Model train show delights young and old alike

A couple of youngsters at the model train show take delight in watching a display put on by the Maine Three Railers' Club. (Lebanon Voice/Harrison Thorp photos)

ROCHESTER - If you're a model train aficionado, you were probably at the Rochester American Legion on Saturday where 44 vendors set up 90 tables with all things model trains, from vintage scale replicas of box cars and gondolas from all the major freight lines to Amtrak cars, train sets, engineer caps and everything in between.

It was the New England Train Collector's Association's semiannual Seacoast show, and organizer Ed Martin of Atkinson, N.H., said on Saturday afternoon it was a "good success."

Cliff Kenney of Waterford, Conn., who owns Cliff's Custom Trains, has spent several years customizing model train sets, first just for himself and friends and now for a growing list of clientele.

He had several of his creations set up showcasing his craft.

Kenney will customize a train set to an owner's specs, including putting scale model passengers in passenger cars, adding smoke, train whistles and track circuitry to complete the job and painting and weathering new model equipment to make it look vintage.

Vic Fuller, of Winslow, Maine, who belongs to the Maine Three Railers Club, operates trains on the club's multiple-train display at the Rochester American Legion on Saturday. The club is called the three railers because power to their trains is supplied by a middle third rail on the track. On far left track, the Coors Light Express.

"You can basically give me anything and I'll make it look the way you want," said Kenney, who attended the show with his dad, Cliff Kenney Sr.

Kenney said he got his first train set from his grandfather when he was 5 and he's been in love with model railroading ever since.

He said he turned his hobby into a small business about four years and has started to make a small profit the past two. He also works at a Connecticut marina and as an EMT for an ambulance company.

Martin said most of the vendors were from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, but a few were from Connecticut and Vermont as well. He said NETCA was the regional wing of the national Train Collectors Association.

Some 90 tables were set up with everything imaginable for a model train enthusiast.

Martin said most of the attendees came to the show from a 40-mile radius in which the association advertised the event.

Next year there will be two more shows, both in the Seacoast, one in March or April and one next November.

If you are any kind of train buff or model train aficionado you don't want to miss it.

A video created by Harrison Thorp showing some of Cliff Kenney's creations can be viewed here.