A train horn sounds, along with the familiar clickety-clack of wheels running along a railroad track.
A white and green GO train rumbles over a wooden trestle bridge and enters a tunnel in a hill and disappears.
This particular train route in Barrie is temporary, having been set up in miniature-scale at the Model Train Show recently held at Bradford Gardens Greenhouse on the edge of the city. The event was hosted by the Barrie Allandale Railway Modellers club.
There is a long history of the club hosting what is now Ontario’s largest model railway show. This year’s show marked its 52nd year.
Ayden Boulton, 12, of Mississauga, loves the trains and visited the show on Feb. 17.
“They are fast-moving, heavy, metal objects,” he tells BarrieToday. “They’re cool. I don’t have an explanation for it, they’re just cool.”
His own collection consists of just one train, as he is just starting out in hobby.
“I’ve got a good amount of rolling stock, though,” he says, referring to the industry term for rail cars.
Boulton’s wish list that day is to get more diesel locomotives, “because I only have steam.”
His younger brother, nine-year-old Noah, who is tagging along, isn’t all that interested in trains, but he does like buses.
A much older collector, but just as excited by railways, is David Nightingale, 63, of Belleville, who has had a love affair with trains and model collecting since he was a child.
“I always had stuff in the late 1960s up until they got shelved, and now I’m back into it now that I’m retired,” he says.
Nightingale loves the fact kids continue to be involved in the hobby despite living in an age of digital entertainment.
“We’re seeing all the little ones totally mesmerized, and teens through 20s sort of studying and getting ideas, so it’s wonderful to see all the generations still have an interest in trains,” he adds.
Benjamin Moore, 32, of Barrie, grew up with the hobby due to his father’s collecting and love of trains.
Moore has jumped into collecting in the past three years, and is now bringing his own sets out to the shows.
“My dad’s whole basement was a train layout,” he says. “The amount of time we’ve spent down there doing it, it’s kind of surprising it took this long for me to get my own. That’s all I remember the basement being — all different kinds of tracks and different trains, with display cabinets full.”
Moore’s father, Kevin, 65, started running trains when he was eight years old.
“I still have my first engine,” he says. “It is a wind-up train where you turn the key and it goes around (the track). It was German.”
The famed Lionel brand of model trains became the standard for him.
The senior Moore currently has two bedrooms full of trains.
He says he's more than pleased to see his son taking up the hobby alongside him.
“He was doing his own thing, with video games, and going to school to be trained as a mechanic,” Kevin says.
“The trains were there for his pleasure whenever he wanted,” he adds. “It was me that presented my Big Boy (steam train) to him to run, and he took the opportunity last year to run it, and he’s loved it ever since.
“As a parent, it’s great for your son to kind of follow in your footsteps. And one day, you know, this will be all his,” Moore says of his collection.
The Barrie Allandale Railway Modellers club saw more than 2,600 visitors in attendance at this year’s show.
With 18 active members at the moment, the club is always looking for new members. Their regular meetings are held at their club room in downtown Barrie every Tuesday.
“We encourage potential visitors to contact us ahead of visiting so we can expect them, as we don't have enough space for several visitors at one time,” says the club's treasurer, Dave Wetherald.
The first Tuesday of every month, the group has what they call a “running night,” when the club supplies most of the freight cars and a couple of engines, and several members bring their own train engines.
“The second, fourth and fifth Tuesdays are generally work nights on scenery and wiring,” Wetherald says. “There are usually a couple of trains moving, but not full operation.”
The third Tuesday is slated for a club business meeting, and not open to visitors.
Wetherald says he has been in the hobby for over 70 of his 77 years.
“My wife knows where to find me ‘under foot’ in the basement, or at our club. I guess one gets the bug and just keeps on,” he admits.
Friendship, and opportunities to hone many skills such as carpentry, electronics, scenery landscaping, and model building are the benefits of belonging to their club, says Wetherald.
Their annual model trains show has been chugging along for more than five decades now, having been hosted in a church auditorium on Bradford Street, the Barrie Armoury, the old racetrack which used to be on Essa Road, and has since pulled into the Bradford Greenhouses location since the racetrack closed several years ago.
The hobby seems to be vibrant and healthy, and will no doubt continue on down the line for many years to come.
