I finally got a few new pictures posted on my friends website of my CJ & M railroad . Hope you check them out . My wife and I planted @ 275 dwarf alberta spruce trees last year and tons of ground covers . This is a picture of my new GP-30 and S-4 that I got recently . The website is www.planetdonnstudios.com .Turn your volume down as it is a website of my friends rock band and it is pritty loud when the site first appears. Go to the bottom of the main page to “Mikes train garden”. 
Very nice mate, is there any more?
rgds Ian
Hope to have my own website up and running in the future .
Very nice!
Blue Aster
great looking pictures ,big train wreck, engineer driving to fast or a big gust of wind??
i had a gust of wind take cars off of a bridge a while back, super glue does wonders .
BEN
Hey there,
Talk about trees! Holy moly man…talk about a lot of work! Well done. The layout looks fantastic. Quite the train wreck also. Thanks for the pics. Later eh…Brian.
Nicely done and detailed, good weathering job
Nice!
Great train wreck photos[:-,]
The double stack train wreck was caused by a coupler that came undone and I wasn’t watching , so when it came around again it rear ended itself . The other wreck happened when 6 year old jacob hit the reverse button on my remote while the train was moving . Just a few scraches and a few broken parts that were easy to repair . Gives the rolling stock a little character . Most of those pictures are from 2005 except for the GP-30 and S-4 pictures . We now have completed the farm area above the tunnel and it came out great . Also I added a crossover section and a waterfall since last year . Still a little more to do till the railroad is done . Hope to have more pictures in the future to share . Thanks for looking !
Nice website & interesting layout. Hope you have better luck with your Alberta’s all of the ones I planted last fall are dead. I planted more, just to give them a 2nd chance.
The dead ones look pretty cool, tho. I’m phasing in instead juniper virginiana, a native local species
So far Dave the trees are growing too good . It’s already crossed my mind that I might be forced in the future to have a “dwarf alberta spruce sale”. We are in zone 5 here in chicago . Hope you have better luck with the junipers .
Want a direct link, blue aster?
http://www.planetdonnstudios.com/mike/index.html
I’m not a big fan of going through one site to get to another. (Or new windows opening for sites.)
Very Impressive!!!
Major Carrales
Great pix!!! I like the raised planter-bed style of construction. and I love the dwarf pines…they look gorgeous! I dont see many gr’s these days with a lot of spruce --i guess cos they are pricey$$
way to go…!!
Regards,
Thomas M.
$3.33 each last year at Home Depot . This year they are $3.99 .
Mike,
very impressive landscaping! I was most interested in your plant choices as I am also from the Chicago area - western sububs. How did you do your asphalt roads? They were so well done, I couldn’t detirmen if they were actually asphalt or not. Tips, please!
Jennifer
Hey Jennifer thanks for looking ! The roads were made by first digging a small trench to the width of the road and then putting chicken wire into the trench . After that we covered the chicken wire with cement mortar mix (no stones) @ 1 to 2 inches thick . After the cement dried I covered the road with ashphalt sealer . The same stuff I use on my “real” driveway . They have gone through their first winter with just a couple of minor cracks . Make sure that you use cement mortar mix . The first try we used tile grout and the roads crumbled from the frost heaving .
Jeniffer the trees are mostly Dwarf Alberta spruce with some trimmed boxwoods also . The grouncovers are a mix of sedums and wooly thyme and other thyme’s . Since you so close in Aurora you should come by some weekend and check it out yourself . My wife Connie would be able to tell you more about the vegitation . My e-mail is on the website .