Little River Miniature Railroad

John Greiner described the castle and railroad he built on his property as follows:


 * I have built the house entirely by myself in my spare time over the last 20 years. It is about 5,500 square feet and has a dungeon under the NE tower. It has 16 rooms and 3 baths. Construction began in 1983 and continues to this day. 4 rooms are unfinished on the inside.


 * It features:


 * An observatory in the top floor of the NW tower with a 12.5" telescope and doors that open in the ceiling for viewing.


 * A 23 X 23' "Jungle room" in the center with live plants, fish, birds, and a spa and sidewalks. It has 3 patio type doors in the south, west, and north walls. The walls have photo murals of mountains on all 4 sides with blue sky painted above so when you are standing in the middle it feels like you are in the mountains.


 * A "Great room" that is 23 X 36 feet that has a 21 foot high stained and varnished trussed ceiling and is decorated with medieval swords, etc. It has a 11 X 11 entry foyer with swords on the walls.


 * I laid 120 tons of limestone rock on the exterior.


 * It has a 7.5" gauge railroad that circles it, which has both steam and diesel locomotives and carries people.

Deborah McKeon wrote:


 * Meandering through the acreage is a railroad track that consists of 1½ miles of track for the one-eighth-scale model steam locomotive Greiner built. It burns coal and works just like a full size train with a boiler, safety valves, water and oil pumps. It takes 125 pounds of steam pressure built up before it is ready to move, and that takes over an hour, Greiner said. The locomotive itself weighs about 1,000 pounds.


 * The track was built using 825 10-foot sections built by Greiner. It has 25,000 ties and about 120,000 screws and washers.


 * The locomotive passes by a Western log village including a saloon and a Wells Fargo Bank, as well as a general store.


 * Two bridges between 15 and 25 feet span gullies on the land, and, yes, Greiner built the bridges, too. The 24-foot-high bridge took more than 300 wheelbarrow loads of cement, and the cement to make the piers was lowered by a bucket on a rope. The bucket had a bottom that opened remotely with a string, and the concrete was poured into place. That bridge alone took him about 2 years to complete, Greiner said.


 * Greiner even constructed a railway turntable so the train can switch directions.


 * The trip by train takes about 45 minutes and can hold about 20 children or even a few adults, Greiner said.

Clay Coppage wrote:


 * The Little River Miniature Railroad rolls above its turgid namesake, across Beetle Gulch and past the workshop with the words "Little River Aeroplane" written across the front.


 * Greiner is the man at the throttle. He built and installed the tracks on which the steam engine travels. The steam engine? It took three years of working two hours a night but, yes, he built that too. "I never missed a night," he says. "Of course, I worked on it some during the day too."


 * The first 1/8 replica steam engine has been such a success Greiner is building another one in his workshop.


 * "Let me say this," he says seriously. "No one needs two of these things."