Schreyer Layout

Southern California Garden Railway Society

George Schreyer

The Geologically Improbable Railroad is an outdoor garden railway located in Torrance CA. The initial work on the GIRR began in 1996, but the major developments have taken place since 2007. Set in the 1950’s, the GIRR is an extension of the Santa Fe main line into the desert wastelands around Geologically Improbable Mountain, the site of a unique mine. Either coal or ore is mined from this mountain depending on which cut of cars is spotted at the mine.

The railroad is counting on a town and other business to sprout up near the line; some construction has started but is proceeding slowly. The railroad main line extends as a loop a little over a scale mile long between the mine and a stub and engine yard. A wye near the entrance to the yard also feeds a branch line to a staging and storage yard within an adjacent structure.

The overall site size is about 20' x 50'. The railroad is sometimes run with a Train Engineer controlling track power with cab control and interlocking turnout controls. DCC control is now more common as much of the GIRR motive power has been converted to DCC.

Equipment consists of mostly 1:29 scale rolling stock and engines from Aristo, Lionel and some 1:24 scale stock from Bachmann, Also included is a Bachmann 1:20.3 36 ton Shay.

All descriptions and materials are from George Schreyer’s website: (http://www.girr.org), except where noted.