Kids eyes light up at Y'town Model Railroad Assoc. fall open house, display

AUSTINTOWN

Jack DeMain, third-most senior member of the Youngstown Model Railroad Association, has had a love affair with model trains since he got his first Lionel set in 1946 when he was 6.

“I still have it and it still runs,” said DeMain, who worked at and then owned Amer’s Hobby Shop on Market Street in Boardman for a combined 54 years before closing two years ago.

“The Internet killed us,” DeMain said Saturday during the first day of the Youngstown Model Railroad Association’s fall open house at the former Four Mile Run Christian Church, 751 N. Four Mile Run Road.

The open house continues from noon to 6 p.m. today, Saturday and next Sunday, and Dec. 2-3.

“All little kids love trains. The time to involve them in the hobby is when they are young,” said DeMain, who joined the model train association in 1957 and retired in 1996 after 35 years in Youngstown’s engineering department.

Brothers Eli and Zac Sedlacko, 8 and 7, respectively, were impressed with an amusement display that featured the Comet roller coaster.

“Pretty cool,” said Zac. “I love trains,” said Eli.

The boys are sons of Davina Sedlacko of Boardman and grandsons of Nickie Keagy of Columbiana, who said her grandfather had a train set-up that took up the whole basement of their home.

Richard Titus of Hermitage, Pa., a first-time visitor to the model railroad event, brought his four grandchildren, Gabe, 9; Amelia, 8; Nicholas, 6, and Sam, 4, to see the display.

“Their eyes just lit up when they came in,” Titus said.

Read more about the event and display in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.