Bill & Jan Drevline
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Our Drev Line 'layout' didn't start out as a garden railway at all. Our six kids gave us a pre-formed pond
for Christmas in 2000, and that started this insanity. We started our 'water feature' with a Costco pot off the
deck pouring the water into the first pond. This wasn't enough work for us, so we added a second pond and then a
stream into a sheep trough (which held 60 gallons). Farm and Fleet again! You would think this was enough water for
one yard, but no! A new house was going up down the block and Bill paid the Bobcat driver $50 (on his lunch hour) to
dig out a 14' X 7' pond to replace the trough. We then bought some rubber roofing material and we had a 'big' pond. Several trips to Thelens in Antioch where we hand-loaded small boulders in our van and our water feature was complete. At least I hope it is! Bill's been trying to discourage a pair of Mallards from calling this home. Bill originally wanted a 'ride-on' train for the thirteen grandchildren, but the cost was prohibitive. Well, we saw an Eggliner on display at a train show and thought they were cute. So, we bought thirteen of them; one each for the grandchildren. We have one continuous track and run the Eggliners when the kids are over or whenever we feel like cleaning the track. There is an airport as well as an industrial section behind the arbor bench, our patriotic section in it's own triangle. Bill builds all of the houses, buildings, and other structures. We have a commercial section, which includes a hardware store, junkyard, gas station, used car lot, bank, theater, dime store, and a park. The courthouse is separated by a tunnel. Another section is the church, police station, garden shop, and a train depot. We also have an assortment of residential homes. We tried to recreate some nostalgia with our interpertation of the Olson Rug Waterfall. The beer garden and alligator crossing are near the stream. We have a dairy farm, pig farm, 'Field of Dreams', the Hollywood Hills, drive-in theater and a Las Vegas downtown replica in the yard. We're working on a separate section for the kids with battery-powered toy trains which will have a 'Carnival/Christmas' theme. Since Bill is a retired electrician, the layout looks great at night. We should have an evening open house sometime. All the sections light up. In addition to our train set-up, we also have eight dwarfs (gnomes) hidden in plain view throughout the yard, with the eighth named Daffy to confuse the kids. Anyway, the Drevline's DREV-LINE has no single theme - just stuff we like and ideas we've picked up from other CAGRS' yards including stick willows holding eagle's nests. |