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First issue of Gartenbahn-Werkstatt
Published on 17 December 2018
We are proud to present Gartenbahn-Werkstatt, a new German magazine on the wide topic of large-scale railway modelling and ride-on railways. It is available only direct from the publisher. We don’t like blind date either and are therefore offering the first issue for free to give you a clear idea of what to expect in future editions. This trial offer comes with no obligations: no subscription, no further marketing e-mails or similar. If you don’t want to wait for the print issue, then you can preview the magazine here.
We hope you like what you see and would like to read more. If so, then we would be happy to welcome you as a subscriber.
The Gartenbahn-Werkstatt editorial team
Model engineering in the workshop and out on the running track
The Allure of Building Live Steam Models
Gartenbahn-Werkstatt translates to “Garden Railroad Workshop” and is Germany’s only bi-lingual model engineering magazine. We focus on model railways of large enough a scale for the builder to ride right behind his own locomotive. This covers 3½" (89mm), 5" (127mm) and 7¼" (184mm) gauge railways, with occasional excursions outside this range.
These track gauges permit the construction of models from ¾" scale (1:16) to 4" scale (1:3.3). Or in other words: a standard gauge locomotive has to be scaled down by a factor of 16 to run on 3½" gauge track while two-foot gauge prototype scaled down to one third of its size is suitable for 7¼" track.
Carrying Passengers
Ride-on Garden Railways
What all these gauges have in common is that you can ride on these model trains. Moreover, 5" gauge and above offers the opportunity to carry passengers on your train. Railways offering rides to the public are sometimes called park railways.
Live Steam
Steam Locomotives on Model Tracks
Most frequently, the locomotives built by model engineers are steam operated, just like a full size steam locomotive. This is why the hobby is often referred to Live Steaming even if models powered by battery or a small combustion engine share the same tracks. In addition to the locomotives and trains carrying full-size people, more and more scale carriages and wagons are being built enabling the operation of prototypically long trains.