It's a small world after all. Master Model Railroader Jack Verducci plans his garden landscapes to scale. Note the "trees" alongside the track.

You see, Verducci's railroad, the Crystal Springs Railroad, doesn't cross the Sierra Nevadas; it's built into a hillside on his property in San Mateo.

The 3,000-sq.-ft. landscape is a coastal, narrow gauge layout with 1939-era locomotives in a lumber and mining theme. The length of the main line is 650 feet.

Verducci, a Master Model Railroader (he's the first garden railroader to earn the honor) has since built about 75 landscape or "garden railroads" to the delight of clients.

"I am a landscape contractor but I only do garden railroads," says Verducci. "I design and install them but I also do consulting with people who want to build their own."

Verducci says he got into building garden railroads after selling his manufacturing business, and word got out about what he had designed and installed in his own yard.

From there he read all that he could on the subject, citing Garden Railways magazine as a great help, and his own love of garden railroading. Demand for his services soon took off.

"Back in the 80s, with a few exceptions, garden railways were rather primitive. Many were simply trains running through a yard with full-size plants. A few used miniature plants and other small-scale items to create their special miniature worlds," Verducci says.

"The more I learned about it the more I became interested in creating miniature worlds with living plants, rocks and model trains." Verducci says a "very simple" garden layout can cost as little as $5,000, but the average installation is closer to $25,000.

Designs on site

"It is difficult to create a plan on paper since there are so many variables. I have found a way to create a one-to-one scale three-dimensional track plan on sight. This is the most efficient way for me to design a railroad. This method allows the client to see exactly where the road bed will be," he says.

While building a garden railroad is usually a one-man operation, he sometimes works alongside other landscape contractors on a property.

"I work with their crews and I get down on the ground and build the railroad with them," he says.

Garden railroading is growing in popularity, especially among serious hobbyists. "I provide on-site consulting and the next level is creating a three-dimensional full-size plan on site for a client," Verducci says.

Once that plan is in place the client can go a number of directions, from installing the layout themselves to working with him or hiring other contractors to install it. Verducci says he is flexible.

Online: http://kalmbachcatalog.stores.yahoo.net/1246.html Jack Verducci's book, "How to Design and Build Your Garden Railroad," is available here from Kalbach Publishing.