guidelines are important to keep peace within the friendships of the group.
4)	Looking from the inside of the layout, the outside main ALWAYS travels from right to left and the inside main ALWAYS travels from left to right. This is a standard that is mentally automatic so is never a problem. Another standard in nomenclature is cardinal direction: from anywhere inside the layout looking out in any direction, one is looking North. Hence every module has a West and East end making discussion of various module components easy to address whether looking from the top down or underneath.
5)	From our re-design in 1993, we tired of the “track on a plywood desert” look. Although our original design back then required a block of 3” thick Styrofoam across the whole module to allow for shaping negative topography, we now put only 1” of Styrofoam under the roadbed to raise the track for a more realistic look and deadening the drum sound trains can make running on plywood.
6)	All straight modules are built in increments of 600 mm. So when we talk about a two footer or a six footer, this really means 23 5/8” or 70 7/8” (1800 mm). Pairs of four footers (1200 mm; 47 ¼”) or six footers travel face to face on end with cheap Luan plywood keeping them separated with 1/4x20 bolts through the plywood into threaded inserts in the outside edges of the modules. Eight footers are set on a stack inside our trailer along with the eight foot passing siding and yard modules.
7)	All modules are constructed with track stopping 150 mm from the module end. This allows for a standard 300 mm bridge track spanning any two modules similar to NTrak. Our reason for this is different members have different carpentry skills and this bridge track allows for “slop” between any two modules. The bridge tracks are mounted to 1/8” thick Plexiglas and ballasted making the bridge less noticeable. The bridge tracks also eliminate rail joiners from sticking out past the end of the module to get caught on everything. Although it would be nice if every module allowed standard bridge tracks, our new corners, our walk-thru and our inside trestle all have special bridge tracks…ugh!
8)	Every rail of every module is connected to a 12 gauge bus underneath. To start, cheap, four pin flat trailer connectors work well for connection between modules, but after 100+/- connections, they start to fail, so if you go this route, plan to replace them sometime in the future. Every rail means that if you have a six foot module and the track is made up of three foot sections and two foot sections (900 mm + 600 mm), eight electrical drops should connect to the bus below. We’ve also tried to keep the green, yellow, brown & white color scheme (front to back) to help trace wiring issues.
9)	Our four club owned tool boxes are:
	a. TRACK: including spare switch machines, small pieces of rail, a variety of Hillman clamps, LGB track joiners, a 100 amp soldering iron and solder, and tiny pieces of rail used when gaps appear between a poorly built module and standard bridge tracks. b. ELECTICAL: including a digital meter, clip leads, soldering gun and solder, misc. connectors and a variety of resistors, diodes, LEDs and stuff only a EE would understand. c. TOOLS: buy a selection of screw drivers, combination wrenches, hammer, box knife, 25’ pocket tape and 100’ cloth tape at Harbor Freight or someplace cheap. These tools will get lost or stolen so don’t pay a lot. It won’t take long to determine what else should go in there. d. NUTS & BOLTS: We use a lot of ¼ x 20 bolts, so one drawer is specifically for this size. Wing nuts, tee nuts, fender washers, and a variety of bolts. Another drawer is filled with plastic boxes of various #2, #4 and #6 screws, nuts and bolts, both wood screws and machine screws. Another drawer is for 3/8 x 16 nuts and bolts used to fasten our passing siding and yard modules together. A fourth drawer contains misc tiny parts. This is the place where we throw those little parts that fall off rolling stock over a weekend.
10)	For ease and safety of transporting all our stuff, we like to use tubs that stack. Our preferred is the plastic type with the hinged lids that fold down to close. Besides individual’s support stuff, we have club owned tubs for bridge tracks, module connecting clamps, fliers and promotional material, kindling (small pieces of lumber used to attempt even grades outdoors), club owned buildings, wire, Thomas and family, our point to point (reversing) setup, block control signaling and paint. All tubs are painted on both ends to indicate ownership with the color code published. Club owned tubs are further designated by color whether the tub is used at every setup, construction only, picnic supplies, etc. No need to unload what we won’t use.
11)	Our glues of choice have become Titebond II for all wood joints and polyurethane for surfaces mating with Styrofoam. Whether you use screws, nails or brads to assemble the pieces, good even application of glue will save repair efforts in the future.
12)	Our original minimum radius was about 46” (47 1/16” = LGB 1600) since the switches on our passing siding and yard used these switches. Hence all corners were built with this minimum on the inside track. we’ve now completed all new corner maintaining 100” radius on the inside track. Although the LGB 18000 switches we’re installing in our passing siding are only slightly over 91” radius, this has made much smoother running, plus the new longer rolling stock looks much better negotiating these curves.

OK, this will give you a template to start your design. If you choose to copy everything or only one tiny part, we’d be honored to hear your results. Feel free to ask questions or make comments as we’re always eager to improve. Our club is growing partly because we got over some of the painful learning lessons. We only hope some of this text will help you eliminate some of those road bumps.

We try when we can to give control to the kids and continue to promote this feature to the public. Talking G scale to uninformed spectators is fun and although there are some members not comfortable with this aspect of our hobby, it’s what keeps crowds gathered around our display. We are not railroad operators and our primary goal is to keep trains running. We believe folks came to see trains running through our myriad of scenery, not shunting cars back and forth on a siding.

Ours is not a snapshot in time of a certain logging line or mining operation but a series of individual vignettes created by our diverse membership. We feel spectators appreciate seeing a multitude of scenes whether it a finely scaled tree house next to a cute little cottage or Waldo stepping off a ledge next to a row of bird houses. There is a place for Thomas pulling Annie and Clarabell past a weathered K-37 dragging a string of hoppers and they both have a home on the Diablo Pacific Short Line.

This is truly fun, and we can only hope more G scalers find this aspect of garden railroading as enjoyable as we do. Take it to the streets and show it to the people!!!