Please note if coming from the North side on GA 400SB the Mt Vernon Highway bridge across I-285 will be closed for at least a year.

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Layout Details

Cothran Valley Gardens

Photos

P1090927 trains in the garden
Lori railroad sm engine
DSC_0664 chessie engine sm
cvg rr billboard

Layout Description

  • Background What do you do when you can't get grass to grow in your front yard? You build a garden railroad, of course! Inspired in March 2017 by a display of G-Scale trains by the Georgia Garden Railway Society at the Piedmont Division Model Train Show, Lori set about planning and building the Cothran Valley Garden Railroad. About the CVG RR This railroad travels back to late 1960's on a fictitious short line running through rural North Georgia mountains. The railroad features two ovals of track surrounded by farmsteads, a small train depot, and a magical village on the far side of the mountain. The rolling stock showcases iconic billboards of the era. The railway is nestled into existing gardens and includes scale plantings.

Scale / Gauge

  • G

Size of Layout

  • 40 / 20

Prototype

  • Freelance

Location Modeled

  • Dawson County, Georgia

Era

  • 1960's

Style of Track Plan

  • Garden with trains

Length of Main Line

  • 58'

Layout Height

  • 0"

Benchwork

  • Other

Roadbed Material

  • Crushed Gravel

Track Manufacturer

  • LGB

Turnouts

  • LGB

Minimum Main Line Radius

  • 48"

Maximum Grade

  • 2 %

Scenery Techniques

  • Combination of planting and models

% Scenery Complete

  • 100 %

Backdrop

  • The garden !!!

Control System

  • DC Transformers

Car Forwarding System

  • Other

Train Authority / Dispatching

  • Mother May I

Operating Group

Direction Comment

  • In the front yard

Wheelchair Accessible

ADA Comments

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