It's the work of many decades and part of the fun seems to be that there's always more to do.
If this year is anything like years past, approximately 25,000 model train enthusiasts will head to West Springfield, Massachusetts, this weekend. It’s the annual Railroad Hobby Show.
Visitors to the show can watch -- and, of course, hear -- miniature locomotives chug along approximately 100 miniature -- known as “scale” -- miles of miniature train tracks surrounded by miniature towns and miniature countrysides.
The builders of these scenes tend to have been grabbed by trains in childhood. But according to John Sacerdote, it’s only when people see their first model railroad that the hobby hooks them.
“People will come down into my railroad and they will say, ‘What the heck? I had no idea!'” Sacerdote said. “And it’s fun for me because they’re shocked that these little miniature empires with all kinds of detail can be built.”
Sacerdote is the Railroad Hobby Show’s long-time director. His personal railroad is in the cellar of his Bloomfield, Connecticut, home. It’s the work of many decades and part of the fun seems to be that there’s always more to do.
For one of his trains to make a complete circuit it takes a half-hour -- up to a couple of hours if there’s track-switching involved. The set-up fills 800 square feet of space. And it’s a small one, relatively speaking.
“I have friends that have a layout that’s probably two times the size of this,” he said.
Sacerdote said most people with this hobby either have these sorts of things in their cellars “or they dream for it.”
Those who dream, but lack the space, money or expertise, join a railroad club.
At the New Haven Society of Model Engineers, Louis Papineau helped Rider Strano solve a problem that’s come up on one of their layouts.
“All right,” Papineau directed. “Dial up the one-on-one throttle. Whichever one you want to put in the lead, put on the right. And then put the other one on the left.”
“All right,” Strano responded, “I already have it set up like that.”
Strano, 14, is one of the club’s newest -- and youngest by far -- members, and a regular at weekly Friday meetings in the substantial basement of Wallingford, Connecticut’s train station.
Strano said he’s been a train nut since he was an infant.
“The Dr. Seuss book, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? had a train in it, and I would always flip back to that page when I was a toddler,” Strano said.
It takes many kinds -- electricians, contractors, historians, artists -- to construct these complex layouts. Kaylee Zheng is a mechanical engineer.
“For me, at least, it’s nice to be able to share what I know, but also to be able to receive what I am lacking in order to achieve what I am trying to accomplish, which is build my own worlds,” Zheng said.
Another club, the Mohegan-Pequot Model Railroad Club, meets in in North Stonington, Connecticut, in a member’s basement. It’s theirs to use 24-7. Those who are able, show up early Wednesday mornings and stay until dinnertime. They’re travel companions, too -- visiting railroads around the country -- and after years, sometimes decades, together, they regard each other as family.
Stuart Dom, the president of the club, is very proud that one of the club’s layouts recently won first prize at a national show. But for him, the greatest thrill comes from kids‘ reactions.
“We’re on the other side of the layout,” Dom said. “We’ve built this stuff. And you can look at the children’s expressions and you can see the lights go on. It’s just beautiful to watch that.”
Model railroading can be an expensive hobby, Dom admits, but he hopes that won’t keep anyone -- especially younger people -- from taking it up.
Strano -- the 14 year old -- he also hopes other kids catch on to model railroading. He says one source of competition is electronic train simulators. Strano has one at home, partly because he doesn’t have a layout in his cellar. But computers eventually crash and die.
“I’m going to lose all that. With a physical model,” Strano said, pointing to one of the layouts he’s been working on, “this may last for my grandchildren to see.”
Enticing the next generation is one of the reasons for the Railroad Hobby Show, which is hosted by yet another club: the Amherst Railway Society. It runs Saturday and Sunday.
NEPR's Tema Silk contributed to this report, which was originally published at NEPR.net.