Model Train Festival brings fun, thousands of people to Tacoma

It might be 200-odd years since George Stephenson invented the locomotive, but 10,000 people flocking to the Washington State History Museum each December prove even tablet computers and video games can’t diminish the fun of playing with model trains.

If you’re one of the thousands who attend the museum’s Model Train Festival, you’ll know it’s more than just geeky guys checking off engine numbers. It’s a whole world in miniature, including Northwest geography, personal histories and all-consuming passions.

“Model railways are very popular. You’d be surprised how many people know all the trains,” said Baron Manfred von Vierthaler, a member of the Pierce County Lionel Train Club who’s been volunteering with the festival for 15 years. “Here in the Northwest, there’s always been a history of trains. It’s the kids, especially. You get some who can name every engine here.”

Supported by volunteers from 10 model train clubs from around the state, the festival began 16 years ago after the museum moved into the new building on Pacific Avenue and commissioned its permanent model train exhibit.

The exhibit is still the largest in the state. Volunteers from the Puget Sound Model Railroad Engineers who set it up suggested a festival to spread awareness about the exhibit, and the event hasn’t looked back. Exhibits are on every floor of the building, ranging in scale from tiny tracks to ride-on replicas.

“It’s our biggest draw,” said marketing and communications director Scott Schoenen.

During this year’s festival, it will be von Vierthaler’s trains you see first right by the entrance. Perched on a stool inside a 20-foot-by-10-foot layout of vaguely Northwest-looking scenery and Lionel trains on large O-scale tracks, von Vierthaler is the epitome of the model train enthusiast. Now retired, he’s been collecting trains since he emigrated to the United States as a child in 1953. Although the festival exhibit is owned collectively by the 30-strong Lionel club, von Vierthaler also owns an extensive train set at home that takes up part of a porch and spare bedroom. Though it’s much smaller than both its former 36-by-60 layout and the mini-museum he used to display in his winery business.

“I’ve downsized,” he said dryly. Which is possibly a good thing for his budget: Avid train collectors like von Vierthaler can spend $10,000 a month on their passion. “Hobbies are funny things, but it’s cheaper than having a 50-foot sailboat,” he added.

Von Vierthaler seems to glow with contentment as he operates the controls of his 18-inch model of a Union Pacific Big Boy engine, the biggest steam engine ever built. It’s articulated to swing through the corners. The engine puffs out realistic steam clouds with the driver lit by mock lantern light.

On the museum’s fifth floor, Rob Jones and Rod Kirsch put the finishing touches on their N-scale layout. Smaller than the O-scale downstairs (model trains vary from about a 1:48 scale ratio of the G-scale to the tiny 1:200 ratio of the Z-scale), the tracks of the 4D Ntrack club roam delicately through Midwestern towns, mountains and Northwest logging camps. Taking about four hours to set up, each module or table-width of the layout belongs to an individual club member. Each tells a story.

The Midwestern town, with old-fashioned store facades, replicates Chesterfield, Mo., where one club member grew up. One another end of the layout is an entire landscape that documents Rob Jones’ family history: The tunnels, gradients and switches run through a logging station (Jones’ grandfather was in the department of Natural Resources), a horse-drawn logging camp (his great-grandfather’s profession), a Boy Scout camp with tiny tents and a fire engine (both former activities of Jones’) and even a tiny espresso stand just like one his friend used to work at.

Jones, who will man the exhibit every day it’s open, has been collecting since 1967, when his grandma bought him his first train. The Northwest module took him about three months to build, making the mountains out of pink building foam, the buildings from slivers of wood and the sawmill’s wheels from watch gears.

The club exhibits at half-a-dozen shows every year, and each time Jones adds a little more to it.

The most difficult part of creating a model train exhibit? “Levelling,” Jones said instantly, pointing to bridge tracks that cross between module tables as Kirsch fiddles with a coupling that’s gone awry and derailed a train. “And the wiring.”

Simply seeing the tiny people, bears and cars that populate the layout is a challenge. Jones assembled his Northwest layout with the assistance of his young niece, who had better eyesight. When he was about to toss plastic scraps into the trash, she grabbed them, realizing they were tiny model dogs.

For the museum and exhibitors, the painstaking effort is well worth it. The festival brings thousands of new visitors to the museum, encouraging return visits and new members, staff say.

Exhibit volunteers enjoy the chance to talk with enthralled visitors – and, well, play with trains.

“I like just talking to people, educating them, sharing what we do,” Jones said.

Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568