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Cuyahoga Falls residents come home to find burning couch on balcony
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight
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Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
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Late surge gives Zips ugly road win
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Citizens United v. F.E.C. (Part 4): Kennedy's and O'Connor's Basic Approaches to Constitutional Decisionmaking – Top Down and Bottom Up
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
Track HR Research
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 07:40 p.m. EDT, Oct 12, 2009
CUYAHOGA FALLS: Paul Papes doesn't have to go far away to get away.
A walk to his basement takes him to a throwback world of old passenger trains, stations, Esso gas pumps and diners.
It is a two-level, L-shaped model railroad community in which one train winds around a model farm while another chugs past a pond — where toy people fish on canoes — and another goes through a small town from the distant past.
Papes had trains as a kid but didn't get back into model trains until the 1980s, when he set up a train around a Christmas tree.
After Papes and his wife, Connie, moved from Hudson to Cuyahoga Falls a decade ago, he started thinking about the model trains.
''I got bored when I retired,'' said Papes, 76, who worked for LTV Steel for 46 years.
A trip to a model railroad display in Pennsylvania persuaded him to take his love of model trains a step beyond holiday trains.
Papes began building his dream town four years ago, a year after he remodeled his basement.
He spent thousands of dollars on the exhibit, which includes six trains, and thinks he might expand his layout a bit more.
Papes is not alone in rediscovering model railroading.
More than 500,000 Americans spend more than $500 million every year on the hobby, Terry Thompson, editor of Model Railroader magazine, says at http://www.Greatesthobby.com, a Web Site and organization that promotes the hobby.
''The number of people involved in model trains exceeds 1 million, if you include people with a casual interest, who may set up a train at Christmas time or set up a Thomas the Tank Engine train for the kids,'' said Dave Swanson, executive director of World's Greatest Hobby.
Swanson said the hobby, in general, attracts men over 35 and its numbers are stable.
''The amount and variety of model railroad products has been growing,'' he said, ''and the product technology is reaching an amazing level today.''
John Hess, 61, who works with his son, Kevin Hess, owner of the Whistle Stop Hobby Shop, a 38-year-old store on Front Street in Cuyahoga Falls, said he has noticed that some people who had trains as youngsters are returning to model railroading.
''People who have been in it years ago are coming back to it,'' he said.
Every morning, Papes said, he goes down to his railroad to work the controls for a half-hour or so.
''This one sort of runs away on me,'' he said as he gently slowed down a train on a curve on his track. ''It speeds up.''
The train display includes a vintage model McDonald's restaurant that advertises 15-cent hamburgers, an old mobile home and a police station with a police officer standing in front of it holding a doughnut.
Papes' son, Paul Papes Jr., is a police officer for the Cleveland Clinic and in Grand River, Ohio.
His train set also has a shanty that smokes as if it is burning. Tiny firefighters work to put out the flames.
Three of the engines are steam engines, and when he adds oil to them, smoke comes out. Papes keeps the steam to a minimum, however.
''The basement gets stinky,'' he said.
There is a church with a preacher who has just married a couple, a Pennsylvania Railroad ticket station, a bank, a farm implement store and gas station.
Recently, he purchased models of a group of Boy Scouts and a tent that he plans to put in a wooded area near one of his trains, which are O gauge and O27 gauge.
When all the trains are moving and he turns on some recordings he has of train noise and announcers at train stations, the room fills with blaring sounds.
''It's a lot of noise,'' Papes said.
His wife, Connie, said she has some hearing loss, so when she is upstairs and he is downstairs working on his trains, she is unable to hear the sounds of her husband's loud hobby.
''It is his second childhood,'' she said.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
ALL ABOARD!
November is National Model Railroad Month, and Nov. 20 is Take a Model Train to Work Day, when model railroaders are encouraged to bring a locomotive or other model train equipment to the office. The Cuyahoga Valley Terminal Model Railroad group meets from 5 to 8 p.m. every Tuesday in the basement of the Whistle Stop Hobby Shop, 2146 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls.
CUYAHOGA FALLS: Paul Papes doesn't have to go far away to get away.
A walk to his basement takes him to a throwback world of old passenger trains, stations, Esso gas pumps and diners.
It is a two-level, L-shaped model railroad community in which one train winds around a model farm while another chugs past a pond — where toy people fish on canoes — and another goes through a small town from the distant past.
Papes had trains as a kid but didn't get back into model trains until the 1980s, when he set up a train around a Christmas tree.
After Papes and his wife, Connie, moved from Hudson to Cuyahoga Falls a decade ago, he started thinking about the model trains.
''I got bored when I retired,'' said Papes, 76, who worked for LTV Steel for 46 years.
A trip to a model railroad display in Pennsylvania persuaded him to take his love of model trains a step beyond holiday trains.
Papes began building his dream town four years ago, a year after he remodeled his basement.
He spent thousands of dollars on the exhibit, which includes six trains, and thinks he might expand his layout a bit more.
