Organized in March 1989 as a group of 30 garden railway enthusiasts, we now sustain an annual membership of about 120 families.
Our club tends to be a loosely organized, laid-back group – which tends to meld in with garden railroading and the Pacific Northwest. There is a tremendous breadth in our modeling interests and approaches as represented by our involvement with multiple scales, varied railroad themes, radio control, operating sessions, live steam, steam boating, steam and electric modules and monthly breakfasts.
The club officers are also the Board of Directors. We have one scheduled business meeting per year in the month of March. This has, in no way, altered our reason for existence, which is to share the fun of running trains outdoors (well, some of us run trains indoors too).
On the whole, we enjoy each other’s company even though our connection may only be trains. We have shared our enjoyment of garden railroading by hosting the National Garden Railway Convention in 2001 and again in 2010. In 2019 the club assisted the Rose City GRS club (Portland) in hosting the convention by providing clinic presenters and pre-convention tours of 15 of our members layouts.
We encourage innovation, creativity, and have a very high tolerance of whimsy. One of the club’s closely held tenets is: “It’s your railroad, and your trains, what you do there is your personal business.” We think that our collective and individual efforts demonstrate that we are a diverse and fun group with our common bond being Garden Railway hobbyists.
Here’s some information you can download on Garden Railroading basics: Beginning Garden Railroading.pdf
Garden Railroading News is a free Garden Railroading Digital Magazine which our club is a contributor.
If you need to contact someone in the club, but don’t know who, first check the Contact page.