Garden Railway Tour

If you would like to have an early look at Split Rock Canyon Railway just click on this link: http://davesgarden.com/journal/ed/index.php?tabid=4368

Enjoy! --Ginny

I did enjoy Ginny. That's fabulous! We used to talk about doing a train in the garden, but now DH says, it would sure be nice, but you know there are some things that we just aren't going to get to do. So I guess that's a no. But I will enjoy watching you finish yours. That's one diary tab I'm watching for sure. I love it.

Hey, now! That's quite a project. Holy mackerel, how long has it taken you to do that? Are you the railroad hobbyist? Great job!

Sandy

Thanks ladies. I'm glad you enjoyed the tour. Yes, it was me who originally floated the train idea, but my DH has become just as involved as I am. Our division of labour has evolved to him designing the track layouts and doing the manual labour for the most part, and me designing the landscaping and future town layouts (those will be separate lines - this one is going to be a mining operation only) and building the structures that we don't buy pre-built.

From first conception of the idea to inaugural running of the train it took us about a year and a half, but not because it actually took that long working on it every day. LOL It was one of those things where we started without having a clear idea of what we wanted the end result to be, so we would get half way there and decide that wasn't it.....and tear it all up again! We did that about three different times.

Finally this year we sat down and thought it through and scaled back on how much we needed in place to actually get it up and running and looking good. Prior to that we had been going for the grand slam so to speak, and that was just way too much to try for at once. Now we are improving it incrementally.

What you see there now probably took a combined effort of about 14 days of steady work, eight to ten hours a day. That would be from marking out the ground to laying the timbers and shovelling soil, to moving rock into place, forming hills and streams and laying track, and finally planting. Everything has to be done manually because it's on such a small scale (1:22.5). For example, in this scale a 16 by 14 foot structure becomes 22 cm. by 19 cm.

If it ever stops raining this weekend I plan to take a few more pictures and add them to my diary. We have planted more conifers and some heathers and ground covers, and the station house is in place. The water tower is ready to be put into place as soon as we build the platform for it, and some of the track design has been changed. I'll post to this thread when I do post new pics.

--Ginny

Oh boy, Ginny, My two and a half yrs old twin boys would absolutely be enamoured with this set-up! Everything right now is Thomas, this and Thomas that

Thanks Roselaine. I can just imagine how your boys might be enchanted with it - just because it has trains :-) Too bad we don't live in the same neck of the woods. They would always be welcome to come and play and watch the trains. They're absolutely adorable!

--Ginny

Wonderful set-up Ginny! Ü By any chance is your husband a dentist? http://www.fborfw.com/char_pgs/john/ ;)

Hi Pam,

I actually answered this post very early this morning, but it seems to have disappeared somehow! Here's what it said:

Thanks Pam. No, my DH is not a dentist, but he does share a number of John's qualities. I'm a very lucky girl!

--Ginny

Just checking. ;)

As his he (lucky that is) as well I'm sure.

Great pictures. What a fantastic job you've done

Thank you :-) We've had a fantastically fun time doing this too. --Ginny

New pics now available. Enjoy!

--Ginny

WOW, what an amazing amount of work that's going into this. It's wonderful to look at.

Linda

Fantastic! I love following the construction of your raiway. I can't wait till you finish it.

We're having the time of our life with this. It's almost like kids playing make believe :-) I'm glad you're having fun too.

--Ginny

Wow Ginnylynn! What a great way to get your DH working on the garden. So what I want to know is how you determine what is next in the purchase area. Machinery or dwarf conifer? I suppose the train station has a plant inspector too.

LOL What we decide to buy at any given time depends on how much free cash we have. If we have lots, we buy rolling stock (locomotives and cars), buildings, bridges, etc. If we just have a little bit extra I shop the department stores, garden centres, even grocery stores for dwarf conifers.

I've really been hoping to find some dwarf deciduous trees too, but I think the closest I'll get on that is to get bonsai. The only (online) resource I've found for those so far is a U.S. company that won't/can't ship to Canada. I may have to learn how to do bonsai too :-)

Nope - no plant inspector. They don't need one. (grin) In keeping with the Split Rock Canyon Mining Company's environmental protection policy they invite ministry officers into their operation on a regular basis to make sure the flora and fauna are happy and healthy. I'm told they are going to sponsor a "Friends of the Split Rock Canyon" environmental protection group to be made up of community volunteers too - and Mr. Cooper is confident that Mr. Earl Bancroft will "volunteer" to provide leadership to the group :-)

Ginny - What a great project! Thanks for sharing your progress. Many moons ago I visited a large scale railway garden not far from where my husband lived in England. He visited it as a child and it is just magical. Here is a link to Beckonscot Village: http://www.bekonscot.com. I browsed the site a little bit and on the history page there is a link to the International Association of Miniature Parks with links to other sites around the world.

Susan

This is a fabulous site Susan - thank you so much! Many, many ideas to be had here :-)

--Ginny