Trains of thought

March 10, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

NILES

The Coors Light Silver Bullet train, looking sleeker and shinier than in the ubiquitous beer commercials, wended its way along a model railroad track through a cityscape of a Youngstown that used to be.

Traveling past displays of long-gone steel plants and downtown businesses, sides of the silver railcars opened revealing bright blue lights and smoke.

“That’s beer-scented smoke,” said owner Doug Cochran of Newton Falls, who put the six-piece silver train through its paces Sunday during the annual Youngs-town Model Railroad Association Flea Market at McMenamy’s Restaurant and Banquet Center.

Cochran, vice president of the Western Reserve Modular Railroad Club, said he bought most of the train on eBay for $400 and controls the sound, smoke and lights through a remote called a Digital Command System. The club’s huge display attracted scores of spectators including children who looked transfixed by the Silver Bullet’s blue lights and smoke.

The flea market annually draws about 700 enthusiasts and newcomers to the hobby, said association president Jim Pope, adorned with his traditional passenger conductor hat.

“We sold out with 185 tables and 90 vendors, and we’ve got a waiting list,” Pope said. “We can’t put any more tables in here.”

One of those vendors, Brian Patterson of Greenville, Pa., set up business on six tables containing 1,500 freight and passenger cars and 300 locomotives. Patterson said the equipment comes from the estate sale of his father, who was a collector for more than 40 years.

“This is the third time we’ve been here, and [sales] have been real good,” Patterson said.

Some of the buyers are fairly young.

Alex Love, 11, of Canfield, accompanied by his father, Randy, and friend Duncan Harlan, sported a box containing some older but functional railcars and locomotives. Alex said model railroad collecting in his family began in the early 20th century.

“My great grandfather had a 1911 Ives, and we have a 1949 Commodore Vanderbilt,” said Alex, who is passionate about the hobby. “I’m not into video games.”

Neither is 11-year-old Blake Marcum of Austintown. This was his third year of attending the flea market, and he hopes to build a model railroad display in his grandparents’ basement.

“It’s in progress right now, but that’s what we’re trying to do,” Blake said.

The youngest potential enthusiast may well have been Gavin Grilli, 3. Held in the arms of his grandfather, Mike Begeot, a Hubbard police detective, the child’s eyes opened wide as he watched the six-car Red Texas Special whiz by on one of the model railroad tracks and Cochran’s Silver Bullet and its smoke on another.

Cochran said the Digital Command remote is capable of more-complex controls.

“This system recognizes up to 250 trains, and I can run as many of them as I can put on the tracks,” said Cochran, 46, an aficionado of model railroading since his childhood.

“My mother gave me a [train] set that her family had in the 1950s and I still have it today,” Cochran said.