Track Techies : L.A. Model Railroad Club Keeps Trains Chugging at Griffith Park

Like a scene out of the 1930s, a sleek Hudson steam engine chugs across a sturdy trestle before winding its way around a rugged California mountain.

As real as it looks, the train and scenery are actually to-scale models, a re-creation of an important element of the past, when growing up to be an engineer was every little boy’s dream and railroads ruled the West.

The young and old gather at the Travel Town Museum in Griffith Park during weekend viewing hours to get a glimpse of the miniature trains as they travel past the ocean, chug through fruit groves and wine country, and wind their way through mountains, forests and farms. Rail companies represented include the Union Pacific Lines, Southern Pacific Lines and the Santa Fe.

“The most exciting thing I guess is re-creating memories of our childhood,” said Lowell Majors, a member and spokesman for the Los Angeles N-Scale Assn. “Most everyone in our club at one time or another was enamored with trains.”

So it happened that 20 years ago, a small group of train enthusiasts formed the association and began operating the East Valley Lines Model Railroad.

The club operates possibly the largest N-scale model railroad in the country, with 4,500 feet of track, which is equivalent to about 31 scale miles. The model train takes 31 minutes to make a full run around the layout, a trip that attracts thousands of visitors to Griffith Park each year.

Association members--there are now 27--have spent years fine-tuning the elaborate scenery, which they continue to build. Currently, a detailed replica of Union Station is under construction.

The trains belong to the members, who lend them to the association for display in the permanent exhibit.

“I’ve been collecting for 30 years, and some of our members have been collecting for all their adult lives,” Majors said. “So if you add it all up, there’s easily hundreds of years of collecting between us.”