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Bulletin, Progressive, Record, Reporter Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011 IB
R00GIONAL
INSIDE SECTION B: EDITORIAL AND OPINION * UPCOMING EVENTS .......................................................................................................................................
A passion for ga,rde00n
e
trains
Deborah Skow crouches down closer to the trains and orchids
featured in the greenhouse. Orchids have become another
passion shared by Chris and Deborah. They can be picky and
difficult to cultivate, but many of the orchids are re-blooming, a
sure sign they have found a home.
An overview of a portion of the Skow train garden reveals the complexity of the train layout. The groupings include miniature buildings
and homes, waterfalls, ponds, trestles, roads and intricate details like hoses shooting out water, small people on walkways, and cars
parked in front of stores with miniature landscaping surrounding everything.
Diana Jorgenson
Staff Writer
djorgenson@plumasnews.com
When Chris Skow was growing up in Pasadena, his father
would take him down to the train station to watch the Super
Chief leave town. His relationship with trains was cemented
during his teen years when he hung out for several days at an
Iowa trainyard while playing hooky from a family reunion.
He majored in photojournalism in college, but worked
nights.fot:.the Santa Fe Bi!road on acollg work pogr.ara.
As he prepared to start his third year of college, BOb Larson, a
friend from Plumas County, called to tell him that Western
Pacific was hiring 10 brakemen that day in Portola. Did he
want to be on the interview list?
He did and he drove up from southern California at once.
He was hired that September of 1969.
"It was a split second decision and I'd do it all over again,"
he said. "It just seems like yesterday that I drove up to meet
the trainmaster."
Three years later, he was promoted to conductor and
when Western Pacific was sold, he became a Union Pacific
employee. In 1983, he began a train tour operation with his
wife at the time. The business partnership was dissolved a few
years after their diyorce, but former employees and clients
urged him to begin anew. He then began Trains and Travel,
the enterprise that-- among other trips, some international
-- brings passenger travel back to the Feather River Canyon
during Portola's Railroad Days.
.By. nOW, Skow has 1:i_Ir..o.a. diogin his blood....C.ertai.aly,..R is
in his house and is fast taking over the landscaping around
the Eastern Plumas home he shares with his wife.
Chris married Deborah Dec. 15, 2007, on the Silver Solarium
they chartered for the occasion, and she shares his enthusiasm
for railroading. Six years ago, they developed a passion for
garden trains. The Skows' G-scale (for "garden") trains run on
an extensive and intricate track taking up half of their large
front yard, which has become an intricate kingdom of towns
and tunnels, trestles and waterfalls, stations and railyards.
Skow was already an avid collector and had been since 1964,
but he had been collecting model trains in the HO scale. There
are at least six scales leading ip to G scale, Skow explained,
and even more: that run bigger. HO cars are about 2-1/2 inches
long; O-scale cars are twice as large, 5 inches; and G-scale cars
are twice as large as O, about 10 inches long.
Exact G scale is so big that to have curves wide enough to
accommodate them is not usually possible. So a condensed
G scale is usually used. Even so, the layouts are impressively
large.
Chris and Deborah attended a five-day Garden Train
Convention in San Francisco six years ago. As part of the
curriculum, they visited about 50 train gardens in and around
the city.
"It was wonderful exploring people's backyards," Deborah
recalled.
........ And their G.sca.le garden was born. Chris .has big plans
for expansion and has roofed off most of the hillside behind
their house. The top corner is earmarked for an art studio for
Deborah and a barbecue pit is planned for the center, but the
rest is all future home for the Skows' garden railroad. The
tunnels are already built and Chris plans to have a replica of
the railroading part of the Donner Pass area.
See Skow, page 14B
Chris Skow finds his greenhouse a very relaxing place to be, with its waterfalls and tropical
foliage. The lower half of the building houses a working model train, weaving in and out of
orchids, while the upper slope of the space is filled with plants and miniature buildings. On a less
steamy day, there is a beautiful view of Beckwourth Peak.
The Skow greenhouse is a steamy paradise of plants and miniature buildings. Chris proposed to
his wife at the top of the Eiffel Tower and the light-covered replica in the top left corner of the
greenhouse commemorates that event. Now, collecting Eiffel Towers has replaced Chris' interest
in collecting lighthouses. He has enough lighthouses, he says, and, indeed, they dot the premises,
both inside the home and out.
Photos by
Diana Jorgenson
Chris is particularly fond of collecting dining car china (Iwft) and has dedicated an entire cabinet to its display. He has been collecting railroad memorabilia since 1964. As a teenager, he attended a family
gathering in Iowa and was "bored to tears," so he hung out at the Rock Island spur line serving a local Maytag plant, Railroad employees took him in tow and he received his first engine ride, among other
things. When it was time for him to return to California after a few days, he had the railroaders sign an employee timetable (center). It was the first acquisition in a lifetime of railfan collecting, A village
dose-up (right) reveals vintage cars and old-time saloons, as well as a couple fine examples of Skow's lighthouse collection.