The first garden rail road?????

[Eriediamond]

This may be a little off topic and may not be of interest to some but my curiosity has gotten the best of me. I had to spend the night at a motel in Springfield, Ohio back in the 80's. In this motel's restaurant was a train displayed on a shelf along one wall, if memory serves me right. This train was quite large and made of cast iron, not an old child's toy. As best as I can remember, the train consisted of a steam loco, tender, three cars and a caboose and was about 30 feet in length. I asked the waitress about it and was told it was an old garden train or yard train the owner had cleaned up and restored. She thought it was from back in the 20's or 30's era and was used as garden or lawn ornamentation. I had never seen one before or since. Does anyone have any recollection or info on these? Thanks, Ken

[altterrain]

I remember reading about this railroad. I think it was in an old GR where they reprinted a MR article from the 50's. While certainly not the first garden railway probably one of the first in the US. If my history is correct the first gr's date back to the late 1800's in France.

-Brian