Taltree Arboretum & Gardens

Visitors enter and leave the Railway Garden through a 1920s era Railroad Depot. Exhibits, the Taltree store, snack vending area with tables and chairs and restrooms are located on the entry level of the Depot. The lower level holds the railroad workshop, a storage area for rolling stock and facilities for the gardeners and Depot staff. For arriving visitors, the Depot experience will be the first step back into time creating the illusion of different places and times thus setting the scene for their walk through the garden and railroad history. The north side of the depot offers a panoramic view of the Taltree Railway Garden. Seven individual loops greatly reduced the need for switching capabilities during daily operations. Trains travel up a grade of ¼-inch per foot from the basement train yard in the depot.  Motive power is comprised of pre-1920 early steam engines.

 

Lincoln’s Funeral Train stopped at Michigan City, Indiana	Southern Crescent Pacific 4-6-2 engine pulling a circus train
An early dockside Santa Fe 2-4-4 #53 engine stopping at a prairie town.	A Pennsylvania Mallet 2-8-8-2 # 375 pulling a freight train on the inner loop approaching a Southern Crescent.