My visit to Miniatures and Trains Park

This visit was not planned. I was spending summer holiday with my family at the Baltic Sea when I saw a banner advertising the Miniatures and Trains Park. Quick check at the map and I found out it was only 16km away. I simply could not pass that opportunity.

Seaside Miniatures and Trains Park (http://www.park-miniatur.pl/) is located at the outskirts of the city of Dziwnów in the north of Poland. The place would be difficult to find if it wasn't for all the ads leading to it. So even though you have to navigate some local roads to get there, you won't get lost for sure.

The park is quite big considering it's a private owned area. There are paths to walk and benches to sit but also snack, ice-cream and souvenir stands. It's definitely a place where you can spend more time than what is just needed to see everything. You can simply stay there and enjoy the day.


The park focuses on two major topics.

Topic #1 is the miniatures of real world lighthouses. I did not count them but it felt like I've seen at least a dozen. And they were big. They're supposed to be in the 1:10 scale with some models reaching over 4m (~13ft). The biggest ones are definitely impressive.


Topic #2 is of course trains. Those are just well-known G-scale sets from LGB, PIKO and Bachmann. Some of them are equipped with sound, some are not. I've counted 10 running trains at the time of my visit and they were definitely fun to watch.


Of course the trains and the lighthouses do not really fit together because of the difference in scale. And the park does not even try to present them very close to each other. So both topics are independent and are meant to be enjoyed separately.

A few more words about the train layout...

It definitely feels huge. It's supposed to be over 1km of track and it does feel like it. Even though that entire length is split into three smaller layouts (one being reserved to Thomas & Friends theme), the longest loops will make you lose the track of the trains completely. That's really cool!

Of course with a long track and a large area comes a lower attention to detail. Unlike the indoor layout I visited previously, the park does not offer a lot in terms of 'scenes from life'. It does have 4 train stations which are very nice and fit perfectly but that is all. No towns, very few people figures and almost no cars.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit to the park very much. My family had a great time, too, even though my daughters are not interested in trains. Side activities were good enough for them to make the time spent there a pleasant experience. And I highly recommend the place to anyone travelling in the area.

Here's a video I shot during the visit:

And quite a lot of photos:

Garden works, part 6: Idea for elevating the garden layout

My initial garden layout turned out pretty good. The train runs well on it, the track is stable, there are no electrical issues. And I could just continue from here and keep extending it, if it wasn’t for ‘external dangers’ that exist in my garden.

Those dangers include our dog which for some reason loves digging holes between my tracks and covers it with soil constantly. And they also include my children who occupy the garden all the time and unfortunately pay very little attention to the layout (not that I’d expect them to really do that).

That would be all fine if I wanted to have just the rail track.  PIKO G scale track pieces are rather sturdy and my kids walk on them all the time and have not broken anything, yet. But I want to build a real miniature world and it will include fragile elements for sure. And I have to protect them somehow.

My solution for that is in raising the layout. And that means elevating not only the rail track but the entire ‘world’ instead. And for that I’ll need to build a raised garden bed and then put my layout on top of it.

There are several ways to create a raised garden bed. Some options require a lot of building skills and I do not have those (yet). And some require materials that are difficult to transport and that would be a problem since the only way to access my garden is through my flat. Taking all pros and cons into account, I’m thinking about building the bed using wood.

My raised layout would be rectangular with a size of around 10m x 2.5m (~32ft x 8ft). And it would be around 60cm (~2ft) tall. I know it’s still not huge but it will already take a significant part of my small garden.

That’s how I would like to start:

This is the far end of the garden bed. It’s build from planks that are 2.8cm (~1’’) thick and supported by squared wood posts 7cm x 7cm (~3’’ x 3’’). The wood will be of course pressure treated and will be weather resistant so I expect it to last at least 10 years in the outdoors conditions.

The layout of my garden won’t allow me to build the bed in its target place. Instead I’ll have to build it and then carry it to its destination. Because of that I won’t be able to build it in one piece but will have to create modules and carry them one by one. The idea is that each module will be around 2.5m x 2.5m (~8ft x 8ft).

