San Joaquin Valley Toy Train Operators Host Annual Model Train Show
In which I revisit some of my favorite news pieces from 2024.
Originally published in the Waterford News on December 17, 2024. The Waterford News is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.
San Joaquin Valley Toy Train Operators, Inc. hosted the Model Train Show for the forty-seventh year at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds, 900 N. Broadway in Turlock, on December 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and December 8, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission was $10 for adults and free for children under 12 are free with paid adult. Paul’s Rustic Oven Wood-Fired Pizza sold pizza and salad.
Santa and Mrs. Claus rode The Polar Express to come to the model train show and stayed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for photos. Multiple generations of families came to look not only at the large layouts but also to meet collectors and see what they had for sale. Some collectors have been collecting for decades, and others come to sell family collections once the collections have outgrown their spaces or after the collectors themselves have passed.
Treasurer Dolores Herrera joined 45 years ago at the insistence of her late husband, Oscar Herrera, when the club needed a secretary and continued as a member after his death. As a member, she felt she ought to start collecting, so she began collecting the largest of the models, the G-suite, which has a layout in her backyard. A metal fabricator helped her make the design in her backyard.
The San Joaquin Valley Toy Train Operators, which meets in Denair, has 50 members. Like Herrera, other wives participate with their husbands, making the club a community of its own. Participation in the club allows members to share their love of trains, exchange ideas and have space to swap and build their layouts. “I just think it goes back to when they were a kid, having a train set,” Herrera said.
Some take the collecting up a notch, focusing on historic models, like one member who collects pre-war all-metal models and whose collection has been featured in several books.
After so many years, the Model Train Show has become a renowned place where people come from all over the state to sell and learn.
The event featured over 50 vendors with 150 tables, an excellent fundraiser for the Toy Train Club. Layouts included some educational layouts that show the difference in scale. Grandparents and great-grandparents walked their little ones around to impose some of the knowledge that they've gained on them.
Diane Rodriguez sold original artwork and cards with watercolor paintings of trains and boats, showing a remarkable color skill and love for the subject, including some special Christmas paintings that feature Santa Claus or Christmas ornaments.
Overall, the room bustled with enthusiasm, which comes with the large-scale hobby of a hidden gem in today's modern life.
Walking into such a large room overflowing with trains of different sizes and items for sale, people who know so much can be intimidating to the neophyte. Those who seek initiation into the vast world of model train collecting can know that there are resources and people out there who are eager to share their knowledge.
Martin De Souza, also a member of The San Joaquin Valley Toy Train Operators, said he hopes to increase outreach events where the club goes out into the community to showcase what they have. De Sousa first got involved with the train club when he met Harold Linquist, one of the charter members, at a yard sale as a child.
De Sousa parents also ran a hobby shop from 1971 to 1992, “I've been involved in the hobby since probably 1970.”
De Sousa went on to do other things, but after health problems changed his career plans, he opened an online shop called Empire Falls Consignments, echoing the work his parents did. “So, my dad is with me every day, helping me do this, and I know he would be really happy,” De Sousa said.
It is the kind of work that takes a passion and a lot of heart. That was something De Sousa’s father and the train club members imparted to him with lessons that begin, “Okay, here's what you did right. But here's where you can improve it. Here's where you can get better.”
He seeks to pass the positive message on to his grandchildren. He already sees in them a love for World War II engines and the art of train collecting and displaying. His grandson has told him, “I want to buy and run the business when I get older.”
As one grows in collecting model trains, one grows in skills. According to De Sousa, those skills include “electrical knowledge, artistic knowledge, like, how to do things get your hands and how to make things, you know, how to create things,” and above all, “listening and learning.”
“Even at 61, I still learn new things,” De Sousa said.
The San Joaquin Valley Toy Train Operators, Inc. was founded 49 years ago. They meet every first Sunday of the month at 1:30 p.m. Doors open at 12:30 p.m. Many members gather informally every Thursday at the clubhouse at 4717 Elm St. in Denair to work on their models, and according to Herrera, they would be happy to assist and share the knowledge they have gained with those looking to learn. For more information, contact Jack at 209-765-1354.
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