__NOTOC__ A backyard railroad is a privately owned, outdoor railroad, most often in miniature, but large enough for one or several persons to ride on. The rail gauge can be anything from to or more. Smaller backyard or outdoor railroads that cannot be ridden are called garden railroads. Some backyard railroads use full-size rolling stock, such as the former

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Grizzly Flats Railroad owned by railfan and Disney animator Ward Kimball. Hundreds, even thousands of backyard railroads exist, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. Walt Disney's gauge ridable miniature Carolwood Pacific Railroad, located at his home in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

neighborhood of Holmby Hills, was a notable example. It inspired Disney to surround his planned

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

amusement park with the narrow gauge Disneyland Railroad.

Track

Tracks for the layout can be either portable (i.e. removable), or permanent. The former may be of fairly simple welded

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

construction, but the latter are usually built from miniature steel or

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

rails attached to wooden, plastic or even concrete sleepers (US: ties), and put on a proper foundation of crushed stone (" track ballast"), just as in full size. Turnouts (US: switches) are also fabricated from these basic materials. Usually, prototypical appearance is sought for, but some portable tracks may not closely resemble real railroad tracks. In many cases dual-gauge track (i.e. and gauge) may be used to allow locomotives and rolling stock of different gauges to run.

Locomotives and rolling stock

Locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s on a backyard railroad can be of different types;

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s, or even electrically operated, using rechargeable lead-acid batteries inside the locomotive. Miniature steam locomotives are an element of a related hobby known as '' live steam''. One of the more well-known builders of backyard railroad trains was Bud Hurlbut, who also built and operated the mine train ride and log ride at Knott's Berry Farm.Merritt, Christopher and Lynxwiler, J. Eric, ''Knott's Preserved,'' pp. 92-105, Angel City Press, Santa Monica, CA 2010. Rolling stock is often modeled after real railroad equipment, as far as being painted with

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

s of past or existing railroads.

Boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

s, flat cars, tank cars and cabooses are common. For passenger use, special cars are constructed, with a low center of gravity for safety.

References

{{Reflist Amusement rides based on rail transport Backyard railways Miniature railways Rail transport hobbies

Track

Locomotives and rolling stock

See also

References