We Grow Trains in our Gardens r
new website!
We Grow Trains in our Gardens
Welcome to the website of the award-winning Gold Coast Garden Railway Society. Our members share a common interest in trains running on Gauge 1 (45mm) track, commonly known as “Garden scale” or “G scale”.
Many of our members have backyard layouts (indoor layouts are not impossible, but are rare around here) in a variety of scales all on 45 mm track. The majority of our members live between Thousand Oaks and Goleta, California, but we have active members as far away as Santa Maria, Bakersfield, Burbank, and Hollywood.
Typically we have one or two meets a month, depending on weather. All our meets are at member's homes and are “open run”, meaning visitors are encouraged to bring their own trains and run them on the host's layout. Since grades, curves, clearances and availability of track power vary a lot, you should contact the meet host before bringing a train to a meet. Some of the layouts have track power, but more and more are battery only. Contact the meet host if you don't have battery powered equipment.
Our meets are centered around either lunch or dinner (rarely). The format varies, and will be described in the newsletter description for each meet.
So, why are we the "award winning" GCGRS? We have built displays for the Ventura County Fair in every (non-Covid) year since 2019. We have won prizes in each of those years. If you would like to participate in the next Fair, we encourage you to join us.
We are always looking for new members, whether they are veteran modelers or just getting started in the hobby. We only offer family memberships, which are $10 per year, and spouses and well behaved children are always welcome. Click here for the Membership Application page.
Our New Website
Although we encourage all of our visitors to check out every page, they are grouped according to what the user might be interested in. We have:
– How-to articles for beginners on starting a layout, building mountains, an explanation of scale vs gauge, and lots of other topics. Most of these were pulled out of old newsletters, so they tend to be short and introductory.
– References for club members including a new roster, and links to manufacturers and other garden railroad clubs.
– Fun stuff for everyone including articles on jet powered trains, poems, quizzes, cartoons, and even a recipe or two.
– A revamped gallery featuring pictures of our member's layouts, famous Gold Coast train wrecks, and some whimsical items like Halloween and submarine trains.
– A brand new section featuring pictures of our displays at the Ventura County Fair.
