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Visit to Santa Clara Convention.
I am a live steam addict and my comments
should be viewed in the light of this affliction!
The convention consisted of 7 days of garden
visits with an exhibition on two of the final evenings (for
Convention attendees) and two of the final days (for members of
the public.)
The garden visits were between 6-12 gardens
on each of the convention days and gave a good cross-section of
garden layouts from the small to the very large. In about 90% of
the gardens the layout was a landscaping feature, and to my eye,
the trains were just an added bonus.(100ft by 30ft layouts with
only one small engine running was not unusual). The other 10%
were for running trains!!. The percentage of live steam was
small with only 3 of the layouts having live steam as opposed to
the description ‘steam’ (this was a real disappointment to me
personally). Some of the gardens had as many as 3 separate
layouts, and in one case there was an extensive indoor layout in
a very large attic.
The landscaping of the gardens was awesome.
Natural materials , such as rocks/stone were very much in
evidence Equally, some ingenious use of chicken wire, with
concrete plastered over this, was in evidence( one garden had
not only the usual waterfalls, rivers and lakes but even a
working volcano!!) Buildings appeared to be produced from kits
although many had been constructed from purpose produced slat
like material (usually hard wood). Typical old American Main Sts
were in found in a number of the gardens again kit built, but
there were also complete factories, particularly lumber mills
and workshops. (these mills and workshops were available to
purchase from dealers at the exhibition hall) Many gardens had
gone to great detail, vegetation/tree plantations were varied
and of great interest to my gardener(HID); some had themes…e.g.
a Disney layout complete with sleeping beauty castle, pirate
boat etc……..as I said above the trains were purely incidental!
One visit on the 5th July had all trains and many
features, bedecked with American flags, clearly the result of
the previous day’s celebrations.
The ‘English Garden’ at a garden centre had
a small German loco/train running around it. This was, of
course, challenged and the answer given….’I didn’t know where to
get an English train from”!! My answer, under the circumstances
was very polite!
The exhibition reflected the same percentage
split between electric and live steam as were the garden
layouts. LGB was a very high percentage of representation ,with
a small contingent from Accucraft , Aristocraft and USA trains.
There was little evidence of the smaller manufacturers which one
sees at UK events The layouts at the exhibition were again on a
grand scale, with runs of 100feet or more.
In summary, the organisation was tremendous
and extensive; the layouts were fantastic, but the trains a
disappointment! The temperature was 90deg +, stamina waned. Not
all layouts were visited, so I hope I am not doing them an
injustice. I did take away more ideas than I will be able to
utilize and leaving me scratching my head in wonder!
John Tomlin. 2006.
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