LGRS - Twin Ponds Garden Railroad - Terry & Diane - 08-23-14

(Blog Entry by Bob)


London Garden Railroad Society had its annual open house on August 23rd. My dad and I jumped into the car and drove to visit a selection of their member's layouts. I am going to feature some railroads that I took photographs of over the upcoming weeks (with the owners permission of course).

6th & last stop of the day.   Terry & Diane's layout takes up their entire backyard and side-yards. This layout has everything: train storage house (6 rails wide), several bridges, tunnels, a golf course, farms, towns, brewery, lumber yard, oil refinery, ponds and a big mountain for mining.  I was overwhelmed with everything and as I circled I kept finding details that I had missed before. I loved the use of Mini-beer kegs and propane tanks for structures in the refinery and brewery.  They had used many ideas and technics I'd never seen used before making the whole layout a fantastic inspiration of what a layout can become. My photos could not capture the whole splendor of what they have created.

LGRS Open House Tour - Canyon Coal Railroad - 08-23-14

(Blog entry by Bob)

LGRS - Canyon Coal Railroad - Mark & Brenda - 08-23-14

London Garden Railroad Society had its annual open house on August 23rd. My dad and I jumped into the car and drove to visit a selection of their member's layouts. I am going to feature some railroads that I took photographs of over the upcoming weeks (with the owners permission of course).

5th stop of the day.  Mark & Brenda's Railroad is a delicious train hide-away.  A secret path leads to a spacious side deck with an outdoor bar featuring plexiglass showing a train display inside.

The layout wrap-arounds the entire yard starting at the base of the bar, across the deck, along the fence looping back along the house to join up again at the bottom of the deck.

Once I left the deck the first thing I noticed was the large metal lift bridge spanning from the back corner of the house towards the rear fence.  Mark told me the bridge was installed to get the lawnmower from one side of the lawn to the other.  With adjustable track expanders the bridge opens and closes effortlessly.

It was a treat to see a Mikado Locomotive dragging a line of coal cars.  I am excited about the coal mine and wire mesh mountains they are building around the back of the house and hope to get invited back next year to see the progression.

LGRS Open House Tour - P & R Railroad - 08-23-14

(Blog entry by Bob)

LGRS - P&R Railroad - Mark & Melanie - 08-23-14

London Garden Railroad Society had its annual open house on August 23rd. My dad and I jumped into the car and drove to visit a selection of their member's layouts. I am going to feature some railroads that I took photographs of over the upcoming weeks (with the owners permission of course).

4th stop was just behind the fence of Chipmunk's Garden Railroad and a couple of lots over. I would love to have a G-Scale store in my backyard! A gorgeous backyard with a large pond at the top end of the layout. I was too distracted by the trains to take pictures of the waterfall. What also caught my attention were the wooden buildings, a firehall and locomotive shed. I loved the attention to detail in places like the Harley Davison Shop, the grounds keeper in the cemetary and the rail crew working on the switch point. I wish we could have stayed longer here because I could easily relax away and afternoon watching the trains run.

LGRS Open House Tour - Chipmunk Garden Railroad - 08-23-14

LGRS - Chipmunk Garden Railroad - David & Janet - 08-23-14

London Garden Railroad Society had its annual open house on August 23rd.  My dad and I jumped into the car and drove to visit a selection of their member's layouts. I am going to feature some railroads that I took photographs of over the upcoming weeks (with the owners permission of course).

When we arrived at Chipmunk Garden Railroad,  we were warmly greeted by it's owner Dave.  He had quite a large selection of Piko Locomotives, rolling stock, buildings and track on sale.  All his merchandise can be found on his On-line Site:
http://www.chipmunkrailroad.ca/

He also told us of his free shipping for anyone within 100km of London Ontario.
Unfortunately I did not have money for any new purchases. I was only here to see trains run.

I was most excited that he had modeled modern Canadian National, the same as us.  I liked how he modeled the roads and the lay out of the streets.  When talking to him about weed control, I liked his use of stones to help prevent root growth. It appeared that the local chipmunks were enjoying his layout as much as we were.

LGRS Open House Tour - Waubuno & Thames Valley Railroad - 08-23-14

LGRS - Waubuno & Thames Valley Railroad - GERRY, JULIE & SCOTT - 08-23-14

London Garden Railroad Society had its annual open house on August 23rd.  My dad and I jumped into the car and drove to visit a selection of their member's layouts. I am going to feature some railroads that I took photographs of over the upcoming weeks (with the owners permission of course).

This was the second stop in the  London Garden Railroad Society Open House.

This layout is truly a family effort, with Julie modelling the layout, her husband Gerry working on the landscaping and Scott providing the electrical and computer controls.  The computer monitors the power supply and can tell which rail block the trains are running in by the current draw.  I assume this means their trains never crash because they ran very smooth while we were there.

I was impressed by everything about this layout, from the hand-built buildings, the staging and details added to the scenes, the landscaping of stone, dirt and plants and the overall size.  It was like a train oasis in your own backyard.

This is the type of layout that you want to get into the middle of to be surrounded by all the action. 





























I really enoyed the separate "grandchildren layout" decorated with princesses and fun things.  By studying how everything was created, this gave me tonnes of ideas for things I would like to try on my own layout.  It is a true inspiration!