As a little boy in Maryland, Don Mathis couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw a miniature steam engine on a model train that blew actual steam. Watching that engine huff and puff made a lasting impression on Mathis and turned a childhood fascination into a lifetime love for model trains.
“I had a friend whose dad had a true steam engine that you had to put water in,” Mathis recalled. “When I saw that I fell in love with trains.”
Fast forward many Christmases later, Mathis transforms his Savannah garage into what he calls a train garden, complete with several model trains, a trolley, a merry-go-round, tiny trees, snow, ponds, and nearly every accessory in between.
Starting Nov. 1, Mathis hauls out his trains and village components and starts creating his winter wonderland―a hobby that started in 2005 or 2006. The first year he installed one train on an 8-foot-by-4-foot board, adding with a sly grin, that (his hobby) has “kind of grown since then.”