The history of the Fairplex Garden Railroad
The Fairplex Garden Railroad started back in 1924, when the Pomona Model Yacht Club displayed their models in a temporary pond for the annual Los Angeles County Fair. Herman Howard, a local workshop teacher, built and added a trolley car in 1/2” scale and, with the help of his brother Homer, built and displayed a railroad circling the pond. Later, the display included a model of the recently opened Puddingstone Reservoir.
The display grew more elaborate and in 1935, the brothers were given a section of land on the grounds where they began to build the largest outdoor garden railroad in the United States. Originally, the layout was a square, 100ft by 100ft, but in 1936 it was expanded to its present size of 100ft x 300ft.
As the years went by, the Howard’s added buildings, more track, and a system to control the trains. The layout was originally operated on batteries, but this was changed when the Santa Fe Railway donated a generator from the underside of one of its passenger cars. Many of the trains were manufactured in Mr Howard’s classes, with students helping and using plans supplied by the Southern Pacific Railway.
In 1958, the railroad was sold to Herman Templin and his wife Lois, who operated the railroad for 11 years. Tragically, Mr Templin was electrocuted while preparing the layout for the annual fair in 1968. With the help of a close friend, John Huie, the railroad operated for several more years, and in 1970, the Los Angeles County Fair took the title of the railroad. Mr Huie was then contracted to operate and maintain the layout.
Mr Huie began to make major improvements. The locomotives were rebuilt with heavyduty motors and many cars, a total of over 65 units, the most impressive being the 20-car Sunset Limited, pulled by two Alco PA diesels. Huie also designed and constructed heavy-duty power supplies, which are still the main source of track power today and deliver a very pure direct current. He later designed and installed a block signaling system, which featured scale railroad signals that operated in a realistic manner.
In 1997, members of a local garden railroad club became the fourth operators of the layout, and a year later, the Fairplex Garden Railroad Volunteers were formed and is the group that maintains and operates the layout today.
In 2017, Coordinator Rick Bremer reached out to John Huie and began what would develop into a strong friendship. Working together, Huie and Bremer approached Fairplex regarding the storage of the old 1/2” trains that were stored in a basement on the fairgrounds. After consideration, Fairplex Administration agreed to moving the trains to Mr Huie’s 1/2” layout, which features the same track as the original. The agreement states that the trains remain Fairplex property to be operated in conjunction with the Fairplex Garden Railroad operations. Several of these trains have been rescued and restored, and some are planned to be operated on a special track at the 2024 Los Angeles County Fair. With the cooperation of these two exhibits, it is hoped that visitors can enjoy these historical trains for years to come.