The Runaway Railroad
A Featured Layout on the 2010 Four Club Tour
Hosted by The Columbus Garden Railway Society
Runaway Railroad, founded in 2001, has over a quarter mile of track spread over a quarter acre of layout, and contains eight separate areas.
Deadwood and Route 66 are reached by the longest length of track which crosses six steel bridges, replicas of real US railroad bridges. The longest bridge is 10 feet long. Four to five trains use these tracks simultaneously. Deadwood, a wild west town, has a an action-filled main street, a burned-out ghost town, and a mountaintop Indian village. Route 66 has a working carnival reached by a street car, The Wigwam Motel, a hunt club, its own garden railroad, and dockside businesses set beside a large lake.
Five other tracks intertwine, rambling through six towns, four tunnels, two graffiti-laden concrete bridges, and across a long wooden trestle. Jeffersonville is a city supported by a brewery, while German Village boasts a biergarten. Olde Town is an 1850s town with a log cabin suburb. Lakeside , a 1950s town, has its own stocked lake. Rancho Alto sits on a mesa where sheep, pigs, horses, and cows graze beside a cabbage patch and a Christmas tree farm. A small Indian village, with braves in canoes, sits beside another small lake.
Bonsai trees, ground covers, herbs, and flowering plants define areas, as do walking paths for train watching. Besides the carnival, other animations include a cable car and an oil well.

Our hosts – Jerry & Gail Klink… David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

…and their pet alligator! David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

Andy, what are you doing? David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010

David Palmeter Photo – Sep 2010
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