The Emerald Coast Garden Railway Club (ECGRC) was started by a group of people who fell in love with G-Scale trains and wanted to play with trains together in 2003. The group secured a place to meet at the West Florida Railroad Museum (WFRM) in Milton, FL.
In the early days, they would setup an operating layout on the Flatcar at the Museum. They even added outriggers to make the layout a bit wider so they could run their trains.
As the membership grew, it was decided they needed a bigger space to meet and play. WFRM property included property obtained from the Jordan Family and WFRM installed a 7 1/2 inch track with a riding train on the Jordan Lot. WFRM agreed that ECGRC could build a layout inside the riding train track layout. Once the space was secured, heads started working really hard to come up with a design.
The design had to account for flooding that could occur on the property. Risers were created with PVC so the roadbed could be elevated. A retaining wall was installed and a lot of dirt was brought in to fill in the spaces. A storage building and shed to store the train and electric components of the G-Scale layout were built. All of this was accomplished due to WFRM providing finances to do this work.
The work was completed and the first runs were made in 2009. The layout is what you see today at the Jordan Lot. Maintenance and upkeep are constantly needed but the layout is what was started by a small group of people who just loved trains and wanted a place to have an outdoor layout. Pictures of the construction are shown below.