Old men and their trains

The WNC Model Railroaders show was this weekend at the Ashvegas Civic Center, and I went to check things out. I’m not a train nut, but I do marvel at the machinery, at the variety of train technology, and at how the rhythms of a train ride sooth and slow me down in a fast-paced world. Europe has passenger rail down – I wish we did here in the U.S.

Instead, there seems to be an American mindset that trains are old fashioned, that we’ve passed them by. At the show this weekend, I sensed a sort of nostalgia around the trains. Lots of old men were talking about the good old days, but nobody seemed to be looking ahead at new possibilities, new train technologies.

Or maybe it was just me. My memories of playing with my model train set as a child. My feelings of being touched by the haunting hoot of a train whistle, a sound that still reverberates in these mountains and a sound I hope will never, ever go away. There’s something so reassuring about that sound, in a melancholy sort of way; it’s almost saying that something as a mighty and forceful as a locomotive can feel.

Back to the show. Like I said, there were lots of old men playing with the trains. Old men who knew trains as a way of life, an integral part of life. And there were lots of moms and dads with little boys, who only know trains as toys.

There were train hats for sale; tons of model train cars and parts; new train sets and more.