One miniature log home on Jim Shaver's garden railway in Mound mirrors his own residence.
Shaver designed and built both himself, and the mini one still took him plenty of time to construct — about 200 hours. The home, roofed with tiny cedar shakes, is situated near a waterfall and surrounded by a forest of ferns. In front, sedum blossoms are tucked in fairy garden planters.
Since Shaver started his garden railway in 2000, he has built many of the buildings and structures from scratch — a grain mill, covered and trestle bridges, and a sawmill with a "steam donkey."
"It's never done," Shaver said. "It's a journey, not a destination."
That sentiment is echoed by many Minnesota Garden Railway Society members. The growing group, which started in 1990, meets at open houses on summer weekends, where members chat, swap garden railway paraphernalia and talk gardening. Two decades ago, there were about 20 members, said Roger Baumann of Plymouth. Now there are over 100 members.
Part of the fun is sharing bouts of ingenuity. For example, Shaver made one of his first buildings, a train depot, with two hexagonal bird feeders and scraps of granite. He once found sections of actual train track and used them for a human-sized footbridge leading into his garden.
"The sky's the limit," said Mike Haugen of Burnsville. "There's no wrong way to do this."
Haugen's advice to potential garden railroad hobbyists? "Learn how to dumpster dive. Our members are real good at it," he said.