A lot of people like miniatures, and model railroading can entice detail-oriented hobbyists to create micro-worlds with great precision. When the hobby is combined with gardening and the train sets go outdoors, the effects can be stunning.

Gorgeous Garden Railways by Mark Horovitz and Pat Hayward is a short book filled with spectacular images of outdoor model railroads embedded in backyards and gardens all around the world.

It's one of those books you flip through the pictures and do double-takes. "No way! Look at all the work that went into that. It looks so real!" Then you go back and actually read it.

The authors give a brief history of model railroads in gardens. I was a bit surprised that Walt Disney's famous backyard railway wasn't mentioned, but I did learn that garden railways began in England in the 1800's. In the U.S., train sets stayed indoors for much longer. It really wasn't until recently- the 1970's - that any trains were really mass-designed and built to work outdoors.

Nowadays you can get everything you need. The authors include lists of garden and train supplies geared specifically toward what they say is a growing hobby. They also tell us all about the types of trains and track available, and how different people use these in their garden railroads. The appendix has a good discussion of scale and gauge, and how they relate to one another.

Not only do they cover the trains, cars, and track, there is a good deal of discussion of all the other details that bring these miniature railroads alive. One garden railroader built a beautiful arching bridge of concrete, then etched tiny stone shapes before it dried to make it look like it was made of thousands of bricks. Another places stones in his self-made streams, then cements them in place and covers them with a resin so they won't budge or change.

There are the plants, too. Certain species lend themselves to looking just right in a small world. Tiny iris, alyssum, hostas, creeping phlox, cacti, and shrubs are just a few of the plants put to good use. Some garden railroad fans add water features and water plants, wooden bridges for their trains, and small boats. The authors take a few pages to discuss challenges of garden railroads, too, such as finding a way to lay it all out so people can see it without crawling around.

Want to see a few examples? Here's one from France, Le Jarditarin.

Bekonscot Model Village and Railway is in England. Their site has some 360 degree views of their park, created in 1929.

The Fairplex Garden Railroad is a G gauge garden railroad in California .

The fun of the book, if you aren't planning on building one yourself, is seeing the variety. There are train scenes that look like old Europe, the Wild West, and pastoral landscapes. Only occasionally does the photographer give you a hint of their true scale with a garden chair or a person in view. Most are presented as though the cameraperson was in the scene to capture all the details - the rust on the roof of the garage, the moss growing between the tracks, the signs, lights, people, and plants.

Of course, the more you look at the book, the more it teases you. "Just lay a little bit of track, it'll be fun," it whispers. "You can do it." Maybe, but I think I would want a lot of help. But that could be possible. Maybe as community gardening takes off and more locations are identified around Brattleboro, we could designate one garden to be a garden railway. From the look of some of these operations, it they are attractive to tourists and could make some money.

Until that day, I'll be content with the hard work of others, and the great idea to put a bunch of the best garden railways together in the pages of this book.

"Gorgeous Garden Railways" was written by Mark Horowitz and Pat Hayward, and published by Kalmbach Books