69����

And then, the crowd came — kids and adults thrilling to the movement of the trains, their noises and tiny lights, and amount of detail in the layouts.

The group put on the show, that was free for the public to attend, for about four hours midday Saturday, and again on Sunday.

“We’re displaying the whistle module railroad club’s layout. This is our traveling layout,” shared Bill Alt, a member of the railroad group.

“Every member contributes in a different way,” Alt continued. “Somebody’s got expertise building the modular pieces, the woodworking part of it. We got other guys who are very knowledgeable on today’s electricity and electronics associated with the model railroading and we have people who are good at assembling and painting the buildings.”

“We have other people who do the scenery, there’s building trees and shrubbery and things like that. Everybody’s participating in some fashion,” Alt continued.

“As you’ll see, the most common era in model railroading is what they call the steam to diesel transition, which was in the 1950s,” Alt added. “That gives a person a lot of leeway to what type of engines and cars they want.”

Many of the towns in the layouts were modeled after small towns that trains would have passed through in the 1950s. The ads on buildings were modeled after the 50s, along with graffiti, cars, and general architecture style.

“I think of model railroading as three dimensional art. I try to make it as realistic as possible,” Alt said.

“And it’s hands-on for people, like he said, it takes a lot of different talents,” said Matthew Holly, also a member of the group.