Garden Railway & Santa Fe Garden Railroad

On a hot, fateful Friday, I took a day off from work, and a truckload of dirt arrived in my driveway. It was moved, one wheelbarrow at a time, around the side and into the area which had been a low spot and water standing part of the backyard. I did have help from a pastor friend and his teenage son. The next week began the first of many trips, which continue today, to the House of Rocks in Merriam Kansas. I loaded 600 pounds of various flat rock into the back of my van and headed back home. In fact, many times I left for work with a pair of jeans and old shoes in the van, and made more stops at the house of rocks on the way home.

After reading "Garden Railway" magazines over and over, I decided I wanted the roadbed to consist of crushed rock in a trench 6 inches deep, then with the track laid over it and ballasted. This is still in use today, and has held up pretty well under severe thunderstorms, freezing sleet, snow and whatever else comes along.

I prepared the roadbed by digging the trench needed, putting ground barrier material in the trench to keep out the weeds, filled with chat, then a layer of buckshot gravel, placed the track, leveled it and finished with "crusher fines". In later years I learned to add a mix of water and TiteBond II glue from large containers to the mix. It works, and is basically the same concept as used on the HO layout using white glue and water.

Two LGB mogul steam engines were purchased along with the LGB DRGW #50 diesel. LGB and Bachmann rolling stock became the mainstay of the car fleet, along with a few Delton brand cars. All cars and engines were converted to Kadee G gauge body mounted couplers. Two ten wheeler steam engines with Barry Chassis were added and finally a Barry/Bachmann 2-8-0. Life was good.

I didn’t like the heavy rail used on the track I had purchased, and began a search for something that looked more in tune with the scale and the railroad. I discovered Llagas Creek in California. I ordered some of their track in code 250, aluminum rail, along with some # 6 turnouts and was hooked immediately.

I then began the process of converting to the new Llagas Creek track and switches, which was a financial drain, but a wise choice. I purchased track gauges, a rail bender and aluminum rail and soon the entire railroad was rebuilt. I had wider curves, switches that didn’t derail and now it was becoming another model railroad in my eyes.

Obviously the track plan changed, more expansion until finally a true point to point with wyes for turning engines emerged.

About that same time, I bought an Aristo FA diesel. I knew that Aristo was not "totally to scale" but it looked good and impressed me. I then purchased a second Aristo diesel, this time a U25B and rediscovered modern railroading for outdoors. Being a "rivet counter" in HO gauge, I carried that tendency into large scale for a short period, but then realized that from a close up perspective, they looked pretty much scale to me. I chose not to see the few non scale features and instead enjoyed outdoor railroading.

About the same period, USA Trains began selling diesels like the GP38, GP7/9, and the NW2 switchers and I was hooked all over again. I had already taken notice that my track and roadbed were more standard gauge than narrow gauge so that meant no changes in that department.

So in 1999, the final decision was made to bring the layout out of narrow gauge and into the standard gauge world and it has remained so since then. A roster is posted on this site to reinforce my decision.