To get the final size, I’ll need 4 modules:

And once they’re placed in the proper spot and connected, I’ll try to finish with a shape less rectangular and more acceptable for my wife :)

Once filled with soil, I should be able to lay my track on it:

 
Of course there are other aspects I have to take into account:

• I know I should not be placing the wood directly on the ground and I do not feel like creating a real concrete foundation, so I’ll probably need a lot of gravel to act as a base
• I’m going to impregnate the wood even beyond its factory preparation to give it a chance for a longer life span
• I’m going to put a pond liner around the inside of the bed to minimize the contact between the wood and the soil
• The front corner part will probably need some additional support – I’m not sure how to handle that, yet.

And of course I know very little about woodwork, so I have a lot of doubts:

• I have no idea whether my design is rigid enough. Will it hold all the soil I’m planning to fill it with or will it fall apart?
• The bed will be placed in a corner of my garden. This means I’ll have limited access to some parts and I will have to walk on it. Will it hold under the additional weight of my body or will it break?
• The 10 years life span I’m thinking about is just my idea. I have no clue how long this kind of wood will really last and whether the protection I’m considering is adequate.

The planned cost:

• Wood: ~400 Eur
• Screws: ~30 Eur
• Pond liner: ~20 Eur
• Paint: ~50 Eur
• Gravel: ~50 Eur
• Soil: ~100 Eur
• Work: I’m going to do it myself :)

Custom interior lighting in G-scale passenger cars

Passenger trains look so much better when equipped with interior lighting. Especially when run in the evening and in a nicely lit scenery. No wonder that after upgrading my N-scale coaches, I've decided to install light into my G-scale cars, too. And of course I expected that to be easier than in N-scale thanks to all the space you get in a large model.

Additionally PIKO decided to solve the biggest challenge with the introduction of PIKO 36168 wheel sets that feature easy-to-use power pick-ups. So no need to struggle with metal strips, springs or batteries to get the power into your cars. You just need to buy a proper wheel set.

Unfortunately PIKO 36168 wheels are not really cheap. And I decided to save some money and equip each car with only one set, and use regular PIKO 36165 metal wheels for remaining axles. So this is what I bought:

I certainly hoped that both types of wheels would feature the same look, so that my coaches would appear 'normal' with mixed installation. Well, turns out they're not identical but they're not very much different, either. Here's the comparison:

PIKO 36168 on the left, PIKO 36165 on the right

PIKO 36168 are ball bearing wheels. This means they roll incomparably better than other available products. Here's a short video showing their capabilities.

 

I also needed an electrical circuit to drive the lights. And all my previous findings apply to the G-scale, too. My creation is much bigger than my N-scale kits and features an impressive 2200uF capacitor. I certainly hope it will give me a flicker-free experience even on a dirty track.

This is what the bottom of my coach looks like before the installation. You can see the factory supplied plastic wheels.

The wheels are easily replaceable (well, assuming you're not doing it for the first time...). You can see the more expensive set with power pick-ups on the left, the cheaper metal set on the right.

There are three easy to notice facts once the 36165/36168 wheels are installed:

• The centre of weight of the car changes dramatically - you can feel it very well when holding it.
• The car rolls much better - seems it goes twice as far when pushed, compared to plastic wheels.
• The wheels fit perfectly into their slots BUT they also have some extra space and can move left and right. And when they move too far, they don't roll so well any more. This however seems to occur only when holding the car on its side and it does not affect normal operation.

PIKO 36168 wheel set features power sockets that can be connected in two different ways. And if you have wires with female pins, you can just attach them.

The tricky part is of course getting the wire through the car. It took me well over 20 minutes to pass it to the rest room area where I wanted to put my electrical circuit. I'm not going into the details of the process, since it will vary from car to car. But here's the result.

Once installed, the first test can be conducted.

Now it's time to install the lights. I'm using cheap and widely available LED strips. I'm still working on a solution that would glue the strip permanently to the roof. From my experience they always come off... sooner or later...

Everything connected and the next test is possible. It's difficult to tell from the photo but the LEDs are lit here.

Once the body is closed we can see what it looks like for real. Here's the car without interior lighting.

And here's one with the interior lighting installed and switched on.

Works as expected, although the light could be a little brighter. Perhaps I need to use smaller resistors in the future...

So how does the capacitor work? Does it ensure flicker-free light? The answer is in the next photo. You can see here the same car but the picture is taken around 10 seconds after the coach is removed from the track. It's still well lit.

I also have a video showing the result. Unfortunately the quality is so-so due to shooting in very low-light conditions. But it certainly summarizes my work well.

I'm very happy with the result. Just three more cars to convert now!