Layouts of the Shenandoah & Potomac Valley Garden Railway Club
GT&S Mystical Railway

Located in a remote area of the West Virginia panhandle, the GS&T Mystical Railway has been in existence since 1999. When we say remote, we mean the sunshine pipe doesn't even go there: They get their sunlight via fiber optics! The railway is called mystical because it is a mystery how it ever came into being. It has three parallel loops at ground level, plus a fourth loop inside the trio. There is a fifth loop that is elevated and runs behind the see-through waterfall. Having enough age for the plants to mature, the master gardener who built the layout chose plants for shade that would compliment the layout and location, rather than be of a scale appearance. The result is a relatively low-maintenance layout with a striking appearance. The last 10 photographs were taken on May 14, 2005.

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Picture: Overview of the GS&T looking toward the house.
Picture of a New York Central passenger on track 1 passing a B&O freight
Picture: 2 trains on the outer loops passing the deck.
Photo of the footbridge across the mainline to access the center of the layout.
Picture - The B&O Freight passes the LGB logging train.
Photo of an LGB ICE train on the evelated loop Another photo of the ICE train with the B&O coal train beneath. Picture: View of elevated loop entering the see-through waterfall. Although hard to see in this picture, the train is visible behind the waterfall. Picture: LGB ICE train leaves the tunnel on the elevated loop and is about to cross over the logging train on a loop below.
Photo of LGB logging train passing under a scratch-built truss bridge. Wide angle photo of the layout from the deck. A photo of the layout near the footbridge with a shaded bench to sit on while watching the trains. Photo of the coal train approaching the footbridge. Picture: An Aristo B&O freight passes an LGB logging train as they pass under the elevated track.
A logging train runs past an exquisite mill with operating water wheel.
The "back" side of the layout showing activity on 4 of the 5 loops.
The logging train rounds the bend heading under the truss bridge.
Activity on three of the five loops on the "back stretch".
 B&O coal train passes under the trestle as a Bachmann Shay comes through the tryss bridge. LCE train is in the background.
Bachmann Shay about to cross over a B&O coal train.
A Bachmann Shay crosses the truss bridge.
Hey! How slow is that shay, anyway?
A New York Central passenger rounds the curve.
 Three eras of railroading pass behind the sawmill, representing the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.

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SHENANDOAH & POTOMAC VALLEY
GARDEN RAILWAY CLUB
Last Update:May 31, 2005
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