By Peter De Keles

Author  Bio Jim & Sandi Brandenburg started Garden Railroading without a garden. These are their accounts of the early days of their Garden Railroading from a motorhome. Jim promises more updates!

In August of 1997 Sandi and I decided that we were going to make our dream of early retirement come true. We were both 54 and decided if we started making the necessary changes now, we might make retirement when we both reached age 55. We, with the advice and help of two friends that were full time RV'ing, decided to do just that.

Sell our business and our home, located in Brighton, Colorado, move into our 300 square foot fifth wheel RV (from a 3500 square foot home), and start full time RV'ing. Boy, were we in for a lot of surprises.

The business and our home were sold right on schedule. All the furniture and non-personal possessions were sold in a one day auction and gone that same day. The effect on my model railroad in my home was a disaster. The buyers of our home, with four boys, said they didn't want my 14 x 18 foot HO layout. I didn't have the will or the inclination to tear it down, so my wife, my sister and my brother-in-law did the dirt to the layout. I was working outside as pieces of the layout were carried to the dumpster.

The personal items we kept, that wouldn't fit in the RV, were moved to a storage facility. By the middle of May, 1998, we were permanently on the road and on the way to our first destination, Tiger Run RV Resort, just 100 miles to the west in the Colorado Rockies.

I really had to do something about model trains before we began traveling. After having been involved in model railroading for over 50 years, this just wasn't going to do. I looked at the scales available as well as the space in which I had to work.

Nothing seemed to fit my particular situation, so a trip to Caboose Hobbies in Denver seemed like a logical step. Caboose Hobbies had been a part of my life since my dad first took me there in 1949. Living in, or close to, Denver most of my life did have its perks if you were a model railroader.

Ron Keiser was working at Caboose in 1997, and is still there today. He introduced me to the Denver Society of Model Railroaders in 1977 and I became a member of that O, On3 club and layout in 1978. I'm still a member today. Anyway, I was talking to him about my problem and he suggested I come up with a plan for a small outdoor G scale layout to carry along in my fifth wheel trailer.

And so began my association with large scale, outdoor, model railroading. Having just stored over 50 boxes of HO and O scale trains in a storage facility, the task of convincing Sandi I was going to need more model trains looked difficult at best. To gain some leverage, I sold half of my HO collection to a dealer, said I wouldn't buy my Dad's Lionel collection from my mom, and convinced her that a G scale locomotive, a few cars and a small loop of track was all I needed.

The next step was to figure out just where I was going with a part of the hobby of which I knew nothing; Ron at Caboose to the rescue. Even though he was a member of the O scale DSMR, he had developed some interest in G scale trains.

After some discussion, I picked a Bachmann 2 truck, three cylinder Shay as my G scale locomotive.

an LGB Colorado and Southern combine.

and, bringing up the tail end of my train, a Colorado and Southern long caboose; USA or Aristo I think.

The shay was undecorated, so I learned about dry transfers in G scale early on. I chose the Argentine Central because the railroad was all Colorado, running from the end of the Colorado Central at Silverplume up the mountains to McClellan Mountain to Argentine Pass and Waldorf. My small loop of track from the beginning was Aristo 5 foot radius and about 24 feet of straight track.

Not too bad a start, even with the mumbling about a small loop of track from Sandi.

And so began the Argentine Central Railway, setting in the Colorado Rockies at Tiger Run RV Resort in the summer of 1998, in the Blue River Valley between Breckenridge and Frisco, Colorado.

This was the beginning of a twelve year run of traveling, setting up and tearing down, finding a permanent location and moving on to more model railroad adventures.

More of this adventure to follow...

Jim & Sandi

I meet Jim about 8 years ago while looking at Layouts on the Fall Layout Tour sponsered by the San Jancinto Model Railroad Club in Houston. I was new to G Gauge after being an HO modeler for 40 years.Since then I've become friends with Jim and Sandi and Jim has helped me several times with Decorder issues. Thanks to Jim for being a follow deticated model railroder.

Ron Selliers - 02/28/2013 - 14:04

one mans railroad

Its fascinating to see that one can even begin to run a train on that kind of ROCK -- I cant get mine to run on smoothed out mulch without problems .. Wonder what his secret is ....

carl kokes - 03/04/2013 - 17:03

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