All Aboard the Mini Express

East County family will give tours of two miniature railroad gardens during annual event

By Sharon Nesbit

The Gresham Outlook, Jun 1, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2

Lee hand-lays his track, building it tiny tie by tiny tie. He shoots the elevations and grades using plastic PVC pipe to establish the grade. His trains are battery powered, radio controlled and equipped with sound, which increases in intensity as the trains puff uphill. Some garden railroaders use actual steam engines and the steam aficionados visited the Lee home in December for a steam-up.

The railway gardens call for a wide range of skills, mechanical, handyman and engineering aptitude, but they also attract (or create) gardeners, as well as people who like to tinker with water features and those fascinated by miniatures.

“And I’m a history of the West buff, especially about the part the railroad played in the development of the West from 1870 to 1920,” says Lee. His backyard railway, though a fictitious line, is a plausible link to the Sumpter Railway in Eastern Oregon.

And there is also is an element of whimsy. Each stop on the Lees’ railroad lines is named. The brewery, for instance, on Gary Lee’s line is Williamson, Jonette’s maiden name. The river and grades bear names such as Whiskey Creek and Odell Summit. It is a small, perfect world set in 1890.

No one quite knows what makes a train buff. Odell Lee swears it happened because Hazel Lee was pregnant with Gary when Odell worked briefly for the railroad. Gary Lee’s first memories are of pulling himself up to get his nose over the edge of a table where a toy train was laid out.

For sure, though, a third generation, the Lees’ 9-year-old grandson, now has a hand on the controls. And he said exactly the right words, Gary Lee says, to get to play with grandpa’s train.

“He keeps saying,” Lee says with a broad grin, “Papa, you’re a genius.”

The fifth annual Railroads in the Garden summer tour is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 16. Cost is $10 per family and admission is by purchase of the tour book available at train hobby shops, including Whistle Stop Train, at 11724 S.E. Division St., or at Dennis’ Seven Dees garden centers.

The booklet contains descriptions of all nine garden railway sites, as well as directions on how to get there. Five backyard railroads are in Washington County and four are in Vancouver/Camas in Washington and in Multnomah County.

The Rose City Garden Railway Society began in the early 1990s and has 61 families as members. Only about a third of the members have garden railways. The rest are interested in other facets of the hobby.

For more information, the Web site address is www.rcgrs.com.

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit