Making Tracks

Brenda and Greg Cauthen built this model railway.

To see Greg and Brenda Cauthen’s lovely, Tuscan-style home on its leafy neighborhood street, you’d never guess what lies beyond.

We’re not referring to the comfortable, stylish furnishings, or the aquarium, or even the movie theater with its vintage posters and prop replicas of the Starship Enterprise and Millennium Falcon.

The small model railroad and village on top of the piano might offer a clue. You’ll discover another hint in the game room, where a train circles the ceiling.

But to appreciate their home fully, you have to visit the back yard and look past the pool, where the Cauthens have created, as far as they know, the only outdoor model railroad in Bellaire.

Dubbed the Animas River Railway, the 29-by-27-foot layout encompasses 277 feet of garden railway-size (G gauge) track with two loops, four tunnels, six bridges, 36 feet of trestles, eight rechargeable-battery-powered locomotives, and enough passenger and freight rolling stock for multiple trains to ride the rails.

Growing up in Florida, Greg loved model railroading. The sandy-haired six-footer moved to Houston in 1980 and married Brenda, a chic brunette, in 2004.  They built their current home in 2010. When Greg’s model-train passion rekindled a few years ago, he built the 70-foot, game room-ceiling train.  In 2013, the CPA and former oil and gas CFO retired early and began the garden railway. He collected standard-gauge trains at first, but switched to narrow gauge to accommodate tighter turns.  He still runs standard-gauge equipment at train shows.

In July 2013, the Cauthens discovered their theme when they rode the historic Durango-to-Silverton railroad in Colorado.  Constructed in 1881 to carry gold and silver ore, as well as passengers, the Denver and Rio Grande Western’s vintage 1923-25 locomotives steam 45.4 miles through the San Juan Mountains along the Animas River (River of Lost Souls).

“We loved how scenic it was, with the narrow-gauge railway following the Animas River gorge, the changes in elevation, the landscape, and two very different towns – Durango, which is more modern, and Silverton, which is more of a cowboy town,” says Greg.

“It was very, very beautiful,” adds Brenda.

The Cauthens envisioned a late-1940s version of the D&RGW, along with a Silverton-area landscape and buildings.

After clearing grass and plants in their backyard, they installed gravel, fill and topsoil, crisply edged with flagstone and moss rock. Greg used software to design the complex track layout.  He installed a made-to-order PVC roadbed covered with gravel, and the tunnels, trestles and bridges.

Greg manages the 1:20.3 scale trains, the track, and the hardscape, such as the mountains and the river. Some items are customized, some off-the-shelf.  He likes to tinker. His favorite part? The place where two trains cross, one on a bridge above and one emerging from a tunnel below.

Brenda, an Austin native, who also is a CPA and retired financial executive, caught the model-railroading bug from Greg and designed the town of Silverton and its environs.

The Silverton train station, town hall, post office and a church are scale re-creations.  Brenda installed purchased homes, businesses and tiny people, some of which she custom-painted.  She clear-coated all the figures with UV-resistant spray.

Outside town are a mountaintop resort hotel, tram, hot-air balloon and even a hobo camp, but Brenda’s favorite is the farm, with its rabbit hutch and chicken coop.  She evoked a mountain landscape by planting spruce, pine and cedar, all carefully miniaturized, and ground covers like thyme, sedums, miniature daisies and mondo grass. 

Greg and Brenda can’t count the thousands of hours they’ve poured into their hobby.  But it’s all worth it when they entertain. When visitors see the trains, jaws drop. People tell them, “I can’t believe those are all real plants,” and “Look at all the details. You have thought of everything.”

What’s next for the Cauthens? Next door they plan a vegetable garden, an orchard and – what else? – a garden railway expansion that will wind Greg’s existing standard-gauge trains through the trees, plus a second, more elaborate narrow-gauge layout and a full-size workshop with an indoor switch and storage yard for their rolling stock. For the Cauthens, this multi-year project will extend their vision of home as a retreat for relaxation and play.

Editor's note: To learn more about model railroading and meet others who love it, check out the Houston Area G Gaugers Model Railroad Club website at houstonagg.com and Facebook page at facebook.com/Houstonagg.