Marking the 10-year anniversary for Model Railroad Garden

August 13 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Model Railroad Garden, located at Sixth Avenue and Division Street in Ritzville.

Charles Jingling, with design work by his wife Carol, built the garden in 2005 to share his love of trains with the community and traveling guests.

A graduate from Ritzville in 1973, Jingling spent 30 years living in California where he painted houses and escorted tour groups across the United States via Amtrak. He’s traveled over 800,000 miles via Amtrak from coast to coast.

In the fall of 2003 while in California, Jingling’s daughter called from a hobby store she worked at asking Jingling if he would be interested in a certain model train engine.

He immediately said yes, purchased the engine and within the next couple months, had purchased the entire model.

In August 2005, with their railroad garden completed, the forest green model complete with passengers, lights and sounds made the first trip around the garden tracks.

The track took six months to design and build and includes 60 railroad ties.

Ten years later, the electrical track is still in great condition and the original train set among others still glide through the garden on the tracks.

Jingling stated there was originally a pond located in the garden, which the trains would pass by but had been taken out due to upkeep and a leak. Jingling looks forward to continuing his railroad garden and perhaps building more structures and changing the scenery a bit.

Jingling enjoys sharing his love and education of trains in an educational presentation. He is looking forward to bringing the presentation to the community schools.

He is also involved with the annual AAUW Holiday Bazaar held at the Ritzville Grade School, where Jingling shares his knowledge with patrons of the bazaar.