Brown County Model Trains ~story and photos by Evan Markley
I
magine yourself at seven years old, walking with your parents through Nashville. Your family enters a quaint shop in Antique Alley where the sign reads Brown County Model Trains. As your eyes adjust to the change of light, a fantastic miniature landscape enters your field of view. Three small trains wiz by your gaze. You look at your parents with suspicion and glee, and then back at the trains to track their path. The table stretching from one side of the shop to the other is the perfect height to see the tiny people in the station, waiting for their ride. The trains’ speed is fast, but slow enough to stay on the tracks. Your curiosity shifts your vision around, scanning for secrets. There is a farm, a river, a neighborhood, a baseball field, a carnival, restaurants, stores, and a tunnel. The shop owner asks you if you want to run the trains and your parents give you the
48 Our Brown County • May/June 2022
Dave Hoggatt, owner of BCMT, with his evolving train display.
nod. Mouth agape, you put your hands on the controls and turn the nobs. After making the electric trains zoom around more times than you can count, you pull them each into the station with a sigh. You are hooked! At Brown County Model Trains this is storeowner Dave Hoggatt’s vision. His goal is to create an immersive environment that introduces kids to model trains. Dave’s a retired architect who’s had a passion for trains since his childhood. His shop, tucked away in Antique Alley next to South Jefferson Street, is both a hobby and a career for him. Dave also has previous experience as a Brown County shop owner, so he is familiar with the ups and downs of seasonal, smalltown tourism. His former shop was called Peaceful Valley Arts and Crafts. He has been putting his crafting skills to work creating his display. He has already spent an enormous amount of time building, designing, and engineering a three-train course with all the fixings for a lively little town. A freight train, a passenger train, and a Christmas train all call the display home. He continues to add new things every day. Dave Continued on 52
