Friends and Neighbors: Staying on track

Train enthusiasts say watching models run can be as interesting as watching the big trains. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

The Oak Park Society of Model Engineers may have picked up two new enthusiasts in Myles Koran, 4, right, and Julian Garcia Bariel, 5. They had the chance to control a train at the group’s open house Saturday. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Sol Lopiccolo watches a train he is controlling come around the bend. The headset allows him to communicate with a dispatcher and listen to traffic along the line. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Chuck Colin, left, and Tom Holt troubleshoot a problem on one of the tracks. Holt is a retired train engineer but has kept trains close to his heart in retirement. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

The track layout in the basement of the Dole Learning Center is based on the Chicago Great Western line that ran through North Illinois, including Oak Park, and into Iowa. Here, a Great Northern train passes through the town of Stockton. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Club members, like Chuck Colin, do not just run the trains around the track. Each car has a purpose and a schedule and traffic is constantly monitored with the same kind of radio chatter you would hear between engineers and dispatchers for big trains. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

A romance was born when a boy would ride his bike down to the station and watch the trains roll in.

That romance blossomed when a model train set was found running under the Christmas tree. It would then took shape in a basement or garage where landscape, bridges and little towns would spring up to make a railroad line look real.

Video gaming now captivates many young imaginations, but the Oak Park Society of Model Engineers has worked diligently to keep model trains running, on schedule, and laying tracks to bring in new enthusiasts.

The group will celebrate is 50th year in 2014. Since 1979, a realistic replica of the Chicago Great Western line has been running in the basement of the Dole Learning Center on Augusta Boulevard.

Last Saturday, the club held an open house, giving the public the chance to take the controls of a train and absorb a three-dimensional history lesson.

The group has some 40 members, ranging in age from high school to senior citizens, and includes some members who made the railroad their careers after first being introduced to model trains by their fathers.

The group meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. at Dole and the public is invited. Group members run the trains on Wednesdays and are happy to teach newcomers how they work.

“My pleasure became my work,” said member Gary Rhebergen, a Metra train conductor. “My father brought me here and when I got out of high school, I liked trains and said, ‘Lets see what I can do.’ You can enjoy watching miniature trains as much as the big ones.”