Model railroader keeps hobby on track
Phillip Story walked through the narrow corridors in his basement, surrounded by waist- and chest-high shelves loaded with tiny train tracks, populated by trains and cars and surrounded by compact renditions of towns and industries, as well as the people who live and work alongside them.
“This layout started in '95,” he said.
While he's been downsizing his collection, there are still plenty of small trains to populate the mass of track that forms a loop through his basement, and plenty more resting on display shelves.
The trains run through renditions of real towns, he said, many from this area - Rogers, Springdale, Neosho and others, complete with a handful of landmarks as well as industries based on what's in the real world.
“Tulsa is on one end of the layout,” he said, “and the other is Saint Louis. They're about 500 feet apart.”
The rails themselves carry an electric current, which powers a motor in an engine to turn the wheels. Each engine operates on a specific frequency, he said, and his rails are set up to accommodate both analog and digital controls — though not at the same time.
“You hear the engine go,” he said, “then you can put on horns and other sounds.”
The rail companies, he said, are kept true-to-life, including Union Pacific and Santa Fe, while the industries are often given fictitious names.
It's an excellent hobby, he said, because it provides a wide array of activity options. In a broad sense, there's modeling, electronics and operations.
The modeling, he said, can include cities and landscapes of all sorts surrounding the tracks. In addition to modeling, he said, some people learn about full-size trains and the history of railroading.
“You build a layout, think of how you can do it better, then tear it down and start again,” he said.
His focus is on the trains themselves, he said. His layout, he said, is not dissimilar to the prototypes for real trains.
Once a layout is finished, he said, people can operate it. Operating, he said, is essentially using the laid-out tracks and the electric trains on them to simulate a train's duties — going from a lumber mill to collect wood for a construction firm, for example, or hauling coal from a mine to a power plant.
There's also a social aspect, he said. He's a member of the Sugar Creek Model Train Club, he said, as well as Hog Rails, an operating group.
Meet-ups with Hog Rails, he said, allow each member of the group to operate a train, which then allows several hours of entertainment.
“We call them 'operating sessions,'” he said. “It usually takes about three hours to do all the work that's been scheduled.”
The roughly 15 members, he said, travel to other cities and interact with other operating clubs, and those clubs also visit the Hog Rails club.
“I've been to Denver, Minneapolis, Houston,” he said.
The Sugar Creek Model Train Club, he said, has a diverse membership that focuses on various aspects of the hobby.
Maida Bennett, the club's secretary, has a layout set up in her garden, though it does end up disassembled for fall and winter.
The club, Bennett said, has a show in February — on the 25th in 2017 — at the Springdale Convention Center.
Members with modular layouts can bring them in to show off, and several vendors will be present as well. Moreover, some members use the event to sell the things they no longer need.
“It's just to promote the hobby,” she said, “and all of our proceeds are to benefit charity.”
Story maintains it's an excellent hobby. He even expanded his home to make more room for railroads.
“The basic tenet of all this,” Story said, “is have fun. Have fun with whatever you're doing.”