Create A Moving Story

Todd and Lina Brody’s Tortoise & Lizard Bash Railroad in San Diego. Photo: Nancy Norris

When the Bay Area Garden Railway Society (BAGRS) set up the Roving Garden Railroad at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, folks stopped in their tracks. People marveled at the scale countryside and village with mountains and shrubbery. Three large (G-scale) trains ran past bonsai-like trees with tiny groundcovers, amid real rocks and a running waterfall. Awestruck show-goers asked, “Why haven’t I heard of this [hobby] before?” Potential converts imagined their own backyard railroad gardens. BAGRS volunteers kept busy handing out resources lists to help them get started.

Sparking stories

How do backyard railway gardeners get their ideas? Some take cross-country trips on Amtrak or ride excursions on century-old steam trains, such as Roaring Camp Railroads. Back home, some like to model the geography of picturesque railroads, including replicas of famous bridges and the chasms or watercourses they cross, or they model their towns and incorporate structures they see every day. Each garden railway paints a pict...