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Families make and see preserved memories at Model Train Open House
AUSTINTOWN
The Youngstown Model Railroad Association’s 2018 Model Train Open House is the only place left in the Mahoning Valley where visitors can still see a steel mill blast furnace.
The open house, at YMRA’s building at 751 N. Four Mile Run Road, at the corner of Raccoon Road began Saturday and continues from noon to 6 p.m. today and Nov. 10-11 and Dec. 1-2.
The cost is a $5 donation per person, but children 11 and younger get in free if accompanied by an adult.
While YMRA’s steel mill among the basement displays is not to scale, it has enough features to remind people of days gone by, said Dean DeMain of Boardman, one of the association’s vice presidents.
Model railroading is also a way to preserve a time when rails were prevalent, and a great way for families to bond over a common interest.
Miniature machines with lights and whistles – and smoke stacks, in some cases – carry loads of steel and other products through mountains and over bridges to somewhere else on the displays, which are complete with towns and trees and people.
The displays may evoke feelings of nostalgia for grandparents and parents, but their grandchildren and children may be viewing trains weaving around mountains, across farmland, past amusement parks and through an urban area reminiscent of downtown Youngstown for the first time. To make sure they can see, the association has even provided benches so the smaller ones can get an up-close view.
Many of the parents and grandparents, and yes, the children too, are shopping for ideas for presents for the young ones in the families, and maybe for themselves.
A good starter train, with an engine and caboose and several freight cars and tracks, long enough to fit under the Christmas tree, would cost about $200, said DeMain.
Shelley and Don Johnson of Southington brought an excited Brody Douglas, 6, whom they described as a “big train fan,” and his sister, DeLaney Douglas, 2, the children of Steve and Brittany Douglas of Cortland.
“Christmas is coming,” said Don Johnson.
Lukas Corney, 6, of Wooster, accompanied by his grandfather, Philip Buchmann of Salem, said with no hesitation that he wants a train for Christmas.
“I got my first train for Christmas when I was 8,” Buchman remembered. “My dad made me a train table in the basement and built mountains and other things for the display. I spent hours-upon-hours playing with trains. It was a lot of fun.”
Belinda Niswonger of Lisbon said she has been bringing her grandson, Declan Cress, 6, of Lisbon to the train show since he was 3.
His great-grandfather, Delmar Calkins, now deceased, “started Delclan’s love of trains,” said Niswonger. “I get to bring Delcan because his parents, Greg Cress and Kelly Niswonger, are nurses and have to work.
Delcan already has a train but is looking forward to receiving a first-responders train for Christmas.
Delcan and his grandmother were looking forward to stopping at Handel’s for ice cream on the way home.
“It’s become a tradition,” she said.
Involvement in railroading often is a tradition handed down from family members both as a hobby and as employment.
For Bill Schnierle of Massillon, head of the “O” scale display at the open house, railroading is a family affair.
Schnierle’s great-grandfather was an engineer for the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad, for which he worked 50 years; and Schnierle himself is an engineer for the Youngstown & Southeastern and the Ohi-Rail that runs from North Lima to Youngstown to Darlington, Pa.
“Most of my father’s family works in railroading. It’s in my blood,” he said.