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A different ride at the PA Ex.

Jul 29, 2015 | 6:04 PM

Jim Wenzel was still tinkering with the tracks even as people observed the display in the exhibition hall at the Prince Albert Exhibition.

“What we’re doing is trying to determine the curvature of our industrial track,” the long-time member of the River Crossing North Club said.

“We had it operational yesterday and found the curvature to be too tight. What we did was move the track over a little bit and now the locomotives and train carts are moving smoothly.”

With a set of small tools in his hands, Wenzel went back and forth from talking to observers and fidgeting with the train set.

“It’s something that you can always be working on. This hobby never ends,” Wenzel said.

Wenzel, along with several other members from the club have been working on this particular model since early February.

The display includes small homes, restaurants, and even grain silo’s as two digitally controlled toy trains chug around the track.

The River Crossing North Club began meeting regularly at the Octagonal Building in 2007. This is the fifth time the train modeling club has had a display at the exhibition.

Club member Warren Swaney calls the display a work in progress, but thinks it’s important for club to have a presence at the exhibition.

“The reason why we brought it is just to show people what can be done because really, the only limit to the hobby of model railroading is your imagination.”

Swaney attributes his fascination of trains to his father who worked for Canadian Pacific. Growing up around trains, he believes train modeling to be an opportunity for families to work on something together.

“You can start at a very young age with Thomas the Tank Engine and go up to a simple circular layout and take it as far as you want to. Every member of the family can find some part of this that they’re interested in,” Swaney said.

Wenzel agrees with that sentiment.

“This is the only hobby I know of that when you go to school … you actually use what you learned from all the different subjects you can take up to grade 12,” Wenzel said.

“It doesn’t require you to be super intelligent to operate the hobby. It requires you to spend the time to think it through. That’s the advantage of the hobby.”

The trains will be on display at the PA Ex. all week.

knguyen@jpbg.ca

Follow on Twitter: khangvnguyen