History of the Maine Garden Railway Society

 By Doug Johnson

[Edited by Ray Parent]

 

The Beginning:

The Maine Garden Railroad Society was founded by Doug Johnson in early 2001.  Doug and his wife Joanne (who died in 1998) had started the Vermont Garden Railway Society in 1993.  When he returned to Maine in 2000, Doug found that no garden railroad group had yet been started.  In December of that year a pivotal event took place that would lay the groundwork for establishing such a group in Maine.

Lee Dassler, the Director of the McLaughlin Gardens in So. Paris, Maine [http://www.mclaughlingarden.org/] called Doug looking for someone to make a layout for their December Holiday presentation.  Fortunately, all of his track and trains were in boxes from the move; so Doug agreed.  As a result of the show, it became apparent that there were a number of folks in Maine interested in garden railroading.

The first promotional letter inviting garden railroaders to form a society in Maine  was sent on March 15, 2001, and it invited all those interested to a luncheon meeting at Governor’s Restaurant in So. Portland on April 7.  Twenty three people showed up, and as they say, the rest is history…

 
The Early Years:

Coupling the sign up list from the above luncheon meeting with the Garden Railways Magazine Maine subscription list, and with input from Larry Cannon and Don Jackson, Doug put the first mailing list together.  And even though his initial intention was to limit the mailing to southern Maine, it in fact went statewide.

In early April 2001 a second promotional letter went out with a meeting suggested at the Down East Model Railroad Show in Brunswick. Thirteen people attended.  By the end of April, Thirty three people had signed up and in May 2001 the Society was fully activated with thirty four members. 

The membership spread from Blaine to No. Berwick, and the layouts represented were powered by track power, battery, and steam and there were even three members that had ride-on equipment, ranging from 7” to 15” gauge.

In June 2001 we attended the Sanford show and displayed a working two track layout.  Needless to say, interest in garden railroading was beginning to pick up.

The first official meeting of the Maine Garden Railroad Society was hosted by Bill Monson, and was held at the Belfast & Moosehead Lake RR in Unity.  By July we were up to 45 members, and in August we were listed in Garden Railways Magazine [http://www.trains.com/grw/].  And we ended out the first year’s activities by having a working layout built on a truck bed during the Southern Maine Train & Toy Show.

2002 saw the National Model Railroad Association area convention held in Portland.  The MGRS had a part in the program, getting a speaker on plants in a garden railway and a slide lecture on layouts.

  

The Formative Years:

In February of 2003 the current logo was developed.  It was partly based on the Vermont Garden Railway Society’s logo which Joanne, Doug’s wife, was instrumental in designing.  The engine and flowers out of the smoke stack were her creations.  For the first time, our logo could be placed on shirts, hats, etc. 

At this stage, our society was informal, with no officers, by-laws, or board of directors. Doug continued to provide the overall leadership to the society and established a “JUST DO IT” motto.  He would publish a newsletter when there was something to report, or when there was a meeting.  And the society grew and flourished.

March of 2003 saw our first participation in the Annual Portland Flower Show, where we partnered with O’Donal Nursery [http://www.odonalsnurseries.com/] to have a working layout incorporated into their landscape design.

August 2003 saw the distribution of the first of many MGRS Box Cars made by Barry Sandford and Ted Simanek.  It was also the first distribution of shirts with the MGRS logo.

In April of 2004 Paul and Rachel Corbett established visits to area nursing homes and veterans homes displaying tabletop G Scale layouts.  Carl and Pat Churchill started to have nursing home and veteran home residents visit their Overlook Railroad in Buxton Maine, which today exceeds 2400 ft of track.

In May of 2004 we began to have a springtime meeting in the northern area.

In January of 2005 “The Iron Horse” became the formal name for our newsletter. Newsletters tend to take many twist and turns over their lifetime and “The Iron Horse” is no exception.

In 2005 we decided to donate some of our excess funds to support a Maine tourist railroad. The first one to receive a gift was the WW&F.  From this beginning a group, which included Rebecca Sandford, Pat Churchill, Marsha Hardy, and Brenda Leslie suggested we have an annual auction to raise funds for a Maine tourist railroad.  The auctions were held during the Churchill Spectaculars in July. In 2006 we made a gift to the SR&RL, and in 2007 we made a gift to the B&MLRR.

August of 2007 brought the first National Narrow Gauge Convention to Portland.  As a result several of our members were involved with garden railroad layout tours, notably Pat & Carl Churchill’s Overlook Railroad in Buxton, Betty & Ted Simanek’s Muscongus & Penobscot Railway in Weld, and Ruth & Larry Cannon's layout in Lewiston.  Over 400 visitors from all over the world [including Japan and several European countries] left quite impressed with the vitality of garden railroading in Maine.

In August we also formed a committee to design and install a functioning layout for the 2008 Home, Flower & Garden Show in Fryeburg. It will be our largest public layout to date.

So the MGRS has grown and prospered from twenty three people attending an informational meeting in March 2001 to one hundred and eight paid members in February 2008. And we now have a total of forty seven layouts throughout the state of Maine.

 

The Future Years:

In December 2007, Doug announced his retirement from his stewardship role in the MGRS, and a more formal structure was set up under Carl Churchill’s leadership.  A Board of Directors was elected in January 2008, and By-Laws are in the final stages of approval.  The society has also been formally recognized as a Non-Profit Corporation.

So the proverbial boiler is fully steamed and at operating pressure.  We have plenty of coal in our tender [low sulfur coal, of course], the grade ahead is gradual, and we have plenty of paying passengers to make our future excursions fun and rewarding.