Right on track for the holidays, Naperville neighbors show off their model train hobby, taking part in the Charlestown Woods Model Train Club.
A lifelong love for trains
One of the group’s founding members, longtime Naperville resident Jim Lennert, climbed aboard the model train hobby when he was just six years old, admiring his dad who was a brakeman for the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway.
“One day he arranged for me to be on a caboose with him for a short run, and from that moment on, I think I was hooked by trains and especially when, for that Christmas, I got my first Lionel train set,” Lennert said.
That set Lennert on track for a lifelong collection of model trains, accumulating more than 500 train cars. He once bought his own real caboose, which he lived in for a while.
“When you get your first train, you find it’s often not enough,” he said. “You buy more cars, you buy more engines. You buy additional tracks. You expand your layout.”
How the club first started
Upon moving to the Charlestown Woods subdivision, it just so happened several neighbors shared the same love of locomotives. So together, they decided they’d go full steam ahead in creating the Charlestown Woods Model Train Club.
“It’s interesting talking to people about how they do different things,” said club member Gil Buescher. “‘You ask questions, ‘How did you do this?’ and ‘How did you do that?’”
Running of the model trains
For the third year now, Lennert hosted a running of the model trains event in his garage for the small club and other neighbors, showcasing several engines including his Polar Express. That train was accompanied by mountains, a city, and the North Pole, just like in the movie.
“For me, being a historian, the various trains represent the evolution of railroads and the evolution of particular types of engines and their function, their cultural function in our societies,” said Jim Kauffman, also a club member.
“When I run a train, it takes me back to my first train under the Christmas tree,” said Lennert. “I think all these gentlemen, they have the same experience of never giving up what they had as a kid. It never got any better than running your model train as a child.”
The event occurred on the western hemisphere’s observance of Saint Nicholas Day. The Christian holiday is honor of Saint Nicholas, the fourth-century Bishop of Myra. To help celebrate, Lennert gave kids who came to the display chocolate and an orange slice, harkening back to a family tradition when he was younger.
“In our home when I was young, on Saint Nicholas Day, a chocolate bar and orange would appear in the morning in a Dutch wooden shoe,” he said. “At night we were allowed to set up our Lionel model trains.”
The group estimated about 50 people came to enjoy the display. Lennert hopes sharing his story will loco-motivate others to take up the model train hobby.
If you have a story idea, we want to hear from you!
