At Model Train Show, Less Is More

Train enthusiast John Hawkins traveled 2,000 miles to catch a few ZZZZs.

Sleep, though, was the last thing on the Michigan man’s mind as he joined 35,000 other locomotive lovers converging on Long Beach this weekend for the nation’s largest model railroading exhibition.

Hawkins, 70, was looking for a little train excitement--the tiniest kind, in fact. He collects Z-scale models, peanut-size engines and boxcars that are the world’s smallest.

Z-scale trains are so small that a track layout depicting hills, villages and seemingly miles of rails can fit into a thin briefcase.

To model railroaders, that kind of miniaturization is a big deal.

“Space is what limits most of us,” Hawkins, a retired broadcast engineer from Bath, Mich., explained as he gingerly examined a briefcase train. Its Z-scale cars were one-220th the size of the real thing. So were its houses and its almost microscopic people.

“A good layout can take up a whole house. Look at what you can do with something this size--there’s even a double-loop track here.”

Keeping small trains running is no small feat, however.

Jim Johnson, 66, of Alhambra spent Friday continuously patrolling his tracks to keep dust from interrupting the electrical contact between his locomotive’s wheels and his Z-scale track. Fortunately for him, the tracks only covered about four feet.

Johnson and buddies Jim Beckert and Robert Siddoway convert larger N-scale train cars to run on the tiny Z-scale tracks. That makes the trains look like the narrow-gauge railroads that hauled logs and gold-mining equipment a century ago in the Sierra and Rockies.

“These things are delicate--the motor is the size of a green pea. They last a half-second if they stall on the track,” Johnson said. “Every time you burn up a motor, it’s another $100.”

Beckert, a 63-year-old utility company retiree who also lives in Alhambra, said he welcomed the chance to do tiny tinkering--even though he has to use magnifying glasses to see what he’s doing. “I have lots of space at home but my wife won’t let me use it,” he said.

Hundreds of model train hobbyists are demonstrating their work at the exhibition, which runs through 5 p.m. today at the Long Beach Convention Center. The annual show sponsored by the National Model Railroad Assn. includes everything from displays to sales booths.

“You learn everything from carpentry to electronics, scenery-building and history doing this,” said Mike Sheridan, 46, an industrial safety consultant from Cupertino, Calif. who has filled his garage with an N-scale train layout.

Many participants have built scale-model mountain or city railroad scenes in four-foot modules that are connected to create huge train layouts spanning hundreds of feet.

Once thought of as a hobby for kids, the patience and precision required of today’s expensive model trains have made it a mostly adult-male activity.

“This is not really a place to meet girls,” said exhibition visitor Richard Wood, 16, of Wadsworth, Ohio, as he wistfully inspected an $845 Z-scale briefcase layout.

It’s not really a place for kids, either.

“The modelers get a scared look on their face when they see us walk in,” said Diane Pavlacka, of the Bronx, N.Y., who brought her five children (ages 1 through 16) to the show. Her husband, Eric, was off looking at exhibits as she waited by the convention hall exit.

Her family has learned to live with trains, Pavlacka said. Her husband has train layouts in the basement and attic and is looking to take over the garage, she said.

“And we’re going home by train,” she said wearily. “It’s going to be a three-day trip.”