The Garden Railroad
The highest and best use of the Cold Creek & Northern Railway is to educate people while transporting them through the rich and varied landscapes of Windekind.
The Railroad is one of the best places I know to be with people and to be together
The train travels from the highly cultivated lawns and garden areas, through swamps and meadows, across bridges into a tall spruce forest. It travels on rail joined and spiked one cross tie at a time and over trestles built from historic railroad plans. It's a journey that presents the natural beauty of the land, gardens and the diverse ecology of Windekind, while using a transportation technology that is old yet, in the mandate of our energy conservation economy, presages transportation to come in a greener energy future.
The heart of the Railroad is housed in the farm's oldest building, a 150 year old former barn that now functions as an interpretive museum and working shop where we build locomotives. It is here that we teach and learn about the old technology and the skills we need to preserve it.
Over the years five steam locomotives have been built in it along with countless other railroad related projects, including cars and the two large electric engines seen in many photos. In keeping with the robust tooling used in the age of steam many of our machine tools are antique some over 100 years old, yet as good as when new. The shop is a great location for social gathering and interpreting.
