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When longtime friends Jon Perlman and Howard Greenberg put on their matching engineer hats and red bandannas to tend to the miniature marvels of the Morris Arboretum & Gardens' Garden Railway, it’s more than just volunteer work—it’s a joyful extension of decades of friendship, shared hobbies, and gentle ribbing. What started with a nudge from Perlman’s wife has turned into a weekly routine for the two retirees, who now spend one morning a week maintaining the tracks, organizing equipment, and enjoying each other’s company.

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Two years ago, Bette Perlman, a volunteer of nearly three decades at the Morris, saw a notice about a tour of the beloved Garden Railway.

“And she says, ‘Jon, you might be interested in that,’” he said. Why did she think he’d be interested?

“Because we’ve been married for long enough, so she knows,” he said.

This year, Perlman invited his newly retired friend, Howard Greenberg, to join him.

“I was looking for something to do,” Greenberg said. “I retired December 31. I've been a lawyer for 51 years, and decided I need to get out of the house. So I did.”

“Actually, he didn't decide to get out of the house,” Perlman retorted. “His wife decided he should get out of the house.”

Bette and Howard’s wife, Emily, were college roommates, and their husbands have been friends for many years.

“When I brought the grandkids here years ago, I thought it was amazing,” Greenberg said.

“And now you’re working on it,” I teased.

“I’m working on the railroad.”

“Not all the live-long day, just in the morning,” Perlman said, referencing the old American folk song.

KEEPING BUSY

Both men grew up with train sets in their homes. Greenberg inherited his older brother’s electric train set, and some pieces are sitting on a bookshelf at his home in Cheltenham. Though their banter might suggest otherwise, the two friends take their volunteer roles seriously.

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On a typical volunteer day, the friends, dressed in matching blue-and-white-striped railroad engineer hats and red bandannas around their necks, will remove leaves from the tracks, cut back encroaching vegetation, and set overturned cars upright.

When the weather isn’t ideal or when the Garden Railway is closed for the season, the men work on keeping track of what’s on the tracks. Perlman, who taught computer software and management development before he retired, created a system for cataloging the nearly 900 pieces of rolling stock of the railway.

“The rolling stock is engines, cars, everything, and there was no really formal system for keeping track of them, so I wrote some software,” he said. “Howard and I are going to be putting stickers on all of the different pieces, and they’re going to have little bar codes. And now we’ll be able to organize the railroad.”

“That’ll keep us busy for another 20 years,” said Greenberg.