Phantom Lake Railroad

I had meant to post a few pictures back in late July after a visit to the Norm Baullinger's Phantom Lake Railroad. The purpose of the visit was a Puget Sound Garden Railway Society new member meet, greet and learn. It was an opportunity to meet some other garden railroaders and questions of people who might have some answers. So in the spirit of better late than never, here is a belated post with some of my photos from my visit in July.

A beautiful high trestle with a lake in the background.

Hundreds of dwarf trees and other plants decorate the railroad. Here the line passes by a small station and a few other buildings with a couple of siding tracks.

It ended up being very informative afternoon and I asked lots and lots of questions which helped me get through some indecision I was having about next steps. Decisions that I came to:

• I'm not going to waste any more time trying to keep my current layout electrified. My focus instead will be on converting all my locomotives to radio controlled battery power. All the work I am doing to keep the current track powered just isn't worth the effort.
• At some point I will likely add a small powered loop (maybe 40-50 feet) that is separate from (or maybe just insulated from) the main layout so I can still run locomotives I am unlikely to convert, like my PCC streetcar.
• I will be going with AirWire for my RC provider, which is the direction I had been leaning.
• I will be using 18V rather than 14.8V batteries. And to start with I'm going with Makita.

I haven't completed my first locomotive conversion yet but I now have most (not all) of the parts on hand so that will be happening in the next few weeks. Look for a post on that soon!

Norm has been working on the Phantom Lake Railroad for many years and it has been growing in phases over time. There are now several hundred feet of track and also hundreds of beautiful plants and miniature trees. In the older sections of the railroad the flora has matured and it's amazing how well the railroad blends into the environment. In some sections the track is primarily at ground level on a floating roadbed, and in other sections it is elevated a few feet above the ground on posts. There are also multiple bridges, trestles and tunnels.

Thank you to Norm, Brent, Mark and everyone else I met while I was there.

Lots of beautiful trestle work, often curving with elevated switches like you see here. Note the large building in the background and the railroad boxcar converted to a bunk cabin.

Nice cribbing! Another thing on my to-do list.

One of my favorite spots was this rock-lined ravine.

Close-up detail showing a family of bears looking over the ledge. Don't get too close!

A couple of trains in the yard waiting to go out on a run.

This photo shows the use of the floating roadbed and provides a good example of how well integrated the dwarf conifers and other trees are within the railroad.

Here's a view of the railroad looking east, and you can hardly see it! My favorite thing about this railroad is how well integrated it is with the vegetation. You cannot tell which came first—the garden or the railroad.

A view looking down toward the railroad's namesake, Phantom Lake. Today's lake is a remnant of what was once a much larger but relatively shallow lake which was partially drained in the late 19th century to create more farmland. Occasionally in very wet winters the lake level will rise and Phantom Lake will try once again to take on the appearance of what it looked like 125 years ago. Today the farms are gone and the lake is mostly surrounded by houses built in the 1950s and later.

Just for fun, a detail of a map from c. 1897 showing the modern Phantom Lake in the middle. The current name of the lake dates to 1894, when the drainage of the lake was rerouted toward Lake Samammish as seen on this map. Previously, Peanut Lake drained to the north toward Kelsey Creek. The archive I pulled this map from has it dated 1895 but I think 1897 is more accurate. Note the railroad running along the east side of Lake Sammamish—this is the line out to Snoqualmie that was built by the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern. On this map it is labeled as Seattle and International Railroad, reflecting its name change that occurred in July, 1896.