Miss the 1940s and ‘50s? Visit Jim and Sandy Arlint this weekend.
The couple’s yard in the Renton Highlands is a trip back to those long-lost decades. The decades filled with drive-in movie theaters, general stores and big-finned cars.
All these relics and more are represented in the garden railroad that takes up most of the Arlints’ yard.
“It’s a never-ending project,” Jim says.
But the 70-something Jim loves his never-ending project. Loves it enough to spend most every day tinkering on the two towns that occupy his back yard.
Jim builds every detail of No Name Town and Silverstar by hand, except for the people, cars and trains. That means he makes the tiny bricks, shingles and metal roofing of the buildings in the towns, as well as the street signs, billboards and working street lights.
Three types of trains chug through the towns: an old-fashioned steam engine for freight, a modern diesel engine for passengers and a newly added circus train for performing animals.
Jim and Sandy Arlints’ garden train is open for viewing Saturday and Sunday from noon-4 p.m. and July 4 from noon-4 p.m. and 3-4 p.m. The Arlints house is at 3908 N.E. 10th St. Their phone number is 425-255-9575.
No Name Town and Silverstar aren’t replicas of any two specific towns. They are composites of the Montana towns the Arlints once called home.
Once frequent travelers, the retired Arlints always found a train tour on their journeys. Jim started building his garden railroad in 2003, after attending a Puyallup train show. Sandy helps with the details of the railroad.
Both Jim and Sandy are members of Puget Sound Garden Railway Society, and their garden railroad is a stop on a national tour hosted by the organization next year.
The Arlints’ railroad is also open for touring this weekend and July 4, during open houses the Arlints hold each year.
“It’s just a payback for the community,” Sandy says.
