A few weeks ago in Santa Barbara the garden group held railroad days for charity. A private home is the location. i am not a formal member, but was graciously allowed in as a guest operator . A nominal donation was charged and the public was allowed in to see both an extensive indoors Ho railroad and an equally extensive outdoor garden line.
The line is an out and back with turning and yard facilities at each end. No continuous running.
A full trip can take 15-20 minutes, depending on train traffic on the line, which is single track with passing sidings.
It is built to 1/32nd gauge standards, but 1:29 and some smaller 1:20 steam locos can operate if careful about clearances. The tunnel pictured is the main restriction, no K class locos.
All control is battery r/c with Airwire mostly , but some other systems also. It is required to walk with your train, due to visibility restrictions, terrain and greenery.
For those whom ay know, I NEVER run diesels, and am a 1:20 narrow gauge person, but I do own these two Black widow Geeps, (Not yet weathered or detailed)they are Airwire drop in demo units. Admitting that in public has not caused the world to end yet. Look carefully in the pics and you can see the crowd scattered around the hillsides, the line can handle well over 100 visitors at a time.
At one point on Saturday, I was stuck in the hole for over 15 minutes as I was going against traffic and each time I aligned the turnouts to pull onto the main, another train was coming against me, so I just waited.
I ran only on Saturday, Sunday was equally successful and great fun was had by all.
