G&O Garden Railroad
The G&O is located behind the historic San Leandro Depot in Thrasher Park, San Leandro, CA. The display was designed by Nancy Norris. She is a nationally known garden railroader, builder, and designer. The main water feature, Norris Falls, and the station on the children’s display are named in her honor. Construction started in May 2008 and will never be finished.
The G&O Garden Railroad is the only public garden railroad In Northern California. The railroad consists of both G gauge and O gauge (3-rail) displays, hence the G&O name. Please see the “schedule & events page” of this website for information about the G&O’s operating hours.
Display: The display is in a 61 X 20-foot area with a 35 X 23 foot “L” at the east end. The total display area is 2,025 square feet. The average width of the display is 10 feet. The display is built inside a raised cinder block wall that is filled with soil. The average wall height is 30 inches. The children’s display’s wall is 13 inches high. This is a photo of the area before construction started.
Water Features: Norris Falls is located at the display’s entrance and depicts a typical California mountain stream. The unique fire feature depicts a fire crew and helicopter fighting a California forest fire. Twelve-volt submersible boat bilge pumps recycle water through both features.
Plants: There are four distinct planting areas. The east end has a California mountain theme surrounding Norris Falls which includes dwarf Alberta spruce and a group of dwarf bald cypress. This transitions to a dessert theme featuring cacti and succulents. The display is divided in the center by Bouey Canyon. Immediately to the west of the canyon is another California mountain theme. This is followed by the children’s display with dwarf Hinoki cypress, Seiju Chinese elms, and miniature pomegranate. The display contains over 50 trees.
Buildings: The themes and buildings change for each SLHRS event.
Children’s Display: This display is designed to introduce children and their families to the garden railroad hobby. The controls are placed so that kids can run trains. The display has one G gauge loop, one G gauge back and forth track and two O gauge loops. There are no switches.
G Gauge Display: The G gauge display can operate track powered, battery powered and live steam trains on two long loops of track. Each loop has a passing siding in the staging area that can be individually controlled by on and off switches.
Track: 368 feet of mostly LGB track.
Switches: 7 manual switches.
Minimum Radius: 4 1/2 feet, 5 or more feet wherever possible.
Maximum Grade: 1% or less.
Power: One Bridgewerks Magnum 220-RM dual control DC transformer controlling both loops.
Control: Two Crest 2.4 Train Engineer units to remotely control DC track voltage in conjunction with two Crest CRE-ST0055 Base Receivers.
Trains: Four trains can be operated simultaneously.
O Gauge Display: The O gauge display uses a 3-rail track system. It can operate conventional and command control trains on a “coast” and “mountain” line.
Track: 521 feet of Atlas 21st Century O gauge solid nickel-silver track.
Switches: 25 manual switches.
Minimum Radius: O-72 (36 inches). Wider where possible.
Power: Two MTH Z-4000 AC 24 volt transformers.
Conventional Control: MTH Z-4K Track control system.
Command Control: Lionel Legacy and MTH Digital Command Control System (DCS).
Maximum Grade: 3%.
Track: G Gauge - 32 feet, O Gauge- 31 feet of track in two loops.
Minimum Radius: G Gauge - 36 inches, O Gauge : O-36 (18 inches)
G Gauge Control System: One MRC Train Power 6200 transformer.
O Gauge Control System: One Lionel CW-80 for the lower loop and one Lionel CW-30 for the upper loop.
Accessory Control: One Bachmann Spectrum DC transformer.
The G&O crew invites you to visit us soon and often whenever you are in the SF Bay Area. You will see something different during each visit as the display constantly changes and evolves.
