Family Garden Trains e-Mail Newsletter Signup Sheet Update for 2025 - After about eighteen months of arguing with our internet providers and web hosting services, we finally hired an independent contractor to fix our signup pages. Sorry about the hassle for those of you who tried to sign up in the meantime. At any rate, we're back, with a functioning signup form. A Note from Paul Race, our Editor-in-Chief: Family Garden Trains started answering beginner's questions in the 1990s. We started our newsletter a few years later for loyal readers who wanted to be notified of any new articles or updates. For a long time we sent out e-mail newsletters to anyone who gave us a name and e-mail address, without making sure they were real people giving us their real names, etc. But letting people sign up anonymously or with fake information caused several kinds of hassles* for us and for our legitimate readers, wasting countless hours we would rather use working on projects or creating content. So now we REQUIRE people who sign up for our newsletters to give us real information, including your state and real name. No one else will ever see it, but I would rather have forty real readers who are interested in our content and updates than thousands of names that I'm not even sure are real or not. New Internet Requirements for European Readers In the meantime, new regulations in Europe require us to make doubly sure that our European members really meant to sign up and didn't just get signed up by accident. They also require anyone who has European members to explain exactly how their information is used. We've done that all along, and will continue to do so. However, we have tweaked the Q&A below slightly to make certain we are in compliance. Will People Start Bothering Me? Unlike 99.9% of the mailing lists out there, we will not start deluging you with daily "special offers." No salesman will call. Your contact information will not be given to anyone else. No unsolicited advertisements or other spam will be e-mailed to you. What does the Family Garden Trains(tm) Newsletter Contain? Our newsletters may contain: Links to new or updated articles we post, Links to articles on other sites that we think you will find helpful Tips about things you could (or maybe should) be doing at that time of year to improve your garden railroad experience News items about garden railroading manufacturers, trends, and events How Often Does the Family Garden Trains(tm) Newsletter Come? Generally, we send between two and four newsletters a year, so you won't exactly be overwhelmed. Will the Mailing List be used for Anything Else? If our team members are participating in a garden or model railroading event that is in your region, we may give you a heads-up about that by e-mail. However we almost never remember to do that, so you're probably safe on that score. :-) How Will I Know if I'm On the Right List? A few days after you sign up, we will try to send you a reply including our most recent newsletter as a "test" to make certain that the address you give us is correct. This will also give you a chance to determine if the newsletter contains the kind of information you wish to continue receiving. How Much Does the Family Garden Trains(tm) Newsletter Cost? At this time, it is free. However, if we continue to have trouble with fake signups, we may start charging a nominal fee of $1 an issue - that's the only thing we have found that keeps all scammers and spammers away; they never spend their own money. We have set up a PayPal button on the next page in case you want to start supporting us this way now. But if you sign up now with accurate and complete information, you will continue to get the newsletter for free indefinitely. What Happens if I Unsubscribe? We understand that interests change and life takes unexpected turns. If you prefer to stop receiving our newsletter for any reason at all, please let us know using the "Unsubscribe" link we include near the top of each issue. We will try to take you off our mailing list before the next newsletter comes out. As always, you may continue to access all of our articles absolutely free and to contact us with any question at all, whether or not you are "on our list." Usually we put your e-mail address in a sort of "do not call" file so if someone tries to resubscribe you later, we know to make extra sure the request is deliberate. If you request that we remove all trace of your information from our systems and files, we can do that for you as well. In fact, if you live in Europe, that's the ordinary procedure. Just promise you won't get upset if you accidentally subscribe again and start getting newsletters (yes, it has happened, several times). What About US Mail Options In addition, we occasionally have the opportunity to send information by US mail (usually once a year or less). This may include information of regional interest or product catalogs supplied by our advertisers. If you want to occasionally receive such mailings, please check the "yes" box after the US mail question. Again, we will not sell or give this information to anyone else, but if a manufacturer such as PIKO or MTH gives us materials to send out to our readers, we will forward them to you. We don't have a "US mail" version of the newsletter, though. What if I Have Other Questions? Please contact us with any questions about the newsletter. If you have questions about garden railroading topics, please put them into the comment box in the form below. Thanks, and happy railroading, Paul Race Family Garden Trains Please contact us using this form. If you ask any questions, we'll try get back to you within 48 hours. 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(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 Newsletter Signup - Would you like to receive the "Family Garden Trains(tm) Newsletter," our quarterly newsletter on Garden Railroading and related topics?TM Note: if you send in this message, but you don't check the "yes" box below, you will not get on our mailing list. Yes No Comments or Questions (Required) Please enter something specific about your model train or other hobby interests so we know you're a real person. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kinds of problems that result from not establishing if folks on our mailing list were real people: Many of the requests were fraudulent but used real domain names like .AOL.com and OptOnline.net. So when we sent e-mails to those, those domain name servers flagged us as spammers and blocked us from all of their real customers. It also gave people who were really only interested in plagiarizing our material for their own sites access to information they wouldn't have had otherwise. And since the information they had given us was fake, we couldn't even take them off the list. we got many fake signups from scammers who had no interest in our content, but hoped that getting on our mailing list would somehow give them access to our real readers' information (it doesn't, but I don't like having those folks on our e-mail list indefinitely). Finally, getting a lot of signups that might or might not be from real people interested in our content has eaten up a lot of our time trying to sort the wheat from the tares - time we'd rather be spending woking on the railroad or adding worthwhile content. Return to text. 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 Visit related pages and affiliated sites: - Trains and Hobbies - - Christmas Memories and Collectibles - - Family Activities and Crafts - - Music -