Tiny locomotives, hand-built scenery and a miniature Collierville town square filled the room at Whispering Woods in Olive Branch as the National Model Railroad Association’s Bluff City Division held its second annual model train show, drawing hobbyists young and old, according to the DeSoto Times-Tribune.
The NMRA is a nonprofit that sets standards for the model railroading hobby and hosts gatherings where members and other railroaders can meet, buy models and see layouts built by clubs and individuals. Three presenters set up full train layouts at this year’s show.
A 15-Year Labor of Love at the Model Train Show
Thomas Mogish of the Memphis Modular Group brought a layout he has spent about 15 years repairing, building and wiring. He has worked with model trains since age 10 and picked the hobby back up after college when he found his old train pieces while cleaning out his parents’ house. Some of the scenery came from mentors who left the hobby and from a club that is no longer active, while other sections he built himself in high school and college, including a scene based on piers in Maine.
His layout runs a model Union Pacific Big Boy and an Amtrak passenger train using Digital Command Control, which lets him change speeds and run sound and lights from an iPad or a hand remote…