all aboard the garden railway 106 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM Laying (mini) tracks across the Peninsula words by JOHANNA HARLOW photography by GINO DE GRANDIS Ever been out for a neighborhood stroll and pondered what lies beyond those rows of backyard fences? Maybe it’s something predictable like a hammock or a hot tub—then again, maybe it’s an entire miniature world. Richard Murray is one of the kingdom keepers. In his Millbrae yard, the suntanned octogenarian strides along an extensive garden railroad bordered by Lilliputian-sized structures—a saw mill, a machine shop, a mountain lodge, a gold mine. “If you take your eye off the engine for five to ten seconds, the engine is gone,” Richard remarks, as he gestures to 550 elaborative feet of track, which weaves and wanders around clumps of bonsai trees, skirts minimountains and ducks in and out of tunnels. “You have to go looking for it.” It’s quiet here today—your ear will pick up the puffing of a 2-8-0 steam engine joined by the burbling of a miniature waterfall and the occasional sucking sounds of a koi slurping bits of algae from the pond—but railroading for Richard is far from a solitary pursuit. He plays an active role in the Mid-Peninsula chapter of the Bay Area Garden Railway Society (BAGRS), the largest garden railway society in North America with several hundred members. “It’s one of the friendliest clubs I’ve ever joined,” Richard says. “Requirements are that you love trains.”
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