Working On The Model Railroad Hobbyists Show Off Their Craft At The Fairgrounds

The sounds of chugging trains set the mood Saturday as vendors and hobbyists showed off their model trains at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds.

Grandparents, kids and parents shuffled past the hundreds of vendors’ tables displaying model train engines, flatcars, tracks and miniature signal lights. Most stopped to admire the living-room sized track layouts where trains zipped through tunnels and over bridges.

The Great American Train Show will continue today at the fairgrounds. The touring show stops in 60 cities a year. As hobby shows go, this seemed to have everything.

Union Pacific engines priced at $30 were on sale next to antique $600 American Flyer engines. There were old-fashioned blue-and-white striped engineers hats for sale, along with CDs featuring train sounds, framed photographs and alarm clocks that whistle instead of ring.

Six-year-old Brian Luders watched miniature trains wind through mountain passes, tunnels and canyons.

“Wow,” he said, as his mouth dropped open under his new engineer’s cap. He bought the cap and a wooden train whistle with the $27 in allowance money he saved for the show.

“He’s been wanting to go to this show for months,” said his dad, Dave Luders, a civil engineer at Fairchild Air Force Base. “I think he’s going to outlast me today.”

Model trains can do a lot more than travel around a loop. Little electric engines can bring together a crowd of seasoned experts, learning novices and parents hauling their kids out to experience a few wonders.

The whole point of the show is to reach young fans, show manager Chet Piotrowski said. “Our main goal is to keep the hobby rolling. The future is the kids.”

This is more than some beeping video game on a flat screen, he said.

“This is something they can put their hands on,” Piotrowski said.

“They can use their imaginations on their own.”

Dealer Fred Farias, 65, echoes the sentiment. He follows this show from city to city. He greets everyone happily, recognizes names from his national mailing list and hands candy to the kids who smile back their appreciation.

He knows most everything about trains, but he’s also famous in his own right.

“You know that movie, `Lady and the Tramp’? When they’re in jail. When she sings, `He’s a Tramp,’ that’s me playing the bass,” Farias said. He’s a retired MGM studio musician who was laid off in 1981 when synthesizers came in.

Not too long after, he bought enough model trains to fill his Toyota Celica, hit the road began selling them at shows. A new career was born.

He points to a younger shopper carrying a bag, “This is what we need: youth in training. Look around. What you see here mostly are older people.”

Hobbyists like Rick Albert, 28, of Rosalia, know the value of experienced hands.

“I always listen to the oldtimers,” said Albert, who’s devoted his basement to a train setup that includes 40 engines and 250 rail cars.

“I’m building an oil yard,” he said, showing off the tanker cars he picked up Saturday. “I’m really big into the `Dukes of Hazzard.’ Next I’m going to build Hazzard County, make the Duke farm.”

For him there’s nothing better than throwing on Johnny Cash and working on a new section of track.

“I enjoy setting it up and being able to appreciate what I’ve done,” he said.

Jason Temple, 16, a student at Central Valley High School, was one of the few teenagers in attendance. He came to beef up his G-scale layout.

Trains have always captured his interest.

“I always liked that they are big and dramatic,” Temple said.

For some, trains run in the blood. Larry Nelson’s father and grandfather were both railroaders and he worked as a car inspector for The Milwaukee Road before becoming a school teacher. Now retired, Nelson volunteers for INSHOME (Inland Northwest Society of HO Modular Engineers).

On Saturday, he sat behind his Milwaukee Road display, part of a larger club setup. He talked to anyone who asked about his hobby and his 12-year career with the railroad.

After leaving trains behind once, he couldn’t let it go. “Yeah,” he said smiling like a kid. “I’m back at it.”