Model trains on display at homes this weekend

AnOxford BUTLERCOUNTY— couple is among those opening their backyard thisweekend to showcase elaborate model railroad layouts.

Allan and Liz Pantle have been working on the Mid western and Rainbow Tunnel Railroad in their yard since 2006. The garden includes 500 feet of track snaking over 2,500 square feet of land. Scaled up to real life, that’s over 3 miles of track.

The trains pass through rail stations and model cities, through a tunnel and over dozens of switches. Five years ago, they added a loop through a “national park” area with model campgrounds and an interactive cable car.

Allan sayshewas first interested in trains as a child. When he and his brother were young, they received Lionel trains every year for Christmas and slowly built up their basement train. They eventually sold off the train set as teenagers, but Pantle retained the interest in the hobby.

For decades, Pantle taught experimental psychology at MiamiUniversity. Hesaid that he grew tired of spending all his time running vision experiments in a dark college lab.

“When I retired, I said ‘I’m absolutely getting a hobby that gets me outside and doing physical work,’” Pantle said.

Creating the model railroad system at hishometook years of work, he said. The trackwas designed by Allan in 2006 using a computer program. After the tracks were laid out and leveled, he spent weeks packing in tons of dirt by hand to create the unique landscape. The landscape includes hidden drainage systems to prevent the track from being flooded by rain.

“It’s absolutely quiet and peaceful here,” Pantle said. “You look outside at the trains and the lights and it’s so realistic.”

While the trains have been Allan’s passion, hiswife, Liz, is also involved in the project. She focuses on the natural aspects, maintaining the plants and trees to keep them at an appropriate size for the model.

“In the national park loop, we let the trees get larger. I try to trim the leaves and keepthose at the right scale,” she said.

The design of the railroad is intentionally old-fashioned. All the trains are 1/32 models of real trains fromthe 1940s and 1950s, andthe miniature buildings are designed after the same period.

But in the last few years, the train controls have become much more modernized. Allan said the former system of dials has been replaced withanappthat lets him control the speed and actions of each train, aswell as set up more complicated patterns and loops.