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Model train enthusiasts filled a San Antonio church hall Saturday morning in search of rare engines, vintage boxcars and a little railroad nostalgia at the 50th annual Train Collectors Association Lone Star Division Train Show.
At the entrance was a massive model train setup featuring intricate, hyper-realistic scenery. The trains held the attention of young and old as they rolled around the tracks. The display was assembled by a group called the Tinplate Trackers from Austin, who spent the day before meticulously setting up the complex arrangement of tracks and scenery.
Inside the main hall, visitors rummaged through treasure troves of model train engines, boxcars, tracks, miniature scenery and more.
Pat Halpin is president of the Lone Star Division of the Train Collectors Association.
“They’re over-trained, they got more trains than what they need…so they come and they sell their trains. It’s a model train version of a flea market,” he told TPR.
There were families with children browsing, but the crowd definitely favored the older sets. Halpin said the hobby is still going strong, though younger people have more competing interests.
“The kids are more interested in computers and things like that, and the whole world is different on everything and the demographics are different than when we were kids,” Halpin said.
Greg Roberts was searching for some very specific items.
“I generally look for Lionel O-gauge post-war trains. So I just like to see what is, you know, what's out there and see what's new, but generally I purchase the antique trains,” Roberts said.
Andrew Knight is president of the San Antonio Train Collectors Association, one of three model train organizations in the San Antonio area. He talked about the educational value of model trains.
“If you've got a young kid that's starting out they got to learn electricity to connect the wires to the track, they learn about electric motors for the engines themselves. They learn carpentry because they have to build a train table. They learn all kinds of artistic stuff if they want to start decorating the layout with buildings and foliage and all that kind of stuff,” he said.
Knight was also selling off part of his collection.
“I moved down from Pennsylvania and I had 234 boxes of trains I shipped down here and I've still got 100 boxes in the back bedroom unpacked. So that's why I'm trying to clean out some inventory. It's all personally owned and just been collecting for like 40 years."
John Draa found what he was looking for.
“Since I came from Virginia I found a Norfolk and Western boxcar to add to the collection,” he said as he proudly held up the latest addition.
Draa has been into model trains for a long time.
“My great grandfather, great grandfather, uncles all worked on the railroads and my dad started me with a train set back in the ’50s and here I am still buying stuff in my 70s.”
And for many collectors — from longtime hobbyists to a new generation of train enthusiasts — the search for the next perfect train never really ends.
