Descanso Gardens G-Scale Layout and Enchanted Railroad 08/03/24

Descanso Gardens in La Canada-Frintridge, CA recently contracted Applied Imagination to build a very impressive pop-up garden railroad in their botanical gardens. The display consists of 7 independent loops which all run g-scale equipment simultaneously. There is an operator's booth with Bridgewerks power supplies and equipment storage. Also featured towards the end of this video is their existing longtime 7.5" gauge operation and new RMI X1 which they acquired about a year ago replacing their old FP45. If you're familiar with LALS's track design, you'll recognize the same hardware and turnouts which were built by Doug Alkire. This is because past LALS president Lew Soibelman (d2011) led the construction of the Descanso Gardens Enchanted Railroad back in the 90's. I've included some photos and videos from my family archives comparing how it looked 20 years ago when I used to visit as a kid.

[@scottfw7169]

There at "20 Years Ago" the F45 and FP45 are still some of my favorite locomotive body designs. They look good. I also enjoy that their chisel-nose front end brings to mind the bows of the Navy ships Dad was on. While I do like various big powerful locomotives my heart is with the small ones, be they steam, electric, diesel, whatever their gauge may be.

[@enchantereddie]

So the tracks of different height are not connected?

[@AODProds]

No, the 7 loops are not connected. Each loop is independently controlled by its own transformer and has no crossovers or connecting tracks to change levels or loops.