Welcome to the world of Minnesota garden railways.

 

What attracts us to this branch of the hobby? The memory of children’s books depicting small animals living in tree trunks behind little doors and windows? The urge to run a real steam engine?The disenchantment with building small-scale models with almost invisible detail? The longing for living foliage instead of lichen and real rocks instead of plaster-covered cardboard? The search for a hobby we might share with a spouse?

 

Many challenges face the backyard empire builder. Dealing with heavy dirt and rock, lots of it. Kneeling and squatting to lay track and maintain plantings. Putting up with weather and creating a layout able to withstand rain, snow, wind, dust, sunlight, frost, critters, and weeds. Closing the railroad most of the winter.

 

But offsetting these challenges are many rewards. Large scale trains, easier to handle and detail than their smaller cousins, also have a certain mass and presence that you don’t get in small scales. They move through a living environment, under the sky and sun, in light which changes from hour to hour and month to month. If you wish, so much can be real: a real steam engine pulling cars built up board by board with real nails and bolts, running over bodies of real water on real steel or concrete bridges, past real rock cliffs, through fields of real greenery or flowers. Steel will rust naturally, wood will weather, paint will peel. You just don’t have to fake as much.    

 

And instead of holing up in a basement railroad room, it’s pretty darn nice to spend summer hobby hours outdoors. Especially in Minnesota.

 

Now once again, spring is here. While some of us have been busy all winter with new projects, others are just now beginning to think about another season of garden railroading. There’ll be new plants, new friends, maybe a new engine or building. It’s time to dust off, dig up, prune back, recharge, and schedule an Open House.