Papes is not alone in rediscovering model railroading.
More than 500,000 Americans spend more than $500 million every year on the hobby, Terry Thompson, editor of Model Railroader magazine, says at http://www.Greatesthobby.com, a Web Site and organization that promotes the hobby.
''The number of people involved in model trains exceeds 1 million, if you include people with a casual interest, who may set up a train at Christmas time or set up a Thomas the Tank Engine train for the kids,'' said Dave Swanson, executive director of World's Greatest Hobby.
Swanson said the hobby, in general, attracts men over 35 and its numbers are stable.
''The amount and variety of model railroad products has been growing,'' he said, ''and the product technology is reaching an amazing level today.''
John Hess, 61, who works with his son, Kevin Hess, owner of the Whistle Stop Hobby Shop, a 38-year-old store on Front Street in Cuyahoga Falls, said he has noticed that some people who had trains as youngsters are returning to model railroading.
''People who have been in it years ago are coming back to it,'' he said.
Every morning, Papes said, he goes down to his railroad to work the controls for a half-hour or so.
''This one sort of runs away on me,'' he said as he gently slowed down a train on a curve on his track. ''It speeds up.''
The train display includes a vintage model McDonald's restaurant that advertises 15-cent hamburgers, an old mobile home and a police station with a police officer standing in front of it holding a doughnut.
Papes' son, Paul Papes Jr., is a police officer for the Cleveland Clinic and in Grand River, Ohio.
His train set also has a shanty that smokes as if it is burning. Tiny firefighters work to put out the flames.
Three of the engines are steam engines, and when he adds oil to them, smoke comes out. Papes keeps the steam to a minimum, however.
''The basement gets stinky,'' he said.
There is a church with a preacher who has just married a couple, a Pennsylvania Railroad ticket station, a bank, a farm implement store and gas station.
Recently, he purchased models of a group of Boy Scouts and a tent that he plans to put in a wooded area near one of his trains, which are O gauge and O27 gauge.
When all the trains are moving and he turns on some recordings he has of train noise and announcers at train stations, the room fills with blaring sounds.
''It's a lot of noise,'' Papes said.
His wife, Connie, said she has some hearing loss, so when she is upstairs and he is downstairs working on his trains, she is unable to hear the sounds of her husband's loud hobby.
''It is his second childhood,'' she said.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
ALL ABOARD!
November is National Model Railroad Month, and Nov. 20 is Take a Model Train to Work Day, when model railroaders are encouraged to bring a locomotive or other model train equipment to the office. The Cuyahoga Valley Terminal Model Railroad group meets from 5 to 8 p.m. every Tuesday in the basement of the Whistle Stop Hobby Shop, 2146 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls.
Comments
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akron, oh
Posted 07:53 AM, 10/13/2009
It is a neat hobby and the setup looks very professional.
Akron, Oh
Posted 09:05 AM, 10/13/2009
Anybody remember that huge electric train display at Quaker Square? Is it still there?
Norton, OH
Posted 09:12 AM, 10/13/2009
This Hobby (sic) is the future brought to us from the past with a leap step into the futur.
Laying steel tracks and building passenger. Box cars, and flat beds for hauling goods via Tractor Trailer can be surge for the steel industry. Right now automobiles are unaffordable for the average unemployed worker.
Farming crops; Manufacturing materials come from crop farmers. Cotton, leather and hemp, seats for passenger cars. Leather also comes from farmers who raise cattle, this is like taking a bite out of a "Wendy Burger".
Computer technology is also a plus in the real world of Rail Roading. Better than a trip to the moon with no results.
Seminole, FL
Posted 10:41 AM, 10/13/2009
Johnboy: I remember it as well. Methinks though, it is gone....
I used to do this hobby years ago, but so much moving made it impractical to do it....
Green, Ohio
Posted 11:01 AM, 10/13/2009
Wow! So cool!
Chugga Chugga, Chugga Chugga, Chugga Chugga,
Wooowooo!
akron, oh
Posted 11:34 AM, 10/13/2009
@johnboy: That display was originally located at the old "Rail" restaurant in Cuyahoga Falls, on State Rd. The building where The Furniture Depot is, had a huge layout. When the Pullman cars were moved to Quaker Square, the display went with it. It is now gone.
akron, oh
Posted 11:39 AM, 10/13/2009
Anybody that considers themselves a fan of Lionel Trains, has Neil Young to thank. Neil bought the company, and brought it out of bankruptcy. He, and his team, have invented some cool, new train toys. He has a track controller for people with CP, that lets them control features on the layout with visual recognition. If the wearer looks at a switch in a certain way, the switch will activate. Neil is keeping a lot of people in Pa. employed, at the Lionel factory.
NorthernWestVirginny, WV
Posted 05:52 PM, 10/13/2009
Neil Young Rocks !!! Never knew that about him. I've always loved trains whether it was the real thing or these mini set ups. Dad had a small set up for a while, but he wasn't always good at finishing things. It still looked pretty cool.
