Garden railroad a growing hobby

    “We started this in 2003, and it constantly grows,” said Jay Davis about the “garden railroad” in his back yard near Clayton. The outdoor model train set is battery-powered and the tracks are brass so they don’t rust, but the design of the train and village among flowers, rocks, and water features is pure imagination.
    “Having taught horticulture and greenhouse in high school, I was drawn to the idea of incorporating plants with the railroad,” said Davis, a 1991 Smyrna High School graduate who now teaches at Smyrna High after starting his career in Caroline County, Maryland. “I tried to use a lot of perennial plantings – mums, plants that will reseed. I even put in some strawberries.”
    He got the idea when he saw an outdoor train while visiting a farm in Maryland that was open for Christmas tours. Now his large-scale or G-scale train lay out spans more than 250 feet of track. He modeled part of the layout from his childhood memories of the tree-lined track that once ran from Clayton to Smyrna parallel to Main Street and Smyrna-Clayton Boulevard. He’s been carefully pruning maple trees in a bonsai-like manner for several years to create miniature maple trees to line a section of the track.
    Davis also joined the Shore Line Garden Railroad Club which has nearly 50 members in lower Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This month the club is sponsoring open house tours of garden railroads. Davis’ home at 6347 Underwoods Corner Road just outside of Clayton is one of the stops, on Sunday, June 28 from 1 to 5 p.m.   
    “Everyone’s invited to stop by and see it,” Davis said.

A family project
    Jay and his 8-year-old son, Taylor, recently worked together to add a new section to the garden railroad.
    “Taylor’s really into it,” said Jay. “He has a train. He’ll run it with me. He helped haul gravel for this new section.”
    Taylor said the new section is his favorite part.
    “I helped mix the concrete for that,” he said. “We had to set it all up, put plastic on the ground, then the gravel. You have to level it out, measure the tracks to see if they’re stable. Then we put on the larger rocks, the mulch, and all the plants.”
    Taylor even got to pick out the miniature Indian village set for the display.
    Jay’s wife, Cindy, said her husband and son have “done a great job” on the project.   
    “It’s a lot of work, but it’s something they both relate to, and they enjoy working on it. It’s something that bonds them together,” she said. “I think it’s beautiful, and we’re always looking for something to add. We go to train shows, and the miniature houses and buildings are something that always makes a good Christmas or birthday gift. It’s always a work in progress.”
    The family invites everyone to stop by this Sunday afternoon to see the garden railroad.
    “The idea of the open house is to spark an interest, to get people to say, ‘Hey, I can create something like this in my yard,’” said Jay. “We can answer questions and offer some advice for how to get started.”
    And why does Jay recommend it?
    “It’s fun. It gives you peace of mind,” he said. “After a long day, you come out here, collect your thoughts. You can forget about other things while working and pruning here and there, or thinking about what you’d like to change or add. It’s something I work on as a way to unwind. It’s very tranquil. And people love it. Kids love it. It’s something our family has worked on together.”

For more information, see the website www.delawarerailroad.com