The Las Vegas Garden Railway Society was formed in June 1991 by Rod Morgan, our first President. Other charter members were Clark Lord, Paul Wolfram, Paul Parquette and Terry Handy. The club started out as an outdoor layout club holding meetings at members homes to run trains. Meetings were also held at the home of a local entrepreneur who had a fabulous indoor Large Scale layout. It was at one of these meetings that the idea of building a portable modular layout was conceived. The modules allow us to set up a 50' x 60' x 40" high portable Garden Railway almost anywhere. The Club incorporated under the laws of the State of Nevada on December 1, 2000. (See our Charter below)The LVGRS has grown and prospered with the structure of outdoor layouts and portable modules. The inclusion of our spouses in club activites has been instrumental in increasing our membership to over 87 families (170 voting members) in our Garden Railway Society. Members ages range from "twenty-somethings" to "seventy-somethings". Individual members come from all walks of life, including Educators, Firemen, Business Owners, Homemakers, A Professional Basketball Player, Corporate Executives, Skilled Craftsman, and Retirees. Monthly gatherings are held on the outdoor layouts of the membership and brief business sessions are conducted in between members running their own trains and enjoying Pot Luck meals.
We have been active in numerous local public events (craft shows, home shows, GATS Train Shows. etc.), displaying and operating our railway for tens of thousands of southern Nevadan's. Annually, at Christmas time, we operate in the lobby of the local power and telephone utilities, returning us to an era where model trains were a part of the Christmas decorations. We have also traveled to nearby towns to participate in annual railroad days festivals.
Some of our members have been highlighted in major magazine articles.
Lou and Joan Banning had their garden railway in the September 1999 issue of "Garden Railways" magazine, complete with a front page photo. Their Stamp Mill was also the backdrop for front page of the Jan/Feb 2000 issue of Steam in the Garden.
Herb & Joyce Stier had an article published in the Feb 2002 issue of Garden Railways dealing with installing a constant intensity locomotive smoke unit.
Rod and Cathy Morgan had an article on their garden layout in the June 2000 edition of "SUNSET" magazine.
Clark Lord, our treasurer, has authored articles in the Jan/Feb 2000 and Sep/Oct 1998 issues of "Steam in the Garden", including shooting the cover photo for the Jan/Feb 2000 issue. A featured article also appeared in the July 1997 issue of "Garden Railways" magazine
Chuck McManis wrote and had published an article on building a scale working model railgun. In the same article he displayed plans for an exploding warehouse.
Barry and Polly Olsen, of "BARRY'S BIG TRAINS" (BBT), are members of the Club. Barry is the designer and fabricator of after product drive mechanisms for the Bachmann 4-6-0 "Big Hauler" series of locomotives.
With the rapidly expanding Las Vegas community (1.5 million residents at last count), we expect the Las Vegas Garden Railway Society to continue to grow and prosper in the 21st century.
