Building the Santa Fe in the back yard

[Steve B]

I am posting this to show you the progress of my friend John Rockey's garden railroad in Glen Ellyn Illinois. John is a big Santa Fe fan and has started to build his garden empire in G scale. The work was started last year but ground to a halt when winter took hold and froze the ground, this year John and his wife Lorrie and there friends built the retaining wall which was back filled with tons and ton's of earth 60 cubic yards in total, the pond and stream were installed followed by 17 ton's of rocks to complete the scene,

This is the track plan

This is the team installing the pond liner

This is the stream being installed

this is the conduit for the water and future electrics

This is a high level shot taken by John, can you see his shadow at the top of the tower

This is how things look now, ready for the Santa Fe track gang i recon

You can see more shots of the work in progress on John's web site @
http://www.railroad-crossing.com/index.html

I think i can say that this is going to be one awsome awsome garden railroad,

 

[SpaceMouse]

That will be one awesome railroad.

 

[grande man]

Wow. That is going to be cool. In the right climate, I bet garden railroading would be a blast.

 

[IronBeltKen]

I'd love to see some snowplow action in the wintertime...

 

[OldGettysk]

Looks like the nut collectors better watch their backsides !! OLDGETTYSK

 

[grande man]

Hey Steve, I moved this here to the G scale forum. While it was certainly fine where you originally posted it, I wanted it to be on the front page for a long while for anyone interested in garden railroading.

Please keep us posted as John's construction continues.

 

[JeffShultz]

Oy.... I'm guessing from the tower that he's a ham radio buff too.

 

[RexHea]

WOW, Steve! That looks like it will be so much fun it makes me hurt. (Let's see now, if I can get my neighbor interested in MR then maybe with the two lots together we could.........)

 

[grande man]

(Let's see now, if I can get my neighbor interested in MR then maybe with the two lots together we could.........)

...interchange cars with a "neighboring" railroad!

 

[okanaganrailfan]

Wow, That looks great! I can't wait to see more!

 

[Steve B]

Just to keep you up to date, John's started to lay the track, he say's it was easy laying HO scale track on cork than laying G scale in the garden

 

[Lady_Railfan]

Yep. I learned early on that knee pads are a must for garden railroaders. That's going to be a super layout!

 

[Steve B]

UPDATE: Oct 18th 06

Here are some more pictures of john's progress so far, it's looking awesome. The tunnel portal is just a temporary one

 

[jbaakko]

Wow, fantastic, can't wait to see more!

 

[Steve B]

Yes, me too, they are going at it full speed before the big freeze sets in

 

[dnhouston]

That really looks sharp! Can't wait to see it finished!

 

[Hawkeye251]

That's amazing, please keep us updated.

 

[Steve B]

John's web site has been updated with more photo's, the format has been altered to reflect work through 2005 and 2006 on seperate pages, take a look
http://www.railroad-crossing.com/gr/2005.html
http://www.railroad-crossing.com/gr/2006.html

Nice work John

 

[jbaakko]

Wow!! I like the real ballasting, looks fun!

 

[Steve B]

yep, i have got to get my hands on one of them there Toro buckets