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Family Garden Trains Contact Page Structures for your garden railroad. Garden Train Store: Index to train, track, and other products for Garden Railroading
Best Choices for Beginning Garden Railroaders: a short list of things you're most likely to need when starting outLarge Scale Starter Sets: Begin with a train you'll be proud to run
Large Scale Track order Form Bachmann Garden Trains: Narrow Gauge models designed to run well in your Garden Railroad
Large Scale Christmas Trains: Trains with a holiday theme for garden or professional display railroads.Free Large Scale Signs and Graphics: Bring your railroad to life with street signs, business signs, and railroad signs
Garden Railroading Books, Magazines, and Videos: Where to go to learn even more
Collectible Trains and Villages: On30 Trains and accessories designed by Thomas Kinkade and others

Family Garden Trains Contact Page

We want to hear from you. If you have something to mail, you can send it to us in care of:

    Breakthrough Communications
    2991 Fowler Rd
    Springfield OH 45502

Update for 2023 - In mid-2023, without warning or notice of any kind, our e-mail ISP, Datayard.net broke the form we have been using for our contact page forms since 1999. They have been no help in setting up an alternative, so I'm on my own . . . .

Until I get this fixed, the best way to contact me is by DMing me on our Family Garden Trains facebook page here. Please include your e-mail address so I can respond through e-mail (DM is ridiculously clunky at this end.)

Please Ignore the rest of this page for now.

The rest of this page will be updated once I get things working again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Because people contact us for a lot of reasons, we have a number of ways to get in touch.

  • Roundtable Discussion Forum and Newsletter Signup, plus Question or Comment - If you want to contact us AND sign up for our newsletter AND sign up for our Roundtable online discussion forum to engage in conversations with fellow hobbiests, please click here.

  • Newsletter Signup, plus Question or Comment - If you want to ask a question AND sign up for our newsletter, please click here.

  • Order Tracking Information - If you ordered a train or related product that you saw on one of our sites, and you have a question about shipment, tracking, delivery, or warranty, please click here.

  • Question or Comment Only - If you have any other question, and you DON'T want to sign up for our newsletter or discussion forum, please use the form on this page.

Please note - Update for 2018: Sadly, every month dozens of spammers and jokesters fill out this form thinking that somehow their unwelcome advertisements or content will show up on my site (they don't). The spammers are getting more clever, though - even using real "borrowed" real e-mail addresses and names of innocent third parties, so I wind up spamming people who could care less about our subject matter. Or wasting time answering questions that the scammers could really just care less about.

So I'm now asking people who make inquiries to provide real information about yourself, including real first and last names, street address, city, zip and SOME information about yourself and your hobby. This way, we'll know it's it's not just a random spam attack and we won't waste time answering bogus questions, or worse yet, spamming innocent people whose information has been hacked. Again, we apologize if this seems like a hassle to you, but considering how much information about myself and my family we've shared on these web pages, I don't think we're asking for anything untoward.

Will You Keep My Information on File? This is a question that I'm now required to answer for my European readers, but the answer is true for everybody. If you JUST send a question, no, we do not keep your information on file (If you signed up for the newsletter or Roundtable discussion forum, yes, but that's not what this page is for.)

After I reply to your question, I keep your e-mails for a few days in case you have follow-up questions. If I don't hear from you again within six weeks, my system automatically deletes your e-mails, leaving no permanent record of your contact information.

If You're Not Really Using My Information, Why Do You Need It? To separate the legitimate contacts from the jokesters, spammers, and scammers, who have wasted countless hours of my time with phony requests and questions. When you contact us, a real person is on this end, often answering difficult questions for free. We deserve to know we are dealing with a real person on your end.

And if your name really is "Bozo LeClown," or something just as unlikely, there had better be a pretty good explanation in the Comments area.

Thanks, and happy railroading,

Paul Race

Family Garden Trains



Your Real First Name (Required)

Your Real Last Name (Required)


Your email address (Required)


Your email address again (Required)
Street Number and Street Name (Required)

Your City or Town (Required)
Your State (Required)
Your Zip Code (Required)

What kinds(s) of railroad would you like to model? (Optional, check all that apply)
No Preference
or Undecided
US Narrow
Gauge
US Standard
Gauge
European
Metre Gauge
US 24"
Industrial
Lehmann
European
Standard Gauge

Other Modeling Interest(s)

Do you have any Large Scale Trains? (Optional, check all that apply)
No
PIKO
Bachmann
AristoCraft
USA
Trains
LGB/
Lehmann
MTH
Accucraft/
AMS
Lionel

Other Large Scale Train Brand(s)

If you have a working Garden Railroad, how long has it been operating? (Optional)
Under 1 Year
1 to 3 Years
3 to 6 Years
Over 6 Years

If you don't have a working Garden Railroad, how soon might you be building one? (Optional)
Already Have One
Under 1 Year
1 to 2 Years
2 to 4 Years
Over 4 Years
Don't Know

Please Enter Any Comments or Questions (Required - Please write at least one coherent sentence about your hobby or interests so we know you're a real person.)

Before You Hit Submit: Please go back over the form and make certain you have filled out every required field with accurate information. Our software does not catch them all, so it's possible to submit an incomplete form. Most scammers do, and that's one way we identify them. Please make certain your form is complete.

Badge for Tectite supplied php form *Note: Unfortunately, in addition to the many reader questions we answer every month, we get a certain number of questions and signups from people who are nevertheless use systems that keep our e-mails from getting through to them. If you use a system that rejects e-mails from all unknown senders automatically, please let us know in the comment area how you've made provision for our e-mails to get to you without us having to jump through hoops. Thanks - Paul &c

To return to the Family Garden Trains Home Page, click here.

*Do you Need the Order Tracking Pages Instead? Note: I don't sell trains, I only review and occasionally accept advertising for products I believe in. So I can usually answer questions about the quality or size of the product, but I can't answer questions about orders. If you have questions about an order you placed with one of our recommended suppliers, please check the links below:

  • If you ordered a Hawthorne Village product, please find a copy of your order or invoice and go to the Bradford Exchange Contact Page or call the Bradford Exchange customer service phone number: 1-866-907-3607. In Canada, call 1-866-285-0932. (This used to be called "Collectibles Today," in case you wondered.)
  • If you ordered a Lionel product, the best place to start is on the Lionel Order Tracking page.
  • If you ordered any other product, including Bachmann and AristoCraft, please go to the general Order Tracking page.

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Click to trains that commemorate your team!

Note: Family Garden Trains?, Garden Train Store?, Big Christmas Trains?, BIG Indoor Trains?, and BIG Train Store? are trademarks of Breakthrough Communications (www.btcomm.com). All information, data, text, and illustrations on this web site are Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 by Paul D. Race. Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically forbidden.
Family Garden Trains is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

For more information, please contact us

Click to see new and vintage-style Lionel trains.
Click to see new and vintage-style Lionel trains

Visit related pages and affiliated sites:
- Trains and Hobbies -
Return to Family Garden Trains Home page
Return to Big Indoor Trains Home page
 Garden Railroading Primer Articles: All about getting a Garden Railroad up and running well Big Indoor Trains Primer Articles: All about setting up and displaying indoor display trains and towns. Garden Train Store: Index to train, track, and other products for Garden RailroadingBig Christmas Trains: Directory of Large Scale and O Scale trains with holiday themes
On30 and O Gauge trains to go with indoor display villages and railroads
 Visit Lionel Trains. Click to see Thomas Kinkaded-inspired Holiday Trains and Villages. Big Christmas Train Primer: Choosing and using model trains with holiday themes Free Large Scale Signs and Graphics: Bring your railroad to life with street signs, business signs, and railroad signs Click to see HO scale trains with your favorite team's colors.
- Christmas Memories and Collectibles -
Visit the FamilyChristmasOnline site. Visit Howard Lamey's glitterhouse gallery, with free project plans, graphics, and instructions. Click to return to the Old Christmas Tree Lights Table of Contents Page Click to sign up for Maria Cudequest's craft and collectibles blog.
Click to visit Fred's Noel-Kat store.
 Visit the largest and most complete cardboard Christmas 'Putz' house resource on the Internet.
- Family Activities and Crafts -
Click to see reviews of our favorite family-friendly Christmas movies. Free, Family-Friendly Christmas Stories Decorate your tree the old-fashioned way with these kid-friendly projects. Free plans and instructions for starting a hobby building vintage-style cardboard Christmas houses. Click to find free, family-friendly Christmas poems and - in some cases - their stories. Traditional Home-Made Ornaments
- Music -
Heartland-inspired music, history, and acoustic instrument tips.
Best-loved railroad songs and the stories behind them.
 Learn important guitar chords quickly, to jump start your ability to play along on any song. With a few tools and an hour or two of work, you can make your guitar, banjo, or mandolin much more responsive. Instruments with movable bridges can have better-than-new intonation as well. Resources for learning Folk Music and instruments quickly Check out our article on finding good used guitars.
Carols of many countries, including music, lyrics, and the story behind the songs. X and Y-generation Christians take Contemporary Christian music, including worship, for granted, but the first generation of Contemporary Christian musicians faced strong, and often bitter resistance. Different kinds of music call for different kinds of banjos. Just trying to steer you in the right direction. New, used, or vintage - tips for whatever your needs and preferences. Wax recordings from the early 1900s, mostly collected by George Nelson. Download them all for a 'period' album. Explains the various kinds of acoustic guitar and what to look for in each.
Look to Riverboat Music buyers' guide for descriptions of musical instruments by people who play musical instruments. Learn 5-string banjo at your own speed, with many examples and user-friendly explanations. Explains the various kinds of banjos and what each is good for. Learn more about our newsletter for roots-based and acoustic music. Folks with Bb or Eb instruments can contribute to worship services, but the WAY they do depends on the way the worship leader approaches the music. A page devoted to some of Paul's own music endeavors.