Steam locomotives in the garden
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It’s nighttime at the Wombat engine terminal on John Morrison’s pre-1940 Dunkley Northern Railway in Redmond, Washington. The DNR’s scratchbuilt 2-8-2+2-8-2 Beyer Garratt is being serviced. Brian Ellerby photo
The mountains of Northern New England form the backdrop as Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Forney No. 6 sets out a boxcar at Chandler’s Mill on Jim Coplan’s garden railroad. The locomotive is a live steamer by Roundhouse Engineering. Jim scratchbuilt the mill using Stoneworks techniques. The depot is also built from scratch, using a Plexiglas base overlaid with styrene. Jim Coplan photo
Mike Miller’s MKT&S RR is named for his four granddaughters, Melanie, Katie, Tiffany, and Stephanie. The engine is an Aristo-Craft Rio Grande Mikado that Mike re-lettered for the MKT&S. The coaches were built from Bachmann kits. Mike painted them and named each after one of his granddaughters. Mike Miller photo
A new Bachmann K-27 has been added to the roster to handle the heavier freights on Bud Hunter’s Rio Grande Garden Railroad. Here, engine No. 463 approaches the bridge over Willow Creek with an eastbound consist of 12 freight cars. The camera was placed on the ground, shooting slightly upward, to capture this realistic view. Bud Hunter photo
Matt (son) and Frank (father) Doti’s garden railroad, the Snowshoe & San Juan, is in the mountains, outside Durango, Colorado. Here, the D&RGW’s San Juan is pulled by a 1:22.5-scale LGB/Aster K-28, No. 473. Passenger cars are all LGB, reworked and repainted to better represent prototype San Juan cars. Emily Doti photo
David Yarwood’s railroad is situated on two level terraces on either side of steps leading to the upper garden. Buildings are mostly Pola and PIKO America, modified and weathered. David does not scratchbuild structures. He says, “As I’m an architectural model maker, scratchbuilding is too much like work.” David Yarwood photo
The Kittatinny Mountain Railroad’s REA (Aristo-Craft) Rogers is pulling a kitbashed Bachmann boxcar and logging caboose over the Cumberland Gorge during a snowstorm on Shawn Viggiano’s line. The hobo in the boxcar is not happy, with his snow-covered feet. Shawn Viggiano photo
Praise to brother Morrison for scratchbuilding a Beyer Garratt. I regret that they weren’t much used, if at all, in the New World.