Railroad History Is On Line

One-track minds? No way. These guys focus on six or seven tracks every Saturday during a model train open house at Bonner County Historical Society’s Heritage Center.

Bonner County Model Railroad Club members enjoy running their Lionels, K-Lines and American Flyers for wide-eyed kids and nostalgic adults.

In fact, retired air traffic controller Dick Cooper enjoys it so much, he showed up last Saturday just hours after leaving Sacred Heart’s emergency room. Cooper, 66, collects both trains and hearts. As a double transplant patient, he’s got a few glitches with electrodes connected to his third heart, prompting frequent trips to the Spokane hospital.

But when Cooper fires up his assortment of valuable models at the museum, medical problems fade away. He gets to the heart of model train history by talking details and tinkering with his original Lionel set given to him by his dad for Christmas in 1935.

“When I was little, we only got it out at Christmas,” Cooper recalled.

“Then it stayed packed away until my mother died in 1959.” The museum fulfills a dream for Cooper who always wanted a place to run his extensive train collection.

He and several other model railroad buffs formed a group after local resident Roger Buchner donated a modular layout to the museum in 1994. The layout includes several sets of tracks and three tunnels.

“One thing led to another,” charter member Bill Transue recalled. The first-floor kitchen was turned over to the group to create a scenic scale model of train systems running through Sandpoint. The area often is called The Funnel and is well-known to rail buffs because three main lines once ran through the community.

With the scenic layout downstairs and modular layout upstairs, the holiday open house has continued to grow.

“We didn’t have any intentions of it getting to this size,” Transue said. “We enjoy it. We had 200 show up one Saturday.”

Last Saturday, Cooper, Transue and Paul Rechnitzer hosted upstairs activity featuring half-a-dozen models ranging from Rechnitzer’s N-gauge (1/167 scale) Burlington Northern set to Cooper’s G-scale (Giant) Great Northern line.

Transue ran his 1950 Lionel with black steam engine, four cars and a caboose, which he received as a youngster.

“It beat the old wind-up trains we had,” Transue recalled. During the 1940s, Marx Wind-up trains, including five cars, a transformer and track, sold in dime stores for about $5. Because they were inexpensively made, not many still exist.

“Folks let kids take care of them,” Cooper said. “They would demolish them.” The heydey of electric trains diminished in the late ‘50s when the transistor and other electronic gadgetry started competing for kids’ time.

Nowadays, starter kits featuring reproductions of older models average $500-$700, according to Cooper. He added, however, that improved technology has alleviated much of the frustration associated with frequent derailments in living rooms across America.

The expense of today’s reproductions prohibits most youngsters from getting involved to the degree once so common. Hence, a clear reason for the popularity of the holiday open house, which attracts up to 1,000 visitors each season.

In addition to upstairs activity last week, modelers ran their trains downstairs on the layout which members claim will never be finished. As HO-gauge (1/87 scale) cars buzzed the tracks around Lake Pend Oreille, hosts shared railway lore with visitors.

Illinois native Craig Hanson typified the passion prevalent among rail buffs by telling about a recent adventure hopping a freight train.

He also reminisced about seeing a steam-powered Hiawatha coming out of Chicago.

“I’ve been watching them ever since,” he said.

The model train open house runs Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through early January at the museum in Sandpoint’s Lakeview Park. For more information call 263-2344.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: Marianne Love is an author and freelance writer who lives in Sandpoint. Panhandle Pieces appears every Saturday. The column is shared among several North Idaho writers.