| The history of the West Berlin Garden Railroad dates back to the Christmas of 1990. I had been watching the Large-scale growth in the hobby stores for about a year when, I came across a "Big Hauler" set at Allied Hobbies for about $100. After doing 'N' scale for a few years, and going almost blind doing so, I decided to give my eyes a break and try large scale. That year the train was around the tree and, I would watch it go around and around for hours. I purchased a few more cars in the next few months and started to buy 'Garden Railways" magazine, both current and back issues...Man, I was hooked. In the spring of 1991 I bought some LGB track and installed my first garden railroad complete with one building and built it in an existing garden on the backside of the house. The township was planning to install city sewerage in our development and I knew if I had placed the railroad any place else in my yard it would be destroyed. Watching my train going around this small oval lasted about 2 months. I needed to expand, but needed to be careful not to expand into the yard. So, after contemplating the expansion it was decided to follow the hedges to the back of the yard. One problem, a sidewalk. Solution, a tunnel. So, I dug out and reinforced a tunnel under the sidewalk to the open back yard. The layout took on the "dogbone" shape and now the train could be longer, running on about 100 feet of track. Between the rains and the gathering of acorns and leaves, the tunnel was removed and the rails now crossed the sidewalk in cuts provided by a concrete saw. 1993 brought on track failure so Bachmann Radio controlled engines were used with great success. Late spring 1995 the yard was ripped up to install the city sewerage. This was finished by June, and work on the NEW (existing) garden railroad began to take shape. After a few revisions and expansions from 1997-2001, the railroad is now in a plot 25X40 with over 800 feet of powered Aristo and LGB track (track connections are Aristo rail connector screws and Split Jaw rail clamps. I have a duel mainline, 4 powered switches, trolley line, storage yard, and it also has the ability to store 3 "ready to run" trains on block tracks. I built plug in control boxes for the blocks and switches for easy hook up. Sadly, In the spring of 2001, I landscaped the backyard with gardens and walkways that will prevent this hobby from expanding any further. |
