2003-2013: The More Things Change

In 2003, after a truly disastrous spring, the Race family's New Boston and Donnels Creek railroad had three "open railroads," one of which was in conjunction with the National Garden Railroad Convention in Cincinnati that year. Now it's 2013, another Convention is scheduled, and we are planning on welcoming visitors again (if they let us - see below).

But if you got out here ten years ago, and you come out this year expecting to be blown away by all the things we've added in the meantime, you may be disappointed. Yes, we have lots more little trees, the waterfall bigger, a row of arborvitaes make a better backdrop than the neighbor's trash piles and pickup truck, and most of the buildings are lit (which will be hard to tell in June since it won't get dark until 9:15). But otherwise you might get the impression that, by and large, the New Boston and Donnels Creek is stuck in time. That doesn't mean that nothing has changed - only that a lot of those changes weren't "permanent." How can that be? Well, it's a long story. (Aren't they all?)

The First Three Years

Our first "open railroad" was in 2000, when our oldest daughter graduated high school, and our extended family, many church friends, and others, came to celebrate her open house. I'll admit, it was a little "informal," to put it nicely. The photo to the left show several cousins "helping" set out buildings, animals, and figures.

The railroad soon grew northward, as I tried to extend the original loop into a sort of dogbone that would be some sixty feet long.

By the time we were done with that bit, in the summer of 2002, we had also installed a ground-level loop underneath the northern end of the raised loop. We would be having some pretty big events in 2003, so we worked hard to get the additions running and landscaped.

Progress was interrupted for a time in March, 2003, when not one, but two of the neighbor's trees fell on the railroad during storms.

Spring 2003 Open Houses: Back-to-Back-to-Back

So it took an insane effort to prepare for the open houses we already had scheduled for the spring of 2003. These included one in conjunction with the National Garden Railroad convention in Cincinnati, about 70 miles away. We also had another graduation open house that year, and a "club event" open house. But, needless to say, once that season was over, we weren't inclined to go out and start adding more features right away.

Digital Photography and the NB&DC

In 2003, I was still using a 35mm film camera, but a number of friends had taken the plunge into digital cameras. Some of those photos are on our June, 2003 Photos page. A few who brought their cameras that summer shared the photos with us later, and that was all the encouragement I needed to start shopping for a digital camera myself.

In fact, buying a 1-megapixel digital Fuji for $70 at a Sears closeout represented a turning point for this web page. Before that, when I wanted to write an illustrated "how to" article, I had to buy 35mm film, take photos on "faith" that I was getting things right, pay and wait for developing, then scan them into a graphics program and adjust the color. Often the photos that showed certain steps wound up not coming out, and by then, there was no way to go "back" and get them without doing the whole project all over again.

As soon as I had the little Fuji, writing illustrated "how-to" articles became dramatically easier. There was still a demand for good "how-to" articles on a wide range of subjects. So I went back and wrote or rewrote a lot of articles that our web pages "needed", although the projects didn't necessarily affect the NB&DC itself. Once I told a friend that my hobby was writing about my hobby, and that wasn't far from the truth.

NB&DC After 2003

I also used the railroad as a sort of "beta test site" for dozens of projects that I went on to publish articles about. Trestles, viaducts, buildings, lighting systems, water features, and more came and went, depending on what I was writing about at the time. But most of those temporary additions didn't stay, because there wasn't room for them to stay permanently, or because I'd promised them to someone else, or because after I built them up at a clinic, they were too big to fit back into the van, so I donated them to the local club.

And I spent a lot of time doing maintenance, because I had made some mistakes during the original installation. I wrote articles about that as well.

We did have several open railroads, but, until we started doing the Christmas-themed open railroads in November, our open railroads between 2004 and 2008 largely consisted of getting everything back where it belonged, weeding, cleaning the track, and demonstrating, essentially, the same railroad we had demonstrated the year before and the year before.

If you haven't got to one of our Christmas-themed "Train Days," you should try to get here because we change things up every year. This year we had more kids' trains, outdoor movies, fresh-popped kettle corn and more. But if you show up during a spring or summer open railroad, and you've been here before, chances are things are going to look fairly familiar.

What about 2013?

The truth is, with everything that has come and gone, everything that has been removed, repaired, reinstalled, and refurbished, our garden railroad looks a lot like it did in 2003. It's still there, though, and that's something, I suppose.

When the 2013 convention planners asked for volunteers to have open railroads, I was the first in the club to volunteer. But it's far from certain I'll be included on any of the tours. For one thing, we're not close to any other garden railroads that are likely to be open. For another, the NB&DC is not nearly as impressive as many of the others. In fact, if I have an open railroad at all, it will be more of historical interest than anything else.

I admit, I've been tempted, say, to rebuild that big trestle I put together for a demo but never had room for on the railroad. Or to add the additional loops and buildings and water features or whatever that I had planned for at one time but never got around to.

But in a sense, letting the Convention drive us to some herculean effort to make our railroad much more impressive than it has been all along would almost be "cheating." The New Boston and Donnels Creek, for all of its ups and downs, for all plans that never happened, for all of the failed experiments and the examples that were cleared away once the articles were written, is what it is - a 16'x60' two-loop railroad with a couple dozen unique buildings and a very intermittent operating schedule.

What You Will See

• Permanently installed track with trains running on it. (You won't be able to tell all the parts that I have dug up and reinstalled, the loops I've moved or removed, etc.)

• Buildings you won't see anywhere else (You won't be able to see all the buildings that have come and gone during article research, or because they didn't hold up a well as I thought they should.)

• Dozens of miniature or dwarf evergreens that have been trimmed to represent scale trees.

• Several groundcovers that have been successful (and some of which you can have a start of for the asking).

• Above all, you'll see evidence that creativity and elbowgrease can give a normal working family without a trust fund a backyard railroad that looks nice year-round and is fun to run and watch whenever the weather permits.

Conclusion

And maybe that's the best "takeaway" we can offer.

If you're heading this way, drop us a line and we'll let you know if we get on the schedule.

In the meantime, have a wonderful year, enjoy your hobbies, and especially you enjoy any time you can spend with your family.

Paul

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