A Morden resident has taken his model railroad hobby to another level with a large outdoor display.
Michael Mann and his wife Shannon welcomed visitors to their Pembina Drive back yard for an open house in June, and they had over 60 people show up over a two-day period to check out the display.
“It was a good opportunity to showcase it because we hadn’t had an open house for a few years, and we thought it was time,” said Mann, who had been part of a previous garden tour because of the novelty of their outdoor train display.
The area along their rear yard fence line is almost entirely taken up with the display, which includes an outer larger loop and smaller inner loops as well as one that leads the train back into a small storage area. There is even a mountain as well as a pond and water feature.
Mann didn’t really grow up with model railroads as a big passion, but there is some family connection to it as a hobby.
“I think my dad would have had something growing up … but his brother had a layout, at least in later years. He hand built his switches and his track and stuff, so I suspect the family interest went back to their youth,” Mann said, recalling as well that there had been a setup that ran between his room and his brother’s room when they were kids.
“So trains were kind of there in the background for me,” he said, recalling at one point as an adult having happened to go to Minneapolis where they found a store with model trains. “And before we knew it, an hour and a half later, we came out with a starter set.
“Time and life and everything else kind of takes over … and I had not had a layout for a number of years …we hadn’t had any trains for a while, and so it piqued the interest.”
Mann likes the train sets that are G-scale, the largest commercially available scale. Because of their size, these trains are perfect for outdoor garden railroads and large indoor displays.
“I don’t know if anyone else in Manitoba has an outdoor layout like this,” noted Mann.
There’s a lot of work involved to not only build such a display but maintain it as well.
“It was a family-type of event designing and building this,” Mann shared. “Some layouts will be much larger … at about a hundred feet here, we’re happy with what we’ve got, knowing that it takes a lot to maintain it as well. And if you’ve got a busier summer where you’re doing a lot of other things, it can quickly get weedy.”
He enjoys the process of creating it all, problem solving, and keeping the trains running smoothly.
“The trestles were all hand built based on a template that I had,” he explained, observing that the railway ties that are part of the display are eventually going to need to be replaced.
“It’s always interesting to check out things online to see what others are doing as to how you can work or rework things to suit the backyard situation here,” Mann added.
A big part of the attraction for him is simply the nostalgia aspect of it all.
“It’s just the uniqueness of having such a thing,” Mann said. “It’s just unique.
“We like the steam era as opposed to something more modern and diesel, so we’re modelling something from the 1800s,” he noted. “We’re happy with it … for us, just watching the train go around is enjoyable.”
