by Bailey Porter
LV Life Editor
Model train enthusiasts young and old headed to the Great American Train Show at the Fairplex in Pomona last weekend.
The annual event is a chance for model train exhibitors and collectors to purchase train sets, individual items like precision hobby tools and train paraphernalia, as well as discuss their favorite subject: model trains.
“It’s a hobby that went berserk,” said Bob Stoddert, 62, a retired United Airlines mechanic.
Four or five years ago Stoddert started setting up a booth at the train show with his son.
He started collecting with the purchase of one train car, which led to the expensive hobby of buying and selling model train sets.
Sometimes he will buy a whole collection just for a few pieces and then sell the rest, he said.
Parents toted their children around the displays, couples perused the many booths and individuals looked at the many trains for sale. But the majority, as Stoddert observed, were middle-aged men who were interested in the show.
Now most children are interested in computers, he said, so the children at the event are usually just coming along for the ride. It’s the adults who are really into the trains, he said.
“Yes, I’m a grown man and I spend my weekends playing with model trains, and I’m proud to admit it,” said Mark Carnighan, 45, treasurer of the Orange County “N” Gineers, a model train club established in 1974.
The club follows the Ntrak model railroad standard, which originated in 1973. The standard is on an N scale, or one-inch equaling 160 inches, with the rails nine millimeters apart, he said.
Train layouts are usually sold in four or six foot sections. Club members usually have two layouts that they work on at home, using props and model sets to give them personal touches. Then the club hooks them all together for the various road shows, he said.
The “N” Gineers, along with other clubs attend show events like this one throughout the year and get judged on their track layouts.
N-Track Express, which branched off from the “N” Gineers when the club could not support all its members, displayed a blue ribbon at its exhibit for the weekend competition.
Visitors were given ballots to vote on the four layouts on display, said LeRoy Bainbridge, 46, a computer programmer who was operating the N-Track Express layout, controlling the small trains as they wound along on a raised platform.
Carnighan, an architect, said that club members’ backgrounds are really reflected in the settings that they detail for the layouts. As an architect and history buff, for example, Carnighan usually designs his layouts as city scenes.
“I’m interested in history and the 1950’s train designs that still used a lot of steam and diesels,” said Carnighan, “It’s a physical way of studying history.”
Carnighan became interested in model trains from a Popular Mechanics article in 1971, but he had to wait two more years when he moved to California to finally start his collection.
“I lived in the desert and there were no model shops,” he said. Now he has over 100 cars.
Vice president of the N-Track Engineers, Jack Leibowitz, 58, started his collection much earlier. A retired tool engineer from the aerospace industry, Leibowitz got his first train when he was 5 years old.
It seems that model trains still ignite interest in young children. The layouts were a big success according to 6-year-old Christian Rodriguez, a “Thomas the Train Engine” enthusiast, who came with his family as a surprise trip for his grandfather Winston Rodriguez, 56.
“There’s a train coming,” he said, as he watched an N-Track model round a bend. His favorite parts of the displays were the tunnels.
Winston was glad that his family chose to surprise him with a trip to the show. He has always been interested in model trains and hopes to start a real collection when he retires, he said.
For now, coming to these exhibits and owning a small track will have to do, he said.
Stoddert said that the weekend was very busy and he had a lot of business at his booth, which sells individual train cars neatly packaged and ready to be taken home to start someone else’s model train hobby or simply become another link in an already existing train set.
Most of the people leaving the show were armed with at least one bag full of model train products.
Next on the Fairplex calendar of events is a PT Cruiser Block Party.
There will be live music as well as demonstrations from automobile groups.
