Training gardens

11-18-2001

Model railroading has been popular for almost as long as there have been trains. Electric HO and O gauge layouts have circled Christmas trees for decades, and expansive model train displays still draw crowds to museums and science centers around the country.

(For the sake of reference, gauge refers to the reduction scale of tracks and trains. O gauge is 1/4 inch per foot and HO is 1/8 inch per foot.)

The most venerable of these local public displays will open its 81st year Friday at the Carnegie Science Center. The perennially popular Miniature Railroad and Village traces its routes back to 1920 and Charles Bowdish, a disabled World War I vet who laid down the first version in Brookville, Jefferson County, near Altoona. Bowdish's display attracted throngs each year before it was moved to Buhl Planetarium in 1954.

In its 10th season at the Science Center, this year's additions include a replica of Emmanuel Episcopal Church and the suspension bridge pioneer John Roebling's home and cable winding operation in Saxonburg. Trains run all year except February, October and November. For information: www.carnegiesciencecenter.org or 412-237-3400.

Train-loving readers may be less aware of another local, first-class HO gauge model railroad.

The main attraction at the Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum, at Route 910 and Hardt Road in Richland, is a 40-foot-by-100-foot working scale model of the Western Maryland line, which ran along the Mon, Yough and Castleman rivers between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md.

This is the same roadbed now followed by the Great Allegheny Passage trail, so its twists, turns and trestles will be especially interesting to bicycle riders, as will scale model displays of cities and towns along the way, modeled as they looked in the mid-1950s.

The display is maintained by some 70 volunteer members. Its annual holiday season started on Friday and continues weekends through Jan. 13. (Hours: 6 to 9 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. For information: 724-444-6944 or www.wpmrm.org)

For those willing to travel farther, the Cinergy/CSX Holiday Model in the marble-pillared lobby of the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. is one of the world's largest HO displays, with 1,000 feet of track, 50 locomotives and 300 train cars. This year's edition runs from Friday to Dec. 31. For information: www. cinergy.com/train or 513-287-1500.

HO and O are not, however, the only gauges around. Another type of model training has been picking up steam in recent decades. Readers of the For Better or Worse comic strip know about so-called garden railroads. These setups are designated O-gauge, with everything else on a scale of 1/2 inch per foot. Using meticulously detailed model trains and live, appropriately-sized plants, enthusiasts transform their yards into elaborate railroad displays.

Large-scale garden railroads got rolling in Britain a century ago, as the royal and rich competed to re-create famous railroad settings. Briefly popular in the 1920s, garden railroads didn't catch on here until the late 1960s. Combining two popular hobby passions, model railroading and gardening, the movement has spread across the land, with several hundred garden railroad clubs maintaining active displays.

Though too small to actually ride, these trains are impressively large. Locomotives measure 2 feet or more and weigh 10 pounds; the freight and passenger cars are even longer. All landscaping is done with live plants and, like the buildings, are appropriately scaled to the setting. Designed for outdoor use, most garden railroads are electric, but some are driven by miniature steam engines.

Most garden railroads are privately run by local clubs, but many displays are open to the public.

Though by no means the most botanically impressive of Phipps Conservatory's holiday displays, the garden railroad has been a consistent crowd pleaser since it was installed three years ago. Attendance at the Oakland facility nearly doubled during the first season, and this year's display, which rolls on through Feb. 24, continues that tradition. The 327 feet of track laid out in the three train displays tour 1,250 square feet of wooded hills, streams, valleys foliated with evergreens, coleus, thyme, moss sedums and ferns. For information, contact 412-622-6914 or visit www.phipps.conservatory.org

Many public garden railroad displays are seasonal.

There is an impressive, indoor one at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It features an 8-foot scale model of the gardens' Victorian Conservatory, as well as models of other famous buildings from Manhattan's five boroughs (718-817-8700 or www.nybg.org).

Other outdoor railroads run in the summer, when gardens are in full flower. They include displays at the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia (215-247-5777 or www.upenn.edu/morris) and the Chicago Botanic Gardens (847-835-5440 or www.chicagobotanic.org).

Open April through October, the Thanksgiving Point layout in Lehi, Utah, is the country's largest public garden railroad. Situated south of Salt Lake City, its 4,000 feet of track wind through a miniature conifer garden the size of a football field and up, over and through a 25-foot-high mountain.

Still other garden railroads entertain spectators year round.

Notable Florida garden layouts include the popular German Village at Disneyworld's Epcot Center in Orlando, and the Island in the Sky Railroad in Cypress Gardens. The Mid-South Garden Railway Society is located in Lakeland, Tenn. In Colorado, there are the Denver Garden Railroad at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, and Hudson Garden Railroad in Littleton. Also, there a model railroad at the Botanical Garden in Albuquerque, N.M. The Houston Area G Gaugers layout covers 2,500 square feet and features two main lines and a cogwheel railroad

In Sunday Travel on Sept. 9, Samantha Bennett profiled the amazing railroad and miniature village at Cullen Garden in Whitby, Ont. Other significant Canadian displays include the Hockley Valley Railroad in Orangeville, Ont., and the Greater Vancouver Garden Railway.

Finally, the Fairplex Garden Railroad, which started in 1924 and has been operating at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in more than a mile and a half of track, is one of the largest. Its four main train lines, five trolleys and two truck routes operate through mountains, farmlands, lakes, rivers, towns and deserts. Four interactive areas allow visitors to operate trains on 10 additional loops and through a mountain mining scene.

All make engaging visits for model train buffs, young and old.

For more information on these garden railroads, contact the Large Scale Model Railroad Association at www.largescale.org.

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