Local model railroad buffs keeps the trains running on timee

By CARLOS VILLATORO
Register Staff Writer

An ocean liner delivers the newest models of popular vehicles to the shores across the way from Napa Passenger Station, where commuters wait patiently for the next train with suitcases and handbags in tow; a small dog urinates on a fire hydrant.

This was just one of the realistic scenes depicted over the weekend at the Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society’s Holiday Train Festival. The model train show drew dozens of train buffs, children and their families to the L-shaped building on the north grounds of the Napa Valley Exposition Center. Inside the structure sits the holy grail of model train sets owned and operated by the society.

Napa Valley Northern, the name of the model train set, occupies 3600 square feet and is equivalent to about 10 miles in HO scale according to one member, John Rodgers.

On Sunday, Rodgers wielded a radio and monitored a dispatch board filled with lights that represented the locations of the trains.

“I’m basically controlling traffic,” he said with a smile.

The rolling hills, people, towns, farms as well as industrial yards played a charming supporting cast for the stars of the show; dozens of life-like model trains. On Sunday, the trains — which were each painted in detail to resemble Napa Valley Wine Train, Coca Cola, Budweiser and Southern Pacific Railroad train lines — zoomed across the landscape and breathed life into the diorama.

“I’m playing,” said Richard Hildebrand, 83, a club member and former Napa Valley Register photographer.

Hildebrand donned an engineer’s uniform and answered curious onlookers’ questions about the trains, all while operating the west side of the set.

“All the decorations were done by hand,” Hildebrand said.

Hildebrand pointed out that the hillsides — dotted with pine trees, construction vehicles, rocks as well as the occasional hiker, — started as chicken wire, which was then lined with paper and plaster, transforming it into the hill.

All trains that run on Napa Valley Northern belong to members and can cost $200 or more apiece.

The club formed in 1955 to construct an HO scale model train set and promote the hobby of model railroading. Since the 1970s the club has operated out of the Napa Valley Expo, after operating for years at its former location in the basement of the G barracks at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville.

Napa Valley Northern follows a route that encompasses miniature versions of Napa and Lake Counties all the way to Ukiah. The club meets every Friday and is open to the public. For those who missed this weekends show, the society plans to have another on Dec. 13 and 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission if free. For more information visit www.nvmrc.org.

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