All Aboard for the Rail Fan Express

Trains were an intrinsic part of my growing up. The Baltimore & Ohio tracks ran directly behind my parents’ house in Southern Indiana. My father worked on that line for more than 40 years. Trips we took by rail to St. Louis and Cincinnati are among my great memories.

I can recall Richard Nixon’s speech at the Republican convention in 1968, when he talked about a young boy hearing the train whistle, and how it led him to dream of faraway places. It was like he was talking about a chapter from my own life instead of his own. Earlier this year my family took the train to Seattle, and I was delighted to see my son enjoy riding the rails as much as I.

But my love of trains cannot compare to that of Glenn Landin’s of Orange. He’s just 25 and he’s about to put on the 10th annual show of the model railroad museum he’s got set up in his converted garage. I drove out to see it, perhaps a little skeptical that something that would fit into a two-car garage would be worthy of a public show. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

His display isn’t just a nice set of model trains. He’s built his own replica of Deadwood City, S.D., and placed it in the foreground of a spectacular mountain he modeled after one he saw near Silverton, Colo. Landin said it took him three years to perfect that mountain the way he wanted.

It’s made of a plaster of Paris-like substance, and the detail--trains running through tunnels, scattered firs on the barren hills, miniature workers--makes it easy to picture Silverton and its silver-mining era of the previous century.

I asked Landin, who’s an interior-design student at Rancho Santiago College, when his interest in trains first developed. He’d ridden trains as a boy, he said, and when he was 13 his mother, Bonnie, bought him his first model train. He’s been expanding his railroad collection since. When I first drove up his hill, I had no doubt I had the right place. In the front yard, riding a pair of rails, are two rusting 1903 railroad ore cars from Colorado. Landin paid $1,000 for one, $800 for the other, plus $500 just to have them shipped to Orange County. There’s also a track for a model train that works its way through the landscaping at the side of the house.

In the converted garage, memorabilia includes railroad signs, ties, spikes and posters. He’s also got a bell from the Big Thunder train at Disneyland ($500). Landin also has a beautiful model he built of that famous celebration at the tracks when East met West to form the Union Pacific, the first transcontinental railroad, in Promontory, Utah, in 1869.

“I did that one for a 4-H project,” he said.

The detail was so magnificent I told him that I assumed he won first place.

“Well, yeah,” he said shyly.

His show is Sept. 21-22 at 20645 Santiago Canyon Road at Lolita Drive. Landin does work part time while he’s going to school: He helps out passengers on the train at Irvine Regional Park in Orange.

Around the Town: Friday I got the chance to attend part of the quarterly meeting of the Southern California Coalition on Battered Women. It’s a dedicated group of women, but needs more participation from Orange County. Call (213) 655-6098 if you’re interested in its cause, or getting involved with one of its many supporting groups. . . .

I know how Disneyland has turned the closing of its Main Street Electrical Parade into a huge marketing tool. I don’t care; I love it, and I’ll miss it. You can buy bulbs from the parade starting in November for $10 each--all money going to local children’s causes. Last night for the parade: Oct. 15. . . .

The international Monopoly championship is going on now in Monte Carlo. But if you’d like a shot at next year’s championship, you need to start at the ground level. Local tournament action begins Sept. 28 at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. If you want to enter, call the American Lung Assn. of Orange County at (714) 835-5864. It’s $35 to enter. But you get a lot more than that--in Monopoly money. . . .

Here’s what Mike Kingsbury, spokesman for the Body Glove Surf Bout IX championships, says about Lower Trestles near San Clemente, site of this year’s competition, which starts Monday: “On a bad day, the surf at Lower Trestles is better than most places on a good day.”

Shuffling Along: It’s exciting any time you get an international tournament in your own county. Starting Sunday, Laguna Hills Leisure World hosts the International Shuffleboard Championship. Japan, Canada and the United States will each field 12 men and 12 women for the competition. Since Leisure World is a gated, private community for senior citizens, it’s not a sport that will draw spectators. But many within Leisure World’s walls will be there to cheer on the U.S. team. George Arringdale would have to be a hometown favorite. He’s from Mission Viejo, the only Orange County resident on the team. He got there by winning the California men’s finals.

Wrap-Up: If you’re looking for something a little more extensive in a model train show, a traveling exhibit called the Great American Train Show is headed toward the Orange County Fairgrounds on Oct. 5-6. Its promoters say more than 10,000 trains will be on display. One is so small you can hold it in the palm of your hand--and it’s got 10 cars to it.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail tojerry.hicks@latimes.com