Photograph by Douglas Rider
All Aboard: Dr. Jack Cottingham has been working on his private railroad empire--which boasts its own koi pond--since 1985.
End of the Line for Backyard Railroad
Willow Glen man will move away--and take Cottingham & Western Railroad with him
By Michelle C. Crowe
I remember growing up in a small town in Minnesota where my dad was a dentist," says Jack Cottingham, DDS, "My grandmother would take me down to the little rail yard they had, and I would be happy to just stay there for hours. You know how people talk about certain smells taking you back to your childhood? I remember loving the smell of the railroad. It just got in my blood and never left."
Today, "Smiling Jack" is the CEO of the Cottingham & Western Railroad. Established in 1985, Cottingham conducts a variety of trains on nearly one-third of a mile of track from the control center of the gazebo at his Willow Glen home on Westmoreland Drive. They chug along the fence, race around the koi pond and pool, and crisscross among miniature plants and mature trees throughout his pie-shaped lot. Cottingham, however, will be moving to Southern California later this year, and he's had to start packing up the railroad.
In a place of honor, Cottingham even replicated the Marshall, Minn., rail yard of his youth that first attracted him to the railroad. "I recall one time, no one could find me at home, and finally my grandmother called down to the station and told them to 'Send that fool boy back home!'" laughs Cottingham, as he admits, "Yep, I was there."
Given that history, perhaps his wife Anne should've realized that beside Jack following in his father's footsteps as a dentist, he would also always long to have a railroad nearby.
She just didn't expect it would take over her entire backyard.
"The first set probably took me about a year to finish. Once I got the trains running, then I built the tunnels and trestles all by hand," Cottingham says of his original six-car train that still chugs past the Japanese maples and miniature fir trees. "It's not like today, where everything is so readily available and you can get started for about $500. Back in 1985, when I got into it, supplies were limited and rare. You often had to order parts from Germany and wait quite a while to receive them."
"My particular hobby involves half-inch scale trains, with cars about a foot long and track the width of your fist," Cottingham explains. "Outdoor garden railroad building itself began in England decades ago. Not everyone had the large space needed to build model railroads inside, so they began experimenting with them outside, developing ways to make them more weatherproof. Garden railroads are made much, much stronger than, say, an inside set you'd buy for around the Christmas tree.
"Of course, I can remember the early days when a whole group of us just stood in awe watching the first garden railroad circling around a tree outside, too," admits Cottingham with a chuckle. "Today, the whole field is much more sophisticated. You can easily find all types of ready-made components, instead of having to build every element by hand, the way I did the first time."
With track made of brass and aluminum, and cars of metal and plastic, today's outdoor garden railroads are built to endure the weather all year long. The Valley's mild climate makes it an ideal spot for enthusiasts, which likely explains the explosive growth of the Bay Area Garden Railroad Society from 30 charter members and 15 garden railroads in 1988, to over 500 members and 350 garden railroads today.
One of the founding members of the Bay Area Garden Railroad Society, Cottingham estimates the hobby's popularity itself has probably grown 100-fold since he began.
Jack Verducci, current Railway Society president, agrees. The two have known each other since the early days of the society. "Jack's always been an active member, going to a lot of open houses to see other garden railroads and participating in different committees and conventions," Verducci says.
"Garden railroading is truly a family hobby. Sometimes the husband is only into the train building, while the wife is interested in designing the miniatures," Verducci says. Like Cottingham, Verducci finds many members enjoy additional shared interests, particularly railroad history, landscaping and gardening, making it an ideal pastime for families.
While Cottingham says his wife's initial reaction was, 'what a waste of time', she's since grown to embrace, or at least tolerate, his hobby.
When the young couple moved to Willow Glen in 1968, one of his earliest backyard endeavors was creating the first koi pond in Willow Glen. Once Jack started adding the outdoor railroads, he soon found himself obsessed.
Although his son John followed him into dentistry, eventually taking over his former practice, none of his three grown children ever shared his passion for railroads, although his oldest grandchild, age 8, does. Still, once word traveled around the neighborhood about Jack's hobby, (particularly after Sunset Magazine featured their yard in an article), other boys attracted by the lure of the railroad soon helped him continue the work.
"They could bend down to solder these crazy things when I couldn't, anymore. Now I'm 66, and it's even harder to get down and repair the tracks. That's why you see some people build outdoor railroads along the fence line, up about three feet--to avoid bending over," he says.
Cottingham estimates it took him between five and seven years to construct the majority of his railroads--and he even memorialized the finish with his own golden spike. Now that Jack's retired from dentistry, he and Anne are "planning to go play some golf where the sun always shines," Cottingham says.
After Anne retires from nursing at Camino Health Center next month, the Cottinghams expect to eventually move to Palm Desert. In preparation, he's begun dismantling his labor of love, selecting what to pack and what to sell to his fellow hobbyists.
"It's absolutely charming what they've done here, although it's hard to leave it," says the Cottinghams' Realtor, Dorothy Courtney, of Los Gatos Properties. Throughout the yard, old-fashioned Piggly-Wiggly, Dr. Pepper and RedMan cars line the tracks, a sign warns of "Golden Retriever Crossing" for the lovable family pet, Greta, and even planters and stepping stones echo the railroad theme.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
