About 25 years ago, I saw an adorable train chugging around a Christmas tree. I bought a set for my husband, Fred, that included a large-scale engine, several cars, and a caboose—all decorated in a holiday theme. The set came with enough track to encircle the Christmas tree. The next year, Fred bought enough track to expand the route through the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
We learned that a group of large-scale [G] enthusiasts was forming a Garden Railroad Club. We joined in 1991 and a hobby was born.
The G-scale trains are intended to run outdoors. The tracks are ballasted just like full-size tracks. Instead of blasting through rock walls, building bridges to cross the river, or tunneling through a mountain, we can build tunnels, mountains, lakes, creeks, and bridges where we want them. The buildings on our layout are mostly built from kits. A few were made from scratch by Fred or friends. We arranged our buildings to form a town square—homage to the South. We have a hillside neighborhood, shanty town located near the tracks, and a farm house with a barn, chicken coop, and pig pen. A logging operation is a tribute to my early years in the Northwest.
Three hundred “people” and about that many animals populate our train community. You might even see some fairies. We find these figures at garage sales, hobby stores, and at National Garden Railroad Conventions held yearly throughout the United States.
Fred’s first engine after the Christmas train was a replica of a Baldwin steam engine called the Uintah. We discovered that it was an actual railroad that ran from Mack, Colorado to Watson, Utah from 1904 to 1940. Its main purpose was to haul gilsonite, a hydrocarbon resin product used to make asphalt and black paint. Henry Ford was a frequent buyer of this product. We drove the old rail line with a retired trainman who knew the history well, and saw the remains of the Black Dragon Gilsonite Mine, the wooded area at the summit where families would gather for picnics. We saw Lake McAndrews where blocks of ice were harvested in the winter months.
These places inspired our garden railroad town, Mack, CO, elevation 4,521. We duplicated the Black Dragon mine, and added wild horses and oil wells like we saw in the desolate landscape. Our next project is an ice house.
I first became interested in miniature arrangements when, as a 6 year old, I was mesmerized by a storefront display of tiny figures and shrubs set in sand. So it was quite a delight to arrange various people and animals in different settings in our railroad town (a small dog licking a little girl’s ice cream cone and a young boy sneaking out of his two-story home).
I also remember helping my Mom and Dad grow vegetables and flowers. Choosing miniature plants and trees for our layout and learning their growth habits and bloom times was great fun. I carried my miniature plant catalog wherever I traveled so I could bring home the perfect speciman—one that wouldn’t grow 4-5 feet tall. I also learned a few bonsai techniques.
Our garden railroad has living vegetation that represents shrubs, grass, trees, pastures, and fields of flowers. We use dwarf Alberta spruce trees, trimmed to represent forest trees. Rosemary, lavender, basil, oregano, thyme, sedum, sage phlox, and rue are also used.
Garden railroading is a hobby that has kept us busy and content for more than 25 years. M! April/Mary 2016
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