Young train enthusiasts had a chance to become railroad conductors last weekend during the Historic Pullman Foundation Model Train Experience.
But the youngsters weren’t the only ones enthralled by the vintage model train layout at Pullman Exhibit Hall and its links to the history of Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood and the rail car factory that anchored it.
“When I was a little girl, we went by a train like that one to Montana — Rocky Mountain National Park,” said Stacey Melicharek, pointing to a miniature train. “We ate and slept on the train.”
Melicharek, of Palos Heights, was at the event with her husband, Tony, and children, Luke, Teddy and Lorelei.
She said her son Luke, 3, was the real train lover in the family.
“He has a choo choo train at home and he could watch it all day,” Melicharek said. “It’s such a cool event.”
The Model Train Experience at Pullman National Historical Park has been an annual offering for at least a decade, and organizers said it’s been getting more popular in recent years.
Along with the trail layouts, the event also offered family-friendly fun with arts and crafts with Pullman rangers and