Finding friends on the local line

Think of it as somewhere over the rainbow. 

You know the place, only this time not in Oz, in Waynesville, N.C., on Frazier Street, behind the Sagebrush Steakhouse parking lot, in a non-descript building that’s 60-feet long and maybe half as wide. This is where the bluebirds sing, where happiness prevails.

Model trains zip along 200 feet of track, through villages, farms, cities, and industrial sites, all set against backdrops of blue skies and puffy white clouds. Whistles blow and smoke puffs rise as engines, cars, and cabooses wend their way through slices of classic Americana. The level of detail in these vignettes is astounding: a garden, a sty with muddy pigs, an industrial park, coal cars, water towers, city buildings, people, grass and more. Even the Frosty Bar has customers. 

It’s a community in miniature, train tracks connecting picturesque neighborhoods just as they connect generations to their shared love for a bygone era. Nostalgia drew Smoky Mountain Model Railroad Club members together. A few met at church, while others heard about the club online, but trains captured each member’s imagination.

“We lived in Miami and we’d go down to the beach. I was three or four years old and my dad taught me how to draw trains in the wet sand,” said Sam Hopkins, one of the club’s founding members. “I just drew boxes and circles and triangles and worked my way down the beach.” He got his first train, an American Flyer, in 1949 when he was 5 years old.

Harold Clackett’s first train was underneath the Christmas tree when he was 5. 

“It was on a 4-by-8 piece of plywood we put on the bed,” Clackett said. “We’d take the board up and put it on the bed and run the trains. When it was time to go to bed, we’d take the board off and take the trains off.”

The train’s mechanical components were an introduction in the way things work. 

“It was a steam engine, so there were a lot of moving parts on the outside that were fascinating,” Clackett said. “We had one switch where we could back the train in and uncouple it and do things like that. It had two gondolas, one box car, a crane and a caboose.”

The club’s resident “youngster,” Josh Scott, is 15. The Thomas the Tank Engine television show started his love for trains, and now he is building the website for the Tallulah Falls Railroad Museum in Rabun Gap, Ga.

“I’ve loved trains since I was 2 years old,” Scott said. “I love the pure awesomeness of them, the raw power behind them. I love the raw steam locomotives. There’s something about those engines that romance you, and the history is just amazing.”  

Club members’ mission is to share the joy of model railroading. Their workspace is filled with four different layouts, one of which is a kid-friendly, hands-on Thomas the Tank Engine set. The group, which runs primarily Lionel-type O gauge trains, holds work sessions from 7 to 9 p.m. every Tuesday night and public viewing sessions from 2 to 4 p.m. the second Sunday of each month.

“What we tried to do with this particular layout is show what the trains did,” Clackett said of a 50-feet by 30-feet operating layout, the club’s largest. “We show a farm with cows and how trains picked up milk. We have the coal and the lumber and the oil, and these were giant things. This is what made this country grow, and it was the train that connected it all.”

The club, now in its third location after building sales forced members to move, has spent the past year designing and painting backdrops, building tables and wiring electricity, skills they say they learned as part of this lifetime hobby. 

“We really wanted to get this set up so we could invite the community to come in and see what a big layout is like,” Clackett said. 

One of the club’s important activities is community outreach. Members enjoy teaching children about construction, modeling, painting, history, research and photography. Ed Rynning of Maggie Valley became the club’s resident electrician after Hopkins had hired him to do some work. 

“I’d keep hearing them talk about taking the trains to retirement homes, so I thought ‘I’m going to stick around these guys. This is something I’d like to see,’” Rynning said.

Trains used to be more common and integral components to our nation’s transportation. Troops in World War II traveled by trains that also carried a lot of supplies, Clackett said. 

“[Nursing home residents] associate trains with when they were children, when they rode on trains,” Clackett said. “It just connects to them right away. One woman saw our Santa Fe and remembered riding the train. She said, ‘That’s a Super Chief.’ ” 

Club members’ favorite story is one about a nursing home resident who rarely smiled, until the trains showed up, Hopkins said. 

“A nurse pointed to an elderly gentleman sitting in a wheelchair with his face just beaming like a little boy watching the trains. She said, ‘See that man? This is the first time we’ve seen him smile in eight or nine months here.’ The trains always have a positive effect on people. We look at events like this as our primary ministry,” Hopkins said.

Explore the world of model railroading

Bryson City, N.C.

The Smoky Mountain Trains Museum is adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad depot. The museum features a collection of 7,000 Lionel™ engines, cars and accessories, an operating layout, children’s activity center, and gift/toy shop. The collection dates back to 1918 and includes such classics as the 1934 Blue Comet Passenger set and the more recent Joshua Lionel Cowen Challenger steam locomotives. Admission is free with every GSMR train ticket. 

Museum hours frequently change based on GSMR train schedules. Visit smokymountaintrains.com or call 800.872.4681 ext 7050 for more information. 

Chattanooga, Tenn.

The famous Chattanooga Choo Choo Historic Hotel is home to the Model Railroad Museum, which features the 174-feet long, 33-feet wide (at its widest point) model railroad. The railroad includes more than 3,000 feet of track, 320 structures, 150 switches, 120 locomotives of all types, 1,000 freight cars, 80 passenger cars, three major yards, two small yards, and four passenger stations. This model railroad exhibit ranks as one of, if not the largest, in the world open to the public. The model railroad was built in HO scale, which is 1:87, meaning 87 model boxcars hooked together would equal the length of one real boxcar, according to the website. More than 50,000 man-hours were spent to make the layout, which portrays Chattanooga and the Cumberland Mountain country. Visitors take a self-guided tour to learn about the history of Chattanooga trains.

Hours of the Model Railroad Museum are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission is $3 for children age 3 to 12 and $5 for adults and children 13 and older.  For more information, visit choochoo.com or call 800.TRACK.29 (872.2529).

Johnson City, Tenn.

The George L. Carter Railroad Museum at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City is a relatively new museum in the area. Opened in 2007, the museum features three large operating layouts in three different scales. The museum’s displays include historic prototype railroad memorabilia, toy trains and model railroading locomotives, rolling stock and structures. The museum is named for George Carter, who built the Clinchfield Railroad through 275 miles of mountainous terrain to carry coal from Eastern Kentucky.  

Operating hours for the museum are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, call 423.439.3382 or visit etsu.edu/railroad.