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Thanksgiving Point
September 17, 2000

Although the railroad had its first exposure to the public at the open house it was still not completed. Work continued at a feverish pace to get as much done as possible before the onset of the fast approaching harsh winter.

I spent the week from September 10th through the 17th, 2000 at Thanksgiving Point working on the Railroad along with Bruce, Tom, Bill, Ed, Gregg, and other members of the Utah Garden Railroad Society. The first thing I noticed when I got there was the new plants, trees and ground cover. It was really starting to look more like a Garden Railway every day.

Pictured above left is one of the two Marklin interactive areas where children and adults had the opportunity to get hands on experience running trains. Above right you can see what was once void of any plant life has now come alive.

It has really been exciting to hear the comments of the many hundreds of visitors that have come to see the garden as we were working . "WOW", "This is spectacular", " I have never seen anything like this". If you could have only seen the faces of the children you would have wanted to be there too.

Below left is Bill Hegeman who was the main driving force behind the beautiful trestles. Bill and other members of the Utah Garden Railroad Society were busy installing the trestles. All the trestle components were built over the winter and spring by many volunteers including BYU students and others.

While I was taking a short break I had the opportunity to visit the Heber Valley Railroad just a short drive from Thanksgiving Point. I found Engineer Craig Drury (pictured above right) doing his walk around inspection of his # 75, 2-8-0 Baldwin Locomotive. Craig has worked there for nearly 30 years and will be retiring soon . He told me that he and his wife will be building a seventeen inch gauge railroad in his back yard as a retirement project. He also said he will be coming by Thanksgiving Point very soon.

We at H&R Trains are very pleased that Thanksgiving Point selected our Stainless Steel Track. Of course we already knew that it was the best track available, but after exhaustive tests over a two year period they came to the same conclusion.

We have been told that even after more than two years of construction through rain, mud, and snow that very little track maintenance has been necessary to get the trains running smoothly. That is consistent with our experience and is precisely why we decided to import this track from Europe to the United States.

Although the railroad was open to the public, it was not as yet completed. The railroad became an instant hit with almost everyone who saw it during the week long opening in mid July, and it is was becoming more spectacular every day.

Don Morris

H&R Trains

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