Margaret Mallinson used to soak in a hot tub on their patio. But four years ago, her husband, Nigel, swapped it out for piles of dirt, a retaining wall and a small logging town. That’s how it all began.
“Where you’re standing used to be my spa. Does that tell you anything?” says Margaret.
Four-plus years ago, Nigel, 63, began constructing an elaborate garden railroad in their Gilroy backyard. “A lot of it, I built. Like the hotel, the saw mill, the mine—that’s all scratch built,” he says.
The first summer he began working away at the 1:20 scale railroad, he added the waterfall and has gradually been incorporating other elements into the layout of his town, aptly named Mt. Madonna.
The logging and mining town is set in the 1920s, complete with steam-powered engines, buildings and cars all derived from the period. Much of Nigel’s construction is made from real redwood lumber he sourced from a felled 100-year-old tree on a friend’s property. They are cut like miniature two-by-fours, or as siding, or left to resemble realistic logs.
Nigel is a member of the Bay Area Garden Railway Society, part of a national organization of garden railroaders. The local club was founded in 1988 and is one of the oldest and largest clubs in the U.S.
The society will hold their 22nd Garden Railroad Tour and food drive this month, benefiting St. Joseph’s Center in Gilroy and Community Pantry, Now Community Food Bank, in Hollister. The tour will include 10 layouts at homes in South Santa Clara and San Benito counties.
This is the only annual garden railroad tour in the greater Bay Area that includes a charity food drive—which helps bring in more traffic.
In early July, the Bay Area club hosted the 32nd Annual National Garden Railway Convention and opened up 90 railroad layouts all over the Bay Area.
Nigel Mallinson’s was one of the garden railroads featured. “I had 400 people on the Fourth of July,” he says. “There were people from Australia, New Zealand, Germany. People from all over the world.”
His favorite part, and what most impressed his fellow railroad enthusiasts, are the moving parts and audio that accompany his layout, referred to in the craft as ‘animation.’
There are about 50 people in Nigel’s town. Onlookers will find loggers sending redwood logs down an animated slackline, miners shouting orders, construction workers building, engine house workers tending to trains and even scantily clad ladies of the night.
“We have the jail and if you look in the front there is a lady of the night distracting the sheriff so the prisoner can escape out the back,” says Margaret.
Mixed into the layout are animals, a hotel, a graveyard, a hobo camp, people fishing, even a tow truck driver.
“One of the logging trucks went down in the river and had to get a tow,” Nigel points out.
Garden railroaders invest a lot of research, time and money into their layouts.
Roger Stump, 69, of Hollister, has been running a garden railroad since 2004. He was exposed to trains as a child, but didn’t take it on as a hobby until he saw a show on TV called Whistle Stop Gardens.
He and his wife, Donna, have a layout in their backyard that is about 625 square feet. Roger says Donna’s talent is in choosing the plants and rocks and picking their placement in the railroad garden.
“I like determining what’s going to happen and where it’s going to happen. I have a lot of fun doing that, but I think probably the most fun is sharing it with other people,” he says.
Roger builds everything in his layout from scratch, “I did the whole layout for the train garden. I built the walls. I build where the track goes. I built all the structures.”
His layout includes a wooden bridge, a cafe, hotel, grocery store, firehouse and a waterfall with fisherpeople that he built with his brother-in-law, Dave Diener. The 1:24 scale village also has four log cabins, a logging mill and a steel bridge that Roger’s son-in-law, Don Thiefson, built by hand.
“I try to model a 1930s to 1950s-era railroad. They are all steam locomotives. I do not have any diesel,” Roger says, adding, “All of my automobiles are from that era.”
Nigel Mallinson and Roger Stump both enjoy relaxing with their layouts in the afternoons. They are also thrilled to talk with fellow garden railroaders and encourage people to get started building their own.
All aboard for the 22nd Annual Garden Railroad Tour and food drive. Bring non-perishable food items to any tour site. Pick up the Tour Guide and Etiquette Booklet at Garden Accents, 11155 Lena Ave, Gilroy, or BookSmart, 1285 E Dunne Ave, Morgan Hill. Visit 10 stunning model railways running throughout spectacular backyard gardens in Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Hollister and Prunedale on Saturday, Aug. 13 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information contact ni************@ya***.com or visit www.bagrs.org/page-70302
MORGAN HILL
GARY KNOTH 305 Kalana Ave.
JOHN WRIGHT 2315 Kimberly Ct.
GARY BROEDER 2200 Llagas Rd.
GILROY
ROBERT ELIA 8430 David Ct.
NIGEL MALLINSON 8520 Culp Dr.
DALE MCANALLY 9060 New Ave.
GARDEN ACCENT 11155 Lena Ave.
HOLLISTER
ROGER STUMP 2515 Arlington Dr.
KEVIN HILL 791 Ridgemark Dr.
PRUNEDALE
DAN SMITH 18043 Lillian Ln.
