A MAN, A TRAIN AND HAPPINESS story by Brett McLaughlin
J
ust when life seems to have gone completely off the rails — with turmoil swirling all around us, a pandemic running rampant and us left to find a mask should we even choose to leave our homes — along comes a group of grown men intent on reminding us that you’re never too old to be a kid again. ••••• I crawled on my hands and knees to get into this tiny circular space. Around me, a labyrinth of train tracks circle, going up a steady incline of about three degrees, or so says Howard Garner. This is, more-or-less, the nerve center of the Central Railway Museum. It’s not pretty like the landscapes and fabricated cities through which trains pass beyond the walls of this space. However, it is essential. It is here that signals, conjured by “operators,” pass through an elaborate collection of blinking circuit boards to trains running on those tracks. Garner is one of the principle architects for this head-scratching array of behind-the-scenes railroading. It’s the talent he brings to the Central Railway Model & Historical Association, an organization of some 60 people — mostly men and mostly older — who find joy in the toys of their childhood. While Garner enjoys the challenge of getting a train from one level of the museum’s operating display to another, other members bring artistic skills to create buildings, mountains and trees, while still others are adept at building the framework of the displays or doing the delicate wiring required to put working headlights in a miniature car. Still others, like Dan Marett, just like to “run the trains.” Now in his third term (12 years) as president of the Association, he can get away with that. And, besides, unlike many members, he doesn’t have a train in his Anderson home. “This is my layout,” he said, raising his hands as if to take in the entire museum building.
50 ‹ UPSTATE LAKE LIVING
