|
|
|
|
Hodgepodge & Whimsy Garden Railroad History
The Hodgepodge & Whimsy Garden Railroad is totally the fault of my loving wife, Sheri. Several years ago she gave me a toy for my birthday - a G scale Bachman train set. At Christmas I set it up and ran it around the tree. This was neat; it brought back many childhood (or childish) memories. After Christmas, I was told to take the train set apart and put it away when we took the tree down. This was frustrating - what good is a train in a box? Being a crafty and clever fellow, I waited until one weekend when
the dear woman left town to visit her mother. A few trips Before long I had more than two trains, and no place to run them. Plus, one of my favorite trains was too large to run on the small radius curves of the den tracks. A friend at church told me about garden railroads, and a dream (or nightmare) began to form. I began reading all I could find on garden railroads, which was not a lot. Then a miracle occurred. Both kids finished college, got jobs, and left home. Suddenly there was a tiny bit of money left at the end of each month. Not wanting to change my style of living and actually have money, I decided to start building the H&WGRR. The original construction began in November 1997, undertaken single-handedly by a not too bright man with a bad back, a weak mind, and an unrealistic budget. The basic track design was inspired by an article in Garden Railways Magazine, and was refined sitting in the waiting room at the local hospital while my wife was treated for a migraine. If she only knew how many additional headaches that migraine would lead to............ The original construction and landscaping were
completed in April 1998, just in time for the wedding of our youngest
son. In November 1998, a rock retaining wall was built on the
South end of the railroad. The wall looked so good, another wall
was built, then another and another. Pretty soon, 55 tons of
sandstone rock had been added and the garden railroad became a rock
garden railroad. This second phase of construction (or
destruction, depending on your point of view) and landscaping was
completed in May 1999. You are visitor number This page was last updated on .02/13/00
|
to Lowe's and I had built a
shelf around the top of our den, which has a cathedral ceiling.
By the time my unsuspecting wife returned from her visit, we had 80
feet of double track circling the top of the den. This setup was
well liked by everyone who saw it, except for my wife and the family
dog, who went bananas every time I ran the train (the dog, not the
wife - she was more subtle).