One-track minds
Model railroaders reflect on their starts as annual show reaches 38th year
“I went to a conference in San Fransisco and bought a little train set for my daughter. I joined the club around that time and began to learn more about it and loved it.”
Dave Stredulinsky, model railroader
It’s been 50 years since Weston Rhodenizer won a Kellogg’s Cornflakes jingle contest and got his first model train set.
And today, the passion his stronger than ever.
Rhodenizer was among dozens of model railroaders on hand at the 38th annual Fall Train Show at the NSCC on Saturday. Ask any of the participants where the hobby started for them, and you’ll get many different answers – some of them more predictable, such as former railroad employees looking to find a hobby after retirement. Others are more eccentric, but none were quite as literally out-to-lunch as Rhodenizer’s.
He was just a boy then, enjoying model trains like most do, but today it’s so much more than a train coming from a cardboard box because it’s not just trains; it’s the settings.
“You could spend as little as a half hour or an hour on each piece, up to weeks or months – as long as you want,” he explained while standing in front of an intricate display of a rail system passing through an early 1900s community, complete with a Gold Rush-esque downtown and a painted backdrop.
Dave Stredulinsky, a member of the same Dartmouth club as Rhodenizer, got started with model trains inadvertently, 20 years ago while on a business trip.
“I went to a conference in San Fransisco and bought a little train set for my daughter,” he laughed. The set intrigued him more than it did his child. “I joined the club around that time and began to learn more about it and loved it.”
Stredulinsky showed off a piece of his club’s ensemble he’s particularly proud of: an old mill, entirely handmade. The one piece, eight inches high, took three months to finish.
In that time, did he ever feel like giving up or smashing it?
“No, never,” he said. “You do it for the relaxation.”
Barry Wile, a member of the Truro club and a key organizer of the event, looks forward to the show every year. The locals had two of the largest displays, compiled by sections of varying length built by each individual member and put together for the show. One display was a
model of local trains, with a throwback to the Dominion Atlantic Railway. The other, a narrow gage track similar to those found in South America and formerly Newfoundland.
“Right now we’re a small group of 15 or 16 members,” he said. They do have some young
members, but would love to have more, of all ages. Like any group, the numbers rise and fall. They’ve spoken with the town about finding a permanent home, something they had at the old Normal College before the renovations. “The numbers will come around again.”
A former railway worker, Wile made his living inspecting and repairing cars, as well as tending to derailments. He found a peaceful joy in model trains for an honest reason.
“I like this better because when a train goes off the track you can reach over, pick it up and put it back.”
COVER PHOTO
Ryan Cooke/Truro Daily News Dave Stredulinsky admires a replica mill he built by hand, from scratch, at the 38th annual Fall Train Show in Truro. Stredulinsky spent three months over the course of one winter building the piece.