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Brodhead man still has interest in model railroading

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

People enjoy Don Miller's G scale model railroad during Covered Bridge Days in Brodhead.

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Don Miller rights a train car that derailed near a wooden trestle in his G scale garden train setup in Brodhead.

BRODHEAD — The chugging train with smoke puffing from it's locomotive evokes memories of days when rail was king.

Except this train is a model running around a garden track in Don Miller's back yard.

Miller, 55, is among a half million American adults who spend $500 million a year on model railroading—from classic toy trains to the latest digital innovations.

"I've never lost interest, even though I outgrew it for a while," said Miller, who has subscribed to train magazines for 35 years.

"When I was little, I got a Lionel set. Then I worked with a guy who had HO (4-inch-tall) trains who got me even more interested, and I had an uncle who was a conductor for (Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Co.) in Michigan."

Then on Miller's 40th birthday, his wife, Joella, bought him a G-scale—the largest model scale—garden train set. Each rail car in the set is about the size of a loaf of bread.

Miller started attending train shows, a good place to network and ask questions about the hobby, he said. And when the couple moved to Wisconsin from Michigan in 1995, Miller joined the Wisconsin Garden Railway Society. The group has 150 members—from electricians to professors—all areas of the state.

"I learned a lot from members, and they learned a lot from me," he said.

The United States has more than 1,100 model train clubs and nearly 800 hobby shops, according to The World's Greatest Hobby, a grassroots initiative to educate the public about the joys of model railroading.

"Some people just like to operate a train and see it run around an oval, while some like to be very meticulous and have the exact number of rivets and detail on the car. Others want to model a particular car or locomotive,” said Brent Lambert, library director of the National Model Railroad Association.

For Miller, it’s both the building and the watching.

"They go around and around, and you can do quite a bit of different things with them like build a switch yard, build a train, assemble a train, back it up and hook it up," he said.

Miller has added on to his original 12-by-30-foot garden train layout four times. Now it’s 25 feet wide and 50 feet long with 300 feet of track on a limestone bed, more than 35 cars plus an engine and caboose.

The garden is bordered with real railroad ties bought from a friend who used to work for the railroad. The garden has trestles, a tunnel, bridges, a school, church, factories, a gas station, saloon and several depots.

Joella added numerous plantings.

"I sat down and drew up plans until I came up with what I like, then I changed it four times," Miller said.

"Putting them together is half the fun.”

TO JOIN

The Wisconsin Garden Railway Society meets the fourth Sunday of each month at a member’s home. Annual membership dues are $20. For more information, visit http://www.wgrsociety.org.

FOR MODEL RAILROAD TIPS

Don Miller, a model railroad enthusiast from Brodhead says:

-- Join a model railroad club.

-- Visit hobby shops.

-- Mail order starter sets.

Or visit:

-- National Model Railroad Association at http://www.nmra.org.

-- Wisconsin Garden Railway Society at http://www.wgrsociety.org

-- Model Railroading at http://mrtrains.com

-- The World’s Greatest Hobby at www.greatesthobby.com

UPCOMING SHOWS

The Wisconsin Garden Railway Society participates in these shows:

-- November—Wisconsin State Fair Park, West Allis.

-- December—Olbrich Gardens, Madison and Rotary Gardens, Janesville.

-- January through Easter—Mitchell Domes, Milwaukee.

Specific times and dates will be published on the society’s website, under events, closer to the event date.