The garden special

Visitors will be walking through Bev Bartelt’s garden on Saturday, but they will have to watch out for railroad crossings. Trains regularly chug through the array of perennial plants and shrubs.

Model trains travel on a tracks that wind through the vivid landscape Bev designed for the backyard of her home on Spring Street in Port Washington.

The train garden is one of six destinations on the Port Washington Garden Club’s annual Garden Walk to be held Saturday.

The elaborate railroad layout was created by Bev and Dave Bartelt’s son James, a dedicated model train hobbyist.

More than 400 figures, animals, trees and shrubs grace the scene, including a school, light station, tiki bar, furniture and general stores, campground and golf driving range. Dave added an Amish barn and shed and covered bridge he built.

A firehouse made with eighth-inch plate steel weighs 37 pounds.

“If you fall on it, you’re going to get hurt. The building won’t get hurt,” James said.

Wildlife took notice of the structure and took refuge. Chipmunks invited themselves inside and began to chew on wires.

James added Plexiglas to the doorways to keep them out.

While the buildings generally remain the same each year, the figurines change as needed.

“It depends if the squirrels chew their heads off,” Bev said.

“And they don’t chew the cheap ones,” James said, adding the creatures behead the $10 versions.

The large G-scale model trains run on battery power, and solar-powered lights turn on after dark. The track runs through windows into the Bartelts’ basement. Rain doesn’t affect the layout, but equipment is brought inside during winter.

James is ready for Wisconsin weather. “I do have a snow plow,” he said. A plow that can move light fluffy snow attaches to one of the engines, just like the contraptions real trains use.

“That’s fun to watch,” Bev said.

The model train hobby, indoors or outdoors, can be as expensive as people want to make it. One of James’ locomotives cost $3,500. The outdoor track costs about $4 per foot.

“I probably have $20,000 to $30,000 invested,” he said of the outside layout.

“I’m adding figures every year.”

He’s also spending time on the display every day when not at his job as an electrician at Gemini Controls in Cedarburg.

The setup in spring takes the most effort. He spread 10 three-gallon pails of gravel and vacuums it every day.

He started the outdoor display more than 20 years ago in the family’s 50-foot wide and 250-foot long backyard.

A small layout was expanded to a narrow figure eight-shaped track that wound its way around buildings and plants and a large tree. When the Bartelts had the tree removed, James added another loop in what was garden space.

“This used to be my garden here,” she said while pointing to the railroad layout. “Every time he expanded it, my garden moved out.”

Bev’s vegetables and flowers eventually moved to the other side of the narrow yard.

James helps his mother with her garden too. Bev, 82, has had three back surgeries and two neck surgeries. She was told she may not walk again but she still does.

Bev, who grew up gardening with her father in Lomira and later helping grow roses in the Town of Wayne, has hostas, alliums, mums, rhubarb, raspberries, lettuce and radishes. She shares her yield with her neighbors.

A tragedy motivated Bev to get her son interested in trains. Her grandfather, after getting the mail one day and reading a letter saying his life insurance expired, was hit and was killed by a train.

She wasn’t going to let another accident happen. “I was scared to death. He’s got to learn to respect trains,” Bev said of James.

She took off of work and pulled James out of school to attend a railroad club meeting. Dave later partook in the hobby as well until his work schedule shifted.

James, 52, is now the vice president and show chairman for the METRO Model Railroad Club that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Harbor Club in Port.

The club, which runs trains on a smaller scale than James’ outdoor layout, has members from Port, Belgium, Cedarburg, Mequon, West Allis and Milwaukee. Among its members are retired police officers, attorneys, doctors and even a former train engineer.

James considered working in the railroad industry but decided it’s best not to mix his job with his hobby.

The club welcomes new members and is seeking younger ones, but it’s not about child’s play. It is capturing a piece of American history and nostalgia.

“It’s not just running trains. We’re trying to recreate the real thing,” James said.

For more information, visit www.metrorrclub.org.