Phil: I expected to look down on garden railroads in more ways than one: How could anybody have a big toy in a garden and still have it look attractive? Instead, I found them to be worlds unto themselves, created by ardent people passionate about their dual hobbies.
The garden railroaders we visited certainly are dedicated. But unlike other hobbies (such as golf), these people literally leave tracks, so to speak. You can see how they spend their time, while a golfer, who may spend hours a week on his sport, will have just a few golf clubs and old scorecards lying around.
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Plants for garden railroads
• Dwarf conifers
• Dwarf elms
• Azaleas
• Bulbs
• Grasses
• Perennials
The Miniature Kingdom Nursery in Sebastopol, Calif., (www.miniplantkingdom.com)
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These rail systems are not just in the corner of a yard; in some cases they are the yard, with hundreds of feet of track. I always think of gardening as creating your own reality, recreating your view of nature in your own back yard. These people do the same, only with trains running through it.
Call it an obsession; I call it magnificent.
Darrell: Each railroad garden we saw had track running from outside to the interior of a workshop. The engines, which are generally not left out in the weather, can be stored and strings of cars made up before venturing out. I've seen less adventurous garage-door systems! Real dirt, real rocks, real grasses and plants and the inevitable mudslide, that's what garden railroading is all about.
While some hobbyists build trains, buildings and peripherals from kits, others like to "scratch build." But if you are a modifier of kits, you are affectionately called a "kit-basher."
To learn more
The Garden Train Association: www.gardentrains.org or call 888-733-2500.
Garden Railways magazine: www.gardenrailways.com or 800-533-6644.
Puget Sound Garden Railway Society, Inc.: www.psgrs.org or 800-533-6644. Though the Puget Sound Garden Railway Society doesn't offer public tours of its members' garden railroads, people who might consider joining the group are welcome to attend meetings and participate in club tours. For information, call 360-871-2820.
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Phil: The first garden we visited was created by Mike and Janet Elmore, of Marysville, and reminded me of a Japanese garden. Enclosed by a carefully crafted wood fence, the garden was a private world in miniature. The owners work together to create the garden, Mike doing the construction and Janet taking care of the plants. It seems that one distinction of the garden-train fanciers is that women are included (garden-trainers claim women are excluded from the chambers of indoor model-train hobbyists).
Darrell: I have heard it said that indoor railroading is like a "Star Trek" convention on rails. Of course, I would never say anything like that. No matter who said it, all sexes seem to be welcome in garden railroading, which undoubtedly accounts for much of its growth.
John Morrison, of Redmond, has a garden railroad — and he is not a geek. He and his wife, Janet, have a setup that's less about landscape and more about trains and train paraphernalia. Says John: "This is a train that happens to run outdoors."
His setup takes over the entire backyard and parts of both sideyards, but does not overwhelm it. While standing inside, it looks like any other suburban yard, but when walking around outside, you have to be careful not to step on track.
Phil: On the Morrisons' miniature pub was a sign that said, "Free Beer Tomorrow," and a hotel was named the "Di Milo Arms." These people, like all garden railroaders, have fun with their hobby and get a lot of fresh air, too.
Our whirlwind visit allowed little time for in-depth plant studies, but I do have a couple of observations. Some garden-train people use plants that are in scale with their trains. In the Elmores' garden, Janet used Japanese maple seedlings as small trees and clipped them back occasionally as informal bonsai. These, combined with dwarf conifers, made an effective small forest.
In another garden, in Renton, Heinz Eberle planted dwarf conifers to recall the trees of his native Alps, complete with a ski-lift tram.
Darrell: That's great and all, Phil, but instead of dwarfing the ants and plants, why not just super-size the trains? Personally, one thing I would like to see super-sized is the miniature naked woman I spotted on a swimming dock in Eberle's garden. Heinz's partner, Irmi McKinstry, laughed and told me that only men seem to be able to spot her so quickly, since all the other miniature people are wearing bathing suits or clothes.
Eberle's setup takes up an area probably 30 by 75 feet. He has a huge yard, so it did not overwhelm the place which, honestly, I thought was nice. It was not the centerpiece of the yard, but rather a diversion.
Heinz was big on little — little plants more to scale than many of the others, and a very cool train garage with electric doors cut into a basement converted from a crawlspace. He uses air switches for tracks rather than electric motors to avoid corrosion (unfortunately, he also had several derailments). Heinz even built a gorgeous church out of thousands of tiny pieces of green marble, with a copper roof.
Phil: Standing in a garden with a carefully detailed landscape, with not only small trains running through it but villages, streets, bridges and water features, I felt like a giant, like Gulliver falling into Lilliput. There is something about trains that makes people want to create a world for the tracks to run through, so it's not just about transportation, which is just the thread that holds the creation together.
Darrell: For the Elmores, that thread holds together one mighty creation. Their intricate setup takes up the entire backyard — every inch of it — and some of the sideyard for a grandkids' "Disneyland Train" theme. The train runs into the house (if Mike puts it on the right track) through a hole cut into two ends of a sunroom. They obviously are talented gardeners and have been building their backyard since 1990. Friends and relatives help them build stuff, and future plans call for a roundhouse and turntable over the septic tank lid. I love that.
They have a "river town" with lights and a sawmill that spews real steam and smoke and working saws and log rollers. (Funny thing, the sawmill caught on fire once with two local fire-commander friends at the house.) His trestles are built out of scrap wood — tiny pieces of scrap wood!
Mike said the tracks tend to oxidize and get mossy, and they need to be cleaned occasionally in this climate.
The Elmores recently hosted 1,600-1,800 people when the national garden-train convention was in the area. (Though most local garden railroads don't participate in public tours, the train clubs have national or regional conventions, and in the process they tour local layouts of significance.)
Phil: You know, there are 120 garden train clubs nationwide, with 37,000 participants who have transformed their gardens into miniature kingdoms.
Darrell: Thinking about that very statistic, standing in awe at one home, I thought to myself, "How would this person ever sell this place to anyone other than a fellow garden railroader?" What a shame to dismantle it when it comes time to move.
You probably could get started in this hobby with an investment of around $250, which will get you a circular track, an engine and cars. The gardens we visited each had hundreds of feet of track (lots of parallel tracks and interlooping areas), but you could build a gorgeous setup with much less, like 40 feet or so.
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See the trains
To see some of the model trains used in garden railroading (but not the gardens they run through), visit the Great American Train Show at the Puyallup Fairgrounds' Pavilion/Expo Hall from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 20 and 21. Admission is $7 for adults; there's a $1-off coupon available at www.gats.com. Children under 12 are free. More information: 818-957-2031, ext. 205.
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Trains can be battery-powered, or garner power through the rail in a more traditional manner (12 volts — and, of course, all are grounded and GFCI-protected).
Remote controls are used quite extensively. For whatever reason, when I used the controls, the train kept slowing down and blasting the steam whistle whenever it went by the naked woman in Eberle's garden. They really need to get that problem fixed.
Phil: I always thought I would save rock gardening for my old age, so I could easily tend a collection of miniature plants in a small space. Now I see that with a garden train, you can have a garden for your second childhood sooner rather than later.
Phil Wood has a degree in landscape architecture and designs and builds gardens. Call 206-464-8533 or e-mail thegardendesigner@seattletimes.com with your questions. Sorry, no personal replies.
Darrell Hay is a local home inspector and manages several rental properties.
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