Category Archives: Uncategorized

Since 2012 we have had an open house every year on Halloween and Christmas Eve. More properly an “Open Yard”, we decorate the train garden for the appropriate holiday, run trains and hang out with anyone who happens to stop by. On Halloween we hand out candy to the kids and chat with the grown-ups.Continue reading “Open Houses”

We ran our trains for a display at the county fair this week and had a wonderful time. Just kidding. We do not have a county fair. We do have a regional County Fair in Chowan County that encompasses the entire area. But, like everything else this year (2020), it was cancelled. As was theContinue reading “County Fair”

When we started construction on our layout back in 2016 Archie wanted it to include a water feature with a portion of it inspired by the Dismal Swamp Canal. So we ended up with a straight ditch with a small pond at one end and a larger one at the far end. The main pumpContinue reading “From Canal to Trolley”

The annual Tidewater Big Train Operators (TBTO) Holiday train show is the largest and longest lasting display that our club sets up. We take over an entire gymnasium and the show runs for eight days. 2017 was our second year with our own layout in the show and our first year setting up along theContinue reading “Holiday Show 2017”

In September of 2017 we had the “Golden Spike” ceremony for our layout in conjunction with the club’s annual picnic. A Last Spike is the one driven at the completion of a railroad construction project and when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific rail lines were joined at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869 they usedContinue reading “Golden Spike”

The annual Tidewater Big Train Operators (TBTO) Holiday train show is the largest and longest lasting display that our club sets up. We take over an entire gymnasium and the show runs for eight days. This year was the third year for us as members of the club and the first year that we hadContinue reading “Holiday Show 2016”

A neighbor with a mini-excavator was hired to dig the canal and the larger pond. We did NOT care to dig all of that by hand. But there signs at the far end of the layout that completion may actually exist. The small pond is starting to fill in. The inner loop of track isContinue reading “Construction Aug 2016”

This is about the time that the neighbors begin to wonder just what we are up to. We got all three tracks in place. We ran trains. We contemplated and navel gazed for a bit. We decided we were really going to do this. And then……we got to work. The large blob of deadness inContinue reading “Construction June 2016”

One of our first thoughts when we moved in to our house was where to put the train garden? We live in an old farmhouse sans the farm. When the farmland itself was sold off something that went with it was any sort of a back yard. One side of the house is taken upContinue reading “Construction May 2016”