2022 National Garden Railway Convention: Part 1

I just returned from the 2022 National Garden Railway Convention in Colorado. This year's convention was hosted by the Denver Garden Railway Society which originated the national convention back in 1985 and has now hosted the national convention nine times. But this was my first time so every railroad I was seeing was new to me.

While the convention does have a variety of activities, I think the best description is a four-day road trip around greater Denver to tour (mostly) suburban gardens. It's a progressive garden party requiring a few hundred miles of driving. Over four days I saw 33 garden railroads of the 50 or so that were scheduled for tours. And many of those provided inspiration and ideas for what I may do on my railroad in the future.

A key takeaway for me was that no matter how big or small, how new or mature a garden railroad is, every one will have features that will catch my attention. For example, one rather new and immature railroad we visited didn't have much to it yet, but I was impressed by the homemade throws for turnouts the owner had built. Making throw switches isn't anything I had planned on doing but seeing this novel approach inspires me and gives me the confidence to try.

In this post and the next few I'll share some photos of various highlights of railroads I visited that impressed me.

A beautiful curved stone arch bridge on Paulette and Bob's World (P&BW) Railroad. I think I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I was thinking about building a curved poured concrete arch bridge. But seeing this one clad in stone may change my mind. A lot more work but it would be worth it.

And any reader of this blog knows how much I like grain elevators. This beautiful one was also found along the P&BW RR.

This and the next three pictures are from the Driftwood Garden Railroad. What impressed me most is that most of the buildings were scratch built using scraps of cedar fence boards, the same thing I'm using to build my trestles. I realized that once I'm done building trestles I will need to keep on building more things using all the wood scraps I have. Here we see a lumber mill.

And here is a beautiful example of a coal tipple with a trestle running to it so trains can deliver coal.

Another thing I loved about this railroad was the use of flags everywhere. Every building had one or more flags flying.

Along one stretch of track was a line of aged, crumbling buildings which reminded me of a ghost town as the cedar is now weathered. Simple to execute, and an idea that I'll need to steal. Note that in front of the wood structure is a piece of old rack from the cog railway that goes to the top of Pike's Peak.  

The Colorado & Northwest Railroad, nicknamed the Switzerland Trail, was started over 20 years ago. A very impressive layout with incredible attention to detail. This is modeled after a real life railroad that ran from Boulder into the mountains. Many of the scratch built buildings are modeled after real ones, and the owners had photos on hand showing the original buildings. The garden is incredible and includes 268 different types of plants. And a pond! This is the kind of railroad that makes me jealous.

Here, for example, is the Gold Hill Store. This building is still extant.

An amazing model of a stamp mill. The owner has replaced the wooden roof with plexiglass so we can see all of the detail inside.

Next to the stamp mill is a beautiful coal tipple with a trestle approach.

I really liked this fishing dock next to the pond. 

And a very impressive model of the original C&NW Railroad Station in Boulder (also extant) that was modeled using small bricks. Amazing! 

This is the Red Rocks Route Railroad. The yard is relatively small and the railroad takes up the entire space, yet the layout of the railroad and the use of full size plants fully utilizes the space available and makes the area feel bigger than it is. To the side of the garden is a patch of turf which provides a perfect vantage for nearly the entire railroad. If someone had handed me a Mai Tai I could have sat here for hours and watched trains appear and disappear.

The owner used a variety of natural red stone and various manufactured products around the railroad. Mixing the disparate materials works as the red color ties everything together. The focus is really on the stone, and I didn't realize at first that there were hardly any scale plants in the layout, as the full size plants around the yard made it seem very lush and green. And speaking of green, it was great to see a full Burlington Northern consist.

An impressive feature was this pedestrian bridge over multiple tracks that provided access to the garden. I'm not sure how many hundred pounds that sandstone slab weighs but I'm sure it wasn't easy to get it in place. 

Just as impressive is this 10-foot double track steel truss bridge across a pond filled with koi near the center of the layout. And in addition to the crossbucks with flashers by the pond there were a few other pieces of 1:1 scale railroad equipment scattered around the garden.

The Denver & Rio Grande Foothills Branch was one of my favorite railroads to visit because of the amazing views in addition to some outstanding modeling. One long loop curves and twists along the side of a hillside, following the terrain and using bridges and trestles as needed to maintain a nearly level route. This is a section of a 25-foot trestle with an outstanding view of the front range mountains. 

One of the several scratch built models sits along a siding.

A mine shaft and tipple for loading trains along the main line.

 

Part of a 25-foot three span through truss bridge.

A Galloping Goose waits on a side track in front of a passenger station. With the amazing scenery in the background it is almost magical how natural and realistic the railroad looks.