Garden railroading: the golden spike that can bring people to your park

Parks & Recreation, April, 2003 by Susan McCoy

The nation's railroads once lured thousands to settle in this country's wide open spaces of the Midwest and West. Today, trains are still luring thousands to open spaces, with results just as dramatic--although on a, pardon the pun, much smaller scale.

In New York, Chicago, New Orleans and Philadelphia, for instance, local public gardens have added garden railroad exhibits to their facilities, and the result has been a new kind of golden spike, this time linking the once charming but staid botanical garden or arboretum with one of the fastest growing hobbies and family recreational activities in the country.

Attendance has boomed. It's something public parks and recreational centers should note, and some already have.

"We recently designed a small garden railroad display for the Campbell County [Kentucky] Extension Service," says landscape designer cum garden railroad magnate Paul Busse. "We did it with a small budget of state money. And the biggest concern--security for the trains and the structures in the display--has proven not to be a major problem." Busse is now in the proposal drafting stages for a more ambitious garden railroad exhibit for the Hamilton County (Ohio) Park System, which surrounds the Cincinnati area.

All Aboard

What these public parks departments are beginning to realize, according to the Garden Train Association, is the tremendous appeal and attraction, especially for families, that garden railroad displays are sparking. For example, when the University of Pennsylvania's Morris Arboretum director Paul Meyer debuted a garden railroad exhibit in the summer of 1997, he was hoping for a jump in attendance somewhere above the 7 percent or so annual rise he had been experiencing.

"We had 30,000 visitors that first summer," says Meyer. "That was a 900 per cent increase over the same period the previous summer. Plus, we got 800 new memberships!"

There's something almost primordial about the attraction of a model train chugging its way along tiny tracks. Add the pleasures and landscaping possibilities of the garden to the design, and you have an appeal that crosses generational as well as gender lines.

Originating primarily in Britain more than a century ago, garden rail roading as a hobby grew quietly during the 1920s and 1930s, but then died out until the 1960s, when the German manufacturer LGB began producing large "G-scale" trains that could withstand the elements of the outdoors. The trains were rugged, and all of the more fragile gears and motor parts were encapsulated to keep the dirt away. After awhile, articles on the potential of these trains in outdoor environments began to appear in model train magazines. Charles Small, a noted railroad author, wrote about the outdoor use of LGB trains for Model Railroader in the mid 1970s. The flame was kindled. Today, more than a dozen toy companies manufacture these "G-scale" garden trains. (See the box on p. 56 for manufacturer information.)

Who's on Board?

While the model railroad part of garden railroading is a $200-million-a-year activity involving some 200,000 enthusiasts, garden railroading officially has about $8,000 members spread over about 100 garden train clubs nationally. "That 38,000 is doubling approximately every five years," says Randy Kennie, president of the Garden Train Association and national sales manager for Bachmann.

One of the reasons for that growth, believes Kennie, is that the hobby isn't just for gardeners or people who like trains. It's for the whole family. Family members who may be into electrical things, carpentry or machines can apply those interests to a backyard garden railroad. "Research currently points to young families crossing over generations, with everyone involved in making decisions about how to build and how to add to the garden railroad as time goes on," says Kennie.

Once a display is up and running, an added bonus is the media coverage powered by the garden railroad, especially from television, according to Kate Sullivan, director of for the Morris Arboretum. "Television loves the motion, the sound and sight of happy, smiling kids running and chasing after the trains," says Sullivan. "The coverage put us on the map and helped boost our attendance."

Busse believes garden railroad displays can bring both an educational and historical dimension to a park, playground or recreational center as well as attract other enthusiasts. "Rock garden enthusiasts, miniature tree enthusiasts in addition to gardeners, horticultural hobbyists and model railroaders are all attracted to these displays," he notes.

David Koester, Campbell County's extension agent for horticulture, has found the garden railroad to be an excellent marketing tool attracting parents and children. "We have a three-acre garden that's open to the public from sun up to sundown all year-round," says Koester. "With just two trains and one building, we're estimating we've already doubled the number of visitors to the park."

Campbell County's only discordant note to date has to do with security. The one building--a replica of a local one-room school house--has been stolen by vandals. But that one act hasn't dampened Koester's enthusiasm for the exhibit. He's planning on adding protection for the trains themselves first. "We can keep the trains safely stored in a secure building area," he explains, "and then install a motion detector, which will then operate the trains whenever visitors are present."