Author: Rick Bremer

If you are visiting the Garden Railroad during the 2026 LA County Fair, be sure to look out for these new additions or upgrades: A NEW WALKWAY As detailed in our earlier blog posts, our new TREX walkway is completed providing a smooth, safe route for our visitors. As a…

During these past few months, our crew has been hard at work on our Trex walkway! Here is what we have been up to: All underground utilities had to be upgraded. A clean area, ready for the support structure. A grid of pressure-treated 2 x 6s will rest on concrete…

In my last post, we ended with our contractor volunteer Mike Z., starting on removing our old wooden walkway. This is in preparation for a new support structure which will be covered with TREX® composite decking. The TREX® corporation has generously donated the decking for this project and we welcome…

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…

My last blog featured photos by our friend Jerry Shaw and the first on the list is our 100th Anniversary birthday cake. This display was intended to be displayed during the 2024 LA County Fair and we hoped that it would last the entire fair. Solid construction and meticulous track…

During the annual LA County Fair, we have many visitors. One friend is Jerry Shaw who visits us and does a great job of capturing our layout in photos. We are happy to share some of Jerry’s work here. Enjoy!

The theme of the LA County Fair this year is Art Unleashed. Our Garden Railroad could not be a better fit for this idea. As you walk through our exhibit this May, you will see these posters highlighting how our many volunteers are artists in so many ways! Look for…

Every year during the fair, we get many visitors asking us “what happened to the highway cars? Over the years the grooves that the original cars ran in became unusable so many attempts to resurrect the cars began. These included cars that followed a white stripe on the road (too…

Two of our members, Steve and Paula H are members of the Greater Los Angeles Airstream Club and travel to many places with their trailers. On December 8, Steve arranged for the group to tour the Garden Railroad. They were camped at Bonelli Park for their annual organizational meeting where…

We recently received very special donations from two of our volunteers. Steve and Marian Dodge donated their USA Trains FEF-3 steam engine with 12 Arristo-Craft Union Pacific Passenger cars. Steve was one of the first people to purchase this engine in 2021 and we produced a video of it operating…

This year, our volunteer crew was invited to participate in Fairplex’s version of the Dia de los Muertos celebration. On Nnovember 2 we were happy to answer the request by the Programming Department to operate trains and let event visitors wander through the Garden Railroad and watch the trains. We…

 Since the 2024 LA County Fair, we have been hard at work keeping the Garden Railroad maintained, improved and ready for the next fair in 2025! Here are a few examples of what we have been up to: