Christy and Bernie Alsbrook started their hobby of garden railroading in 2005, with a trip to that year's National Garden Railway Convention in Chicago.
This year's convention will be July 6-11 in Denver, with dozens of vendors, how-to sessions and tours of 33 garden train layouts in and around the Colorado capital city. More information is available at ngrc2015.com.
The 2016 get-together will be in San Francisco, and 2017 in Tulsa. Meantime, the Garden Trains Association offers a free guide, Beginning Garden Railroading at gardentrains.org.
The booklet offers these tips:
• One locomotive and three or four cars (rolling stock) "are all you really need."
• A steep or hilly yard might have to be "smoothed out some."
• Choose low-growing and miniature plants to match the size of the train. Rocks and dirt complete the natural look.
• Outdoor layouts are liable to be subjected to damage and theft when nobody is home, and need to be "made secure."
• One way to bring the train indoors is to route it through a hole in the wall, into the garage for safe storage.
HomeStyle on 05/16/2015