Chesapeake & Appalachian Railway

Here are a few of my favorite pix of my layout -

and the crew of the Dunkirk on a quick video tour of the layout

and my 7/8n2 scale rail tractor with JeanLuc at the helm (go to YouTube by clicking on the logo to see the HiDef version)

-Brian

The Washington, Virginia & Maryland Garden Railway Society (wvmgrs.org) is one of the oldest and largest garden railway clubs in the country. Membership ranks well over 100. Members meet monthly at members houses which are typically outdoors from April until November. During meetings we get together to eat, run trains, have a program/demonstration on a garden railroading topic, discuss upcoming club displays and club business. We also have modeling contests open to the members. 2008 will bring a new club activity with monthly Modeler’s Workshops where members can meet informally and work more “hands on” on a variety of topics like scratch building structures, airbrushing, and installing sound cards.
One of the biggest activities in the club are the garden railway displays we do. We set up temporary displays that last from one day to six weeks at civic festivals, train shows, and holiday displays. Our year end holiday display is always our biggest and best and this year (2007) will be our third year at the conservatories of Brookside Botanical Gardens (Brookside Holiday Display) in conjunction with their “Garden of Lights” (Garden of Lights). In previous years the club has done a holiday display at the National Botanic Garden.

Here are a few pics from the 2006 display at Brookside Gardens -

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These are pics of a recent display at the Fall Maryland Home & Garden Show -

-Brian

This is a small facility for diesel fuel service. The tank is from an AristoCraft 20 foot tank car. It sits on a wood platform constructed of two cedar bents and additional framing. Bits of brass tube, a brake wheel and 12 gauge wire make up the pipe and hose detail.

-Brian

My garden railway is in a back corner of our yard. Hauling engines and cars back and forth was not an appealing idea and finding storage inside would have been problematic. My solution was adapting a plastic garden shed (SunCast) for railroad use. I fitted in a series of wood shelves with 1/8″ x 1 1/4″ wood strips for car spacing. The bottom has two stacking car storage bins for extra long locos and passenger cars. The shed also houses electrical for track power and landscape lighting.
The second smaller car storage shed was constructed of extra exterior grade plywood.

-Brian

My club (wvmgrs.org) and the folks at Brookside Gardens hosted special guests this Monday. NBC4’s (Washington, DC) Barbara Harrison stopped by with Joshua, this week’s “Wednesday’s Child". “Wednesday’s Child” is a long running feature on NBC4 with Ms. Harrison. It highlights a child who is available for adoption. Ms. Harrison and Joshua toured the conservatory and spent some time watching and even running one of the trains (I brought a battery/RC train with me). The club presented Joshua and Ms. Harrison WVMGRS hats as gifts.
The “Wednesday’s Child” segment can be on the NBC4 website here - Wednesday’s Child video. I make a cameo appearance behind Ms.Harrison at one point.
The WVMGRS holiday train display will be running until January 6th.

Here are a few pics of the display -

-Brian