Did you ever wonder what happens at the Garden Railroad after the fair? To begin with, our volunteers take some well-deserved time off but the weeds do not! Returning in late June saw a tremendous new growth of weeds and tree growth! This all needs to be scaled back as you will see. Of course, we still open for the general public on the Second Sunday of the month. We also use this time to repair buildings ( both large and small), fix plumbing issues (large and small) and make any necessary improvements. Here are few photos for you to see what we have been up to.
Our Scenes department never stops working! Buildings that need repair and selected and work is preformed to bring them up to our standards.
Electrical upgrades do not take a vacation either! Assistant Coordinator Dave has upgraded our auxiliary electrical systems, replacing outdated circuits with modern, safer parts and wiring.
It is hard to believe how much plants can grow in a short time! Here Joe D trims a plant on the Mountain so it looks good and remains healthy.
Our 100 year old layout has 80 year old plumbing! We are constantly replacing and patching our irrigation systems. Our Garden Railroad is watered at night and is about 80% drip irrigation. Here, Mike L repairs an underground pipe.
The sun grows our plants but also fades our buildings. Our resident building painter Dorothy P makes our faded buildings look like new!
DId you call for a mechanic? A Train repairman, to be precise. Young Ethan Q has shown great promise in learning the ins and outs of locomotive repair as well as operating all of our trains. Well done, Ethan! By the way, one of my locomotives is making a new sound…….!
MAJOR RENOVATION! Every visitor who tours the Garden Railroad walks on our wooden boardwalk near our Western Area. In recent years, however, this walkway has become worn and warped and is becoming a problem for guests. Our contractor volunteer, Mike Z, has make arrangements with TREX Decking to supply us with new material to replace these decaying boards. Mike has volunteered to do the installation and he has done many of these jobs professionally. The TREX material is a composite material which should outlast many of our volunteers! In the above photo, Mike has removed some of the old material to survey what is underneath. Our volunteers will begin to remove and excavate the old material so Mike can install new supporting structure, ready for when the new decking is delivered. We are excited about this needed and valuable project and we thank the folks at TREX as well as Mike for their efforts to keep our layout updated and safe for all to enjoy.
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