In today's video...
It's a beautiful Spring day in my backyard...
The perfect day to set up my model trains...
And for the first time ever, I've set up 3 tracks side by side...
In a gigantic layout that goes all the way around the yard.
I'll be running my BNSF freight train...
The Santa Fe Super Chief...
And the Coca Cola Train today.
If you like model trains, you're going to love this video!
OK, let's get started.
In case you're new to my videos...
Let me introduce myself. I'm Jim Zim.
I've been playing around with G-scale model trains for nine years now.
And in that time I've acquired 26 locomotives.
I don't have a permanent layout. That would bore me.
Because for me, half the fun is the creativity of making new layouts.
Each time I set up my trains, I like to create a different layout.
Sometimes inside my house...
Sometimes outside in my yard...
Sometimes both inside and outside.
Today, what's special about this layout...
Is that this is the first time I've ever set up three sets of tracks side by side...
On this big cement path that circles my backyard.
When we had this home built for us, three years ago...
We spent a lot of money on cement...
So that we'd have a big patio behind the house...
And this cement path going the whole way around the outside of the lawn.
Running model trains on this path from time to time...
Was definitely an important part of the plan all along.
But these train tracks aren't here on this cement path all the time.
In fact, they're only here for a few days at a time.
It took me two days to lay down the tracks and get the layout all put together.
About a full day of shooting to create this YouTube video...
And then sometime in the next day or two, I'll put it all away again.
It's a lot of work, but it makes for a fun video!
I should also mention that I'm using LGB-brand brass track...
And believe it or not, it took over 1000 feet of it to make this layout.
And G-scale brass track like that is incredibly expensive.
The total cost of just the track involved in today's layout was over $8,000.
Add to that the cost of the trains themselves...
And you're looking at well over $10,000 of model train equipment in today's video.
My patrons help me fund all this...
As does ad revenue from YouTube.
If you appreciate these model train videos that I make...
Your contribution of as little as a dollar a month would really help.
Visit Patreon.com/JimZim to find out about becoming one of my patrons...
And to find out about the perks I offer in return.
Now one complete trip around the layout takes these trains about 3 minutes...
And we've just about completed our first trip around.
In this shot you can see the one and only point on the layout where power is fed in to the tracks.
With high quality brass track like this...
If you take good care of it...
You only need one power connection to feed an entire massive layout like this.
Now don't worry, I won't be talking during this entire video...
And later in the video you'll be able to just listen to the sounds of the trains as they operate.
But on this next run around the layout I do just want to point out a few things going on in my yard and garden.
And show you a few other points of interest on the layout.
This part of the layout that the train is travelling through right now...
Has some beautiful daffodils still blooming at this point.
I'm shooting this during the last week of April.
And you can see a couple of different types of maple trees along the block wall fence there.
The ones with the red leaves are called Bloodgood Japanese Maples.
Notice how nice and green the lawn is looking.
We get very cold winters here, so the lawn goes yellow over the winter...
But once Spring rolls around...
With some water and fertilizer, it sure greens up nice.
The water that's used to irrigate this entire yard is not drinking water.
We're so close to the Columbia River that we have basically an unlimited supply of irrigation water.
It's pumped directly from the river, untreated...
To all the houses in this neighborhood, and it's not even metered.
We can use as much irrigation water as we want, at a low flat rate.
That's one of the secrets to all the beautiful green lawns in this neighborhood.
The first of the trains has reached the point of the layout known as Dead Man's Curve.
Nobody's actually died here -- yet.
It's just a reference to the classic train crash scene in the 1991 movie "The Addams Family".
From the drone, you can see more Japanese maple trees lining this side of the yard...
And we're heading down towards the delicious part of my yard.
In that area down there where the red bricks are...
I've got three raised bed gardens where I grow strawberries and tomatoes and peppers...
And I've also got a peach tree, and quite a few apple trees.
Now you can see our hot tub.
Before we moved up here, the only time we got to soak in a hot tub was on a cruise ship...
But now there's one right outside our bedroom door.
This shot shows it from the other direction.
As the BNSF freight train approaches, I should just mention that...
That's one of my favorite trains in my collection.
Because I see real BNSF trains all the time here where I live in Washington state.
BNSF has a big rail yard just a couple of miles from our house...
And quite often, when I'm out in my yard...
I hear the horns on those BNSF trains off in the distance.
There's Carli, our Cocker Spaniel!
And I should mention that row of plants in the containers there...
Most of those are Amur Maple trees that I've grown from seeds that have dropped off the trees in the yard.
Well, that completes another lap around the yard, and...
I'm done talking for most of the rest of the video now.
You'll get to listen to nothing but the sounds of the trains...
When we come back, right after this.
The Santa Fe Super Chief and the Coca Cola train have both been running at their full speeds, but...
The BNSF freight train...
I've run throttled back quite a bit so that it would match their speed.
That BNSF locomotive is really powerful and can go quite a bit faster than what you've seen, so far.
So, let me show you what it can do.
Well, it's been fun watching the trains run on this big layout around my yard.
And it sure has been a beautiful day for it, too.
If you've enjoyed the video...
Do me a favor and hit the like button.
That really helps me, because it tells YouTube...
That this is a good video that they should be recommending to more people.
As the drone pulls back and gains some altitude...
You get a nice view of the Columbia River...
Just a few blocks down the road from our house.
And in that empty field between us and the river...
You can see the faint outlines of a couple of new streets going in...
More new houses will start construction soon.
I'm Jim Zim. Thanks for watching!