a place with potentail to be the G&D of garden scale that is public

[ForThemPanzerz]

i have worked at http://www.taltree.org/railway_garden/whatIsTheRailway.html and i personally have worked at it for 5 months and i have loved it and there are also volunteer opportunities available and they still need a LOT of help. so many trains and so many figures and buildings... oh  ya there is also about 250 gallons of water on it to!

[Jim Banner]

A little far from my part of the world to be a volunteer but it looks like a great place to visit if/when I make it down to the Chicago area.

I will say that being a volunteer can have rewards beyond all imagination.  I highly recommend it.

Jim 

[Doneldon]

Jim-

This is actually about an hour east of Chicago, outside of Valparaiso, Indiana. Valpo is one of my home towns. We lived out in the country near Valpo from 1952-1959 and again in 1960-1961 (We were in southern California for my seventh grade year, 1959-1960.) It was a wonderful place to live as a child with woods, streams, lakes, kids, swamps, snakes, fish and all sorts of other fun stuff. It also had mainlines for the Nickel Plate (we had to cross it on our way into town), Pennsylvania (had to cross it, too), and Grand Trunk. Needless to say, there was lots of steam in the 50s. We also had the New York Central, Monon, Wabash and South Shore nearby.

I would kill my own kids for doing it but we used to hop Pennsy freights so we could go to Gary (a nice small city then) or Chicago to hit the model shops. Once we rode it to a neighboring town, adopted a puppy from the Humane Society and tried to convince our parents we found it, cleaned it up and wanted to keep it. We were pretty invested in this dog because we had to give the Humane Society money for it and we had to carry it 15 miles home because we couldn't figure out how to hop a moving train while carrying the dog and she was far too little to walk such a distance. The 'rents said no and took it back to the Humane Society. We couldn't get our money back without admitting we had lied about finding the animal so we lost big across the board. But I guess the train ride was fun.
                                                              -- D

[ForThemPanzerz]

ah norwest Indiana... the forests are almost jungles now with all the vines and thorn bushes i love the climate here and the forests are a great place to build forts when i was younger. Gary may have been great then but now... now it is on the brink of humanity because the mills fired a lot of people or closed down... but the dunes still never get old. but back to trains now. there is an old sand mine that is now a national park along the beach and it used to have the harbor belt branchline going to it to help transport the sand and when they abandoned the mine and trains they left some interesting things like the buried steam engine in steam engine dunes, my friends dad used to play in the mine just before it was abandoned and he says the railroad left a steam locomotive (probably a small switcher or a 0-8-0) on a siding that was next to a shifting dune and after a few years this locomotive was lost under 10ft of sand. i have a poster that says that in about 20yrs the sand will shift off of it reveling a perfectly preserved locomotive. also while i was exploring i discovered an old wood gondola buried with a tree next to  it slowly pushing it into long lake... and finally back to taltree RR garden, i have built a few things including a small silver mining complex in the mountains and a Indian camp in the great plains section... cant wait to work there again i worked this Saturday from 9:30am till 8pm on the halloween trains. I'm working for the presidential community service award.

[ForThemPanzerz]

i also forgot to comment earlier on the fact that all the bachmann engines that they got that were new run the best... my compliments go especially to the designer and builder of the scale 3 truck shay, they run best out of all the g scale engines they have and they have not had 1 problem with it unlike all the other engines.

[Doneldon]

shay-

I think the old mine is part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. That doesn't carry as much prestige as a National Park but it's at least protected from encroachment by the greedy of the world.

The dunes were fun when I was a kid, too. However, I never cared much for swimming in Lake Michigan because it was so cold. It would turn a kid blue in 20 minutes, even in August. The small lakes were another story. They would warm up just fine and you could stay in the water for hours.

One great memory I had was seeing the Indiana and Michigan Dunes from the John Hancock building in Chicago, and then driving there and seeing Big John across the lake. I was giving my then new wife a tour of my childhood haunts and the weather apparently decided to play nice. This was in summer, too, when the air isn't generally so clean. Well, that's enough of my journey down memory lane or I'll start sobbing.

Yay Trains! Go Steam!
                                         -- D

[ForThemPanzerz]

i hope i can get a few more hours in before they close i think in november everyone loves this place and there is more to do than just see trains (but me and many of you would rather see trains than hike) you can hike or have a picnic or go to one of their many summer concerts.

[jsmvmd]

Dear Don,

Great reminiscences.  I had to think how to spell that, sort of like Mississippi !

We lived in Warsaw when first married in 1985 and went by Valpo on the way to Chicago to get pizza on many Sunday's.  Very fond memories.  I work on dogs and cats for a living so the puppy story was a hoot.  If you ever try this again, put the puppy in a sack and toss it into an open boxcar.  Just make sure you make the train !

Best Wishes,

Jack, Altoona, PA

[ForThemPanzerz]

today was my last day working here till may due to winter and i already cant wait to see whats new next year. i also had a idea i thought would be nice which would be traindays2012 which would be a day were you can go to a train swapmeet, see g scale live steam  engines, have special trainroom tours and have guided tours around the garden with special information on locomotives and scenes, and clinics for model railroaders, and crafts and games for kids. just my idea but tell me if you would enjoy this?

[Doneldon]

jsmvmd (aka fellow former Hoosier) -

At leest U can reremer hou 2 spill thigns. Thar weer allot uv thigns i nevr got in the frist palce.

Warsaw was cool. I think we had some route to Lafayette (my brother went to Purdue), that went through there.

I'm pretty sure I won't be hopping too many more freights. Not only am I lucky if I can hop on or off a bar stool, there aren't any places to ride freights anymore. No open rolling stock. No truss rods. No rooftops. That leave the couplers and that leaves me out. I tried that once many, many years ago and wound up with a pinched ... well, let's say "part of my anatomy which shouldn't be named on a family model railroading site." Or, for that matter, pinched.

Northwest Indiana was a great place to be a kid. I had access to all of the fun things country living could offer while I was of an age to appreciate them. It must be noted, however, that hopping freights isn't the only thing I've given up now that I've grown up (my wife's opinion notwithstanding). Some of the things I avoid now by choice; most I avoid due to to fear, frank necessity or, most often, inability.
                                                                                                                                                       -- D

[ForThemPanzerz]

i just recently have found a great video on it to bad it "might" be closed for winter here is the video link to youtube with shots of the greatest parts in it but it doesn't have every thing due to it being from July because i made it better by adding a small ore mine that has ho track and a bushman on30 side dump car coming out to the tailings and the tired old miner with his wheel barrel waiting for the nights ham and beans in the old cabin as the young ambitious miner awaits his turn in the Hornet Mountain No. 7 entrance. here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDpDI02bVS8&feature=related