At first, you can hardly believe your eyes — you're in a lovely backyard garden with lots of lush plants, but out of the middle of it pops a model train, tooting and smoking as it winds its way over bridges and among little villages and farms. You see little men chopping wood and shoeing horses — even Miss Kitty waving out front of her house of ill-repute.

It's called "railroad gardening" and it's usually pulled off by a model railroading aficionado and his family, all pitching in to create this outdoor fantasy world, says Ed Clary of Grants Pass.

Clary's own display will be among seven by members of the Rogue Valley Garden Railroaders on a benefit tour on Saturday, Sept. 30, to benefit Three Rivers Community Hospital.

The guys are usually the train freaks, Clary says, and the wives like to play with the themes, dress, architecture and, of course, the gardening — some going with regular-sized plants and bushes; others, the purists, using only miniature plants that look in scale with the train and buildings.

"The attraction? Well, it's something the guys have wanted all their lives, I think, and when they get older and have the money, they go for it," says Ed's wife, Shelly Clary.

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The garden railroad passion not only unites the family, says garden railroader and train designer Robert Klamm of Grants Pass, but it makes the wives happy by getting the space-consuming train set out of the house.

"These are not some guy in a lawn chair watching a train go round and round," Klamm adds. "They try to model real life.

"Building it is the main thing. Some are whimsical, some fantasy, some realistic. It's not a hobby for everyone. You have to have ability with your hands. It's a serious sport."

The G-guage layouts commonly run 300 to 800 feet of track, stretch out over 60 to 120 feet and cost $5,000 to $10,000, says Ed Clary.

"It's an obsession, but it's also very relaxing and a good investment," says garden railroader Dennis Hank, who couldn't wait to get started after his retirement from a "workaholic" career as technical director on a cellular system.

"There's always something to work on, things to fix — and the kids love it. It gives them a good outlet," Hank says.

Clary's railroad garden is like a huge raised bed, with rocks for mountains and small conifers for forests — something you have to keep trimming to keep in reasonable scale. Two separate tracks wind through many bridges and tunnels, programmed to toot as they approach towns (ring church bells in response).

Shelly Clary may complain about excessive hours her husband devotes to his 1890s frontier village and train, but she readily acknowledges its draw for guests at their Ponderosa Pine Bed & Breakfast.

"Are you kidding? They love it. People come just for the trains. It's a nationwide hobby, especially among the 55 and up set," she says.

Once it draws you in, whether as observer or builder, "you get lost in it," she adds. "I did. That farmhouse is modeled after my grandmother's in Wisconsin, which I knew as a child."

A laugh is inevitably provided when a lizard hops into the layout and wanders through town — "our tyrannosaurus moment," jokes Shelly Clary, adding that the hobby "gives everyone something to get a kick out of."

They can buy buildings but they're $100 and up, and railroaders, usually the guys, prefer endless hours in the shop, aspiring to higher levels of realism with houses, banks, jails, railroad stations — often using family names for tiny business signs.

Clary uses a hand-crank metal crinkler to reproduce that corduroy look of old West tin roofs, then making them rusty-looking with a blow torch. The layouts are hardy in milder months, but the tableaus usually get stored inside, leaving only the plants and tracks exposed to winter, he adds.

The Rogue Valley Garden Railroaders gather for a monthly potluck at one member's house — so the latest additions can be shown off — and they go on real train jaunts together every summer.

John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.

Tour benefits hospital:

What: The Rogue Valley Garden Railroaders self-guided benefit tour of garden displays

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 30, including seven railroad gardens; wine and hors d'oeuvres from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at an eco-friendly home.

Tickets: $20 each, $30 per couple, $35 per family; available in Grants Pass at Evergreen Federal Bank (main branch), Grants Pass Association of Realtors office on 7th Street, and the Three Rivers Community Hospital Foundation, at the new administration office on the hospital campus.

Benefit: Proceeds go to the Family House Campaign in Grants Pass, to build an affordable guest residence for out-of-town patients and families.