The Mendocino Coast Model Railroad and Historical Society has just opened a large permanent model of Digger Creek & Northern Railroad. It is huge – with a little over 200 feet of track of main line – and it is UNIQUE!
- It is solar powered.
- It is the first “living history” raised from the ground public model railway. Many garden railways (in fact most) model a period but few try to recreate scenes from “real life” even though they may be based on a locale or a railroad. For well over 100 years nearly every river and doghole port on the Mendocino Coast from Gualala in the south to Rockport to the north was the home of a redwood lumber mill and its railway. Alas, the whistles of the mills and the trains that brought the redwoods to the mills blow no more. They are all gone. The Digger Creek and Northern recreates those bygone days through dioramas based on real life scenes including a 16 foot long model of the Pudding Creek Trestle.
- The Digger Creek and Northern was built and paid for by the Mendocino Coast Model Railroad and Historical Society and donated to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. Digger Creek is maintained and operated by the Model Railroad Club. So, what’s so unique about that? ….. Well the “unique deal” is that ANYONE who is a member of the Botanical Gardens or who has paid for admission can run his/her/their train anytime they want. If you have a G Scale loco (electric or live steam) and a consist (if you have one you want to bring one) you can run it through scenes of railroads along the Mendocino Redwood Coast. Make arrangements through the front desk.
Located by the vegetable garden in the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, the train is running daily until January 1 (except for Dec 25), then open weekends year round.
