This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published December 20, 2011 and can be found here.
If you're looking for something to do with the kids while they're off from school for the holidays, grab your conductor hats and head out to the Garden Factory [ map
]. They've got a 60'x20' model railroad on display thru the end of the month that you won't want to miss.
Built to "G" gauge, which is roughly half-an-inch per foot, the model train display is the work of two local train enthusiasts, David Rouse and Peter Todd. Peter past away in 2008, but before that, the duo had worked on major train projects all over the Rochester area.
This display features three trolleys and four loooong trains--over 100 train cars in all.
One corner of the exhibit brings onlookers back to the days when Santa roamed Main Street and trolley cars shuttled holiday shoppers between department stores.
You'll also find mountain terrain with ski lifts, a working drive-in movie theater, ice skating rink, many bridges, crossings and more.
Stored over the course of the year in eight sections, it takes over 100 hours to move, assemble, and fine tune to get it ready for holiday viewing.
A 40-foot extension actually had to be added to their warehouse to fit the extended display.
The Garden Factory has been putting on the display since 1990 along with a holiday light show (admission: $3 adults / $2 kids, 10-2:30p), a mini petting zoo, arts and crafts, and visits from Santa Claus himself.
Train Display Hours:
November 25 thru December 23
Mon-Fri: Noon-7:30p
Sat-Sun: 10:00a-5:30p
December 24
9:00a-2:30p
December 25
Closed
December 26 thru December 31
10:00a-4:30p
