GLEN CARBON — The massive layout of the Metro East Model Railroad Club in Glen Carbon was at full capacity Saturday as the club held an open house to the delight of fans young and old.
The club's HO scale layout is 18 feet wide and 27 feet long, with approximately 1,000 feet of track on several levels. This includes depictions of freight yards, passenger yards, transit yards, steel mills, coal mines, and his 1950s Glenn Carbon area.
Greg Inman and his 4-year-old son, Ira, of Denver, Colorado, were in town visiting family and decided to stop by the open house. The Inmans are both rail buffs and were impressed by what they saw at Glen Carbon.
“We went to the Colorado Railroad Museum, rode the Polar Express in Durango, rode Amtrak through the Moffitt Tunnel,” Greg Inman said. “But the layout of this model train is really impressive.”
Ira Inman put it more simply: “I think this place is pretty cool.”
The massive layout, crammed into every inch of space in the old fire station building, also caught the attention of 7-year-old Oliver Provencher of Caseyville.
“I like the way they drive and it's fun when they drive by,” Provencher said. “I like the way they have control.”
Although multiple model trains were running at the same time on the layout, there were never any accidents. That's no coincidence, said Mark Bauer, president of the Metro East Model Railroad Club.
“We now have digital command control. We have a little chip in every engine, so we can actually run multiple trains on the same track,” Bauer said. “If you have a night service, you have a schedule. The train has to arrive at a certain point at a certain time and pick up and drop off cars. It works just like a real railroad.”
Bauer, a lifelong model railroad enthusiast, said the hobby remains popular because it is multifaceted and can be enjoyed by everyone.
“You have to build it, do the landscaping, put in the tracks, put in the lights, build all the buildings,” Bauer said. “You can do anything from electrical work to carpentry to model making and have fun doing it.”
The Metro East Model Railroad Club holds regular meetings, work/play sessions, and occasional public houses, such as Saturdays.
