# Former Cypress Gardens HO scale layout (Cypress Junction)



## hoscale37 (Nov 20, 2011)

Hello all,

Haven't been here in a few weeks. Went on vacation to Orlando with the family for a week (to Universal and Legoland). I went with my wife and 7 year old son. I know that Legoland is the former location of Cypress Gardens. It was a cool experience-although I just discovered that there was a former HO scale railroad located within the park that is no longer there that was called Cypress Junction. 

Does anyone here remember this at all before it all was taken down... and whatever became of the layout? We recently got Hulu Plus and there is one season of Tracks Ahead (Season 5) and in one of the episodes they talk and interview some of the people that took care of the Cypress Junction HO scale layout. 

I was able to find this post that has some before and after photos of how the buildings have changed over the years. 

http://www.cypressgardensphotos.com/board/thread.php?Thread=6527

If there is anyone here that went to Cypress Junction when it was still active or if anyone on here was active with this layout; I would be interested in hearing about your experiences. The segment that was done for Tracks Ahead (Season 5, Episode 7) was pretty cool, but it would also be cool to hear from anyone. One of the volunteers that was interviewed was someone by the name of Bob Miller.


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Originally built by the National Enquirer of all things, it was donated to Cypress Gardens in the early 80s. Essentially a series of overlapping loops, they used out of the box Athearn equipment. They'd beef up mechanisms on all the operating elements and would build entire scenes back stage, and set them in place over night so that nothing was interrupted during show times. There were at least two articles in MR magazine...once when the NE built it, and then a couple years later after it had been running at Cypress Gardens for awhile.

http://youtu.be/GFHkUhu_MG8


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## hoscale37 (Nov 20, 2011)

Shaygetz, are you sure that the National Enquirer was responsible for the building of the layout? In all of the things I have found online, there has been no mention of this at all. 

What dates did MR cover the building of the layout?


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Let me go thru my mag rack...


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Hoscales post of the history of the buildings does indeed
mention that National Enquirer had donated the layout
to Cypress Gardens after displaying it for some time
at their offices.

Don


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## hoscale37 (Nov 20, 2011)

Okay.... just saw that in the posted link. I missed that the first time I read through the website... duh on my part 

:smilie_auslachen:


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