In 1992, we went to the International AmeriFlora Exposition in Columbus, Ohio to see their celebration of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in America. There were garden and floral exhibits from all over the world. One of these exhibits, the one from Germany, featured Garden Trains (G-Scale) -- it was quite impressive. As luck would have it, that following Christmas Santa brought John a G-Scale starter set -- this was a Bachman North Star (it is the red one shown below.) As soon as the weather got reasonable in early 1993, construction on an outdoor layout began. Since then, the layout has grown to by three trains on three tracks (covering about 200'.) The trains that were added are an LGB train (the green one below), a point-to-point trolley, and a Hartland Purdue (of course) Special. These are all run by remote control and will perform in all weather conditions (providing that the track is cleared -- see the last picture below -- the snow was too deep!)