BLUEFIELD — A tiny train chugs through a minute landscape,
going past towns, farms, coal mines, lakes and even a circus under big top
tents. High above this realm stand representatives of the full size world who
marvel at the details. Some are older people remembering the trains that roared
past their homes years ago and others are children who stand on tip toes or
ride on daddy’s shoulders to watch the trains go by.
For 20 years the annual Rail Fest at the Bluefield Youth
Center off Stadium Drive has
been a major junction for people celebrating railroad heritage and the joy of
scale model railroading. The festival continues today.
“This is a big event,” said Kelley Massie of the Pocahontas Chapter, National
Railroad Historical Society. “We’ve been holding it here for 20 years. Everyone
knows where to find us.”
The Pocahontas Chapter works to convey two points to people: The importance of
railroad heritage in Bluefield
and the pleasure of scale model railroads, Massie said.
Visitors inspected elaborate railroad displays featuring scale model trains
operating midst scale buildings, railroad shops and landscapes offering
surprising amounts of detail. Creating such landscapes is one of the joys the
hobby offers, Massie said.
“You’re actually doing something, you’re actually making something,” he said.
“Like our modules over there. You’re actually laying track, you’re making the
buildings, you’re designing the scenery.”
Vendors offered train engines and freight cars of vary scales, but they also
had entire buildings, small plastic people, light poles, vegetation and other
items needed for a convincing small scale world. Many of the scale railroad
modules are based real places the scale railroaders have either seen in person
or on in a photograph or movie. The challenge is to recreate the scenes in
miniature.
“You’re shrinking down the world into a four foot space,” Massie said. “It’s
always a joy to see the children here and to see their faces light up when they
see the trains run. They have lights, sounds and the scale speed just like the
real ones.”
Patricia Bowers of Princeton came to the show
Saturday with her grandson, six-year-old Ethan.
“He loves the trains,” she said.
Why? Ethan got to the point. “Because I have a set. Because they’re fun. They
go where you want them to go.”
Massie said visitors from six states come to Bluefield for the festival. Amanda Heffinger
of Anawalt said some of her family had driven from North
Carolina while others came from Tennessee for the show.
“So we all get together over in Anawalt,” said Heffinger, adding that her
family has always been interested in trains. She remembered when she was about
5-years-old; her mother took her aboard a passenger train for a trip over the
mountains.
“It was fascinating. It’s stood out in my mind all these years,” she said.
The festival continues from noon until 5 p.m. today. Admission is $5 per person
or $10 for a family.
