Jon D, Miller: We have buildings constructed from plastic and wood with one of metal. Several of the more delicate structures are taken in after running sessions, however, for the most part the buildings stay out year-round. I prefer wood because it is more woody and properly treated holds up well in the weather. We have a number of garden train buildings that have been outside since 1993; they have held up well. Plastic needs to be painted to stop the effects of UV rays. Once painted the plastic buildings will give extended years of service.

Dwight Morgan: Most of my garden train buildings are plastic (Pola or Piko) but I do have some wood birdhouses and a fiberglass structure. I place my buildings on Corian type bases I buy from a counter top manufacturer. These are the sink and stove top cutouts he usually discards. When I build the kits I add a Lucite base for stability and so I set a couple pins in the Corian and match them to holes in the Lucite. This keeps the building from sliding around in the wind. The buildings usually come in for the winter just to save wear and tear.

Tom Smith: We see thousands of kids and young families get excited over the garden trains and many take home a club membership form never to be heard from again. We need to do some follow up with the ones excited enough to want to take an application with them. The cost and size of the gaden trains hobby can be prohibitive to many. It is my thinking that a personal call and invitation to a meeting or our own layout might give the opportunity to get a better look and feel of what we do. It would also give a better chance to really talk over what is involved in getting started with Garden Trains.

Rick Henderson: I think many a child that is exposed to garden trains at a young age has a great chance to return to his roots after he has experienced other pursuits in life. I started with my dad at the age of seven on weekends. For about 10 years I was deeply interested in the trains but as a military family we moved often and I was starting over often. This background interest in trains kept me returning to the hobby in various scales through the years when I may have been sidetracked by necessities like women and work. But I always came back to trains because of the exposure I had as a child. Now after fifty years in the hobby of model railroading, I can’t think of another hobby I would have enjoyed more. My hope now is that my daughters give me grandsons that I may encourage to take the right track, not to mention inherited my garden trains.