Wednesday, July 11, 2001
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Wednesday, July 11, 2001 |
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Boyhood dream realized; garden railroad on display By DAVE
HAMRICK
Fayetteville City Councilman Glenn Brewer never had an electric train as a child the family couldn't afford it. But he played with his friend's trains and always wanted one of his own. Brewer grew up and married and the couple had three daughters; then, a boy was born, and Brewer envisioned enjoying a train set with his first son. But alas, it was the era of the slot car. It wasn't until about two years ago that Brewer, now fully retired, began to get involved with building and running model trains. Now, after hours of work, his garden railroad is being viewed today by three bus loads of enthusiasts in town for a national convention hosted by LGB Lehmann-Gross-Bahn a major manufacturer of large scale trains. "They're fun," Brewer said of his new-found hobby with a shrug and a smile. "This old gent's had a good time." He started going to meetings of the Garden Railroad Club of Atlanta after going to a train show and getting the bug, Brewer said. The club gathers at a different member's home each month to see what progress that member has made and talk trains. When it came time to meet at Brewer's house, he confessed he didn't have a model railroad yet. "They said, 'Well, we're meeting at your house anyway.'" Since that time, his project has blossomed. He built a raised platform for his trains with landscape timbers and filled that with a couple of truck loads of dirt. The raised bed is "the only way to go," he said. Earlier Brewer, who is confined to a wheelchair, had laid out track in the usual way and found it inconvenient to work on the set while crawling on the ground. A side benefit to the handicapped-accessible railroad he has built is that it's perfect for his grandchildren. "Kids love it," he said, "because it's right at their level." Over the last two years, he has built onto his platform a whole microcosm of the old West, with railroad tracks winding through towns, farms, stations, churches and pastoral scenes, decorated with a variety of miniature pieces and dwarf trees and other vegetation. The sights aren't enough, though. Brewer's trains and the countryside they run through also provide some of the sounds of the old days. When his trains pass by the Red Horse Saloon, honky-tonk music and crowd noises emanate from inside. A sign over the business next door promises complete road service, with fast food from the saloon while your horses are changed. A freight train pulls a cattle car, and cattle sounds can be heard. There's a passenger train, a logging train and a freight train, all scale models of those you would have seen if you had lived in the late 19th to early 20th century. An automated switching and routing system allows them to run simultaneously without colliding. LGB, a German toy company, started making trains in the early '80s, Brewer said, mostly models of German trains. "But then they got into old Western trains and found them to be very popular," he said. Brewer's railroad is ready for visitors now, just in time for today's convention. "If you had come 30 minutes ago," he told a reporter, "it wouldn't have been ready." Now that it is, he is ready to enjoy it. "All I want to do is come out here and play with it and let the grandkids play with it," he said.
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