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Trish and Pete Hartes are seen in their Lakeland back yard that contains a large model railroad. They are able to control the trains from this booth. Pete Hartes is president of The Florida Garden Railway Society, Trish is secretary. DAVID MILLS/The Ledger |
By Charles Reynolds
Ledger Correspondent
When Pete Hartes was a youngster growing up in New York City, he loved to ride on subway trains. Hartes, 50, of Lakeland, says he invariably traveled in the first car with his face glued to the forwardfacing window.
"The roar of the train and the lights flashing in the dark tunnels were wonderful," he says. "I always pretended I was driving the train."
That childhood fascination may explain why Hartes, a postal employee and president of the 290-member Florida Garden Railway Society, has transformed his backyard into a model railroading wonderland. With hundreds of yards of track winding through 200 carefully clipped, in-scale landscape plants such as junipers, arbor vitae, serissa and cycads, his system, dubbed The Hartes Grand Central Railway, is one of the state's most extensive.
"We have seven mountains, 15 tunnel openings and a variety of themes," Hartes says.
His wife, Trish, who works in Polk's school system and is state secretary of the society, says garden railroads are constructed in G scale, with the electric-powered rolling stock ranging in scale from 1-to-22.5 to 1-to-32. Another important ratio in garden railroading concerns its membership.
"There are about twice as many men involved in the hobby as women," she says. "It's probably because a lot of construction is required, and moving lumber, rocks and cement is sweaty, dirty work. I don't mind it, but a lot of women do."
Unlike the scrupulously authentic layouts of some railroading devotees, whom Hartes refers to as "rivet counters," he embraces a fanciful, "anything goes" policy.
This sets the stage for some unusual contrasts. For example, a Japanese-themed railway running through the foothills of Mount Fuji features a freight train carrying sacks of rice and wheat labeled with appropriate Japanese characters. But overlooking the scene, which also includes a Japanese motorcycle factory and a rice paddy, is a toothy model of Godzilla emerging from a lake.
Large reptiles also figure prominently in the Hartes' Jurassic Park section, dominated by a yard-high, smoke-belching volcano. Dominating the volcano's precipitous slopes are Neanderthalmunching dinosaurs, fiery lava flows and tropical vegetation.
An engine running along the mountain hauls cars of dinosaurs, including one from which a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops are bursting through.
Hartes, who has written articles on "kit bashing" -- the art of adapting mass-produced equipment into specialty pieces -- says a photo of his train car with the escaping dinosaurs was featured on the cover of a recent calendar published by LGB, makers of Gscale railroads.
But this train-loving couple doesn't restrict themselves to customizing items manufactured expressly for model railroading. A disused mailbox, for example, has been converted into a G-scale engine-repair shop. And a layer of paint and a bit of carpentry has turned old birdhouses into suitably sized chalets and shops.
"We like to recycle things," Hartes says, pointing to a rocky, lichen-dotted archway spanning a track. He explains proudly that the pieces of the ancient-looking arch were salvaged from a broken-up, concrete air conditioner pad.
Another talent needed to operate a garden railway, particularly one with 11 lines that run simultaneously and intersect frequently, is the ability to wire-in automatic timers and trip switches.
"Some of the tracks have pairs of trains running on them, and you need switches to prevent collisions," Hartes says.
In addition to running musical train cars, the Harteses can play authentic recordings of 10 typical railroad sounds, including the requisite "All aboard!" But since this is a garden railway, the clamor of trains is often blended with birdsong and the gurgle of waterfalls from nearby koi and goldfish ponds.
Nature, which Hartes says sweetens the garden-railroading experience, can also be his adversary. A single leaf from the sycamore tree overhanging the layout can derail an engine, he says.
"That's why I built a framework and installed a screen over the entire system," he says. The leaf barrier has enabled the couple to run their trains on and off year-round.
Though the tracks, scenery and most buildings stay in place, the couple sets up the railway to run for just a few weeks at a time. But the screen can't thwart rain, an event that brings garden railroading to an abrupt standstill.
"When it rains, we have to run the engines into the tunnels until it stops," Hartes says.
Another garden railway that's screened off from some of nature's hazards belongs to Gerald and Barbara Seitter of Lakeland. Their 250 feet of track run entirely in a screened, garden room.
"I like to garden, but I don't like bugs, and my husband loves trains, so having it set up this way makes sense," Barbara Seitter says. "Our railway isn't as elaborate as Pete and Trish's. It's just a railroad running through a garden."
But this retired couple does boast an unusually positioned train system.
"We also have an overhead train suspended a foot below the ceiling of our lanai," she says.
That freedom of expression is one of the aspects of garden railroading that makes it appealing to a wide range of hobbyists, according to retiree George Sheldon of Altamonte Springs. Sheldon, one of the founding members of the Florida Garden Railway Society, says there is no typical member.
"It attracts an infinite variety of people," he says. "Some are mostly interested in gardening, some in trains, and some -- believe it or not -- are mainly fascinated by the buildings and scenery. A lot of people just think having a train running through the garden is ornamental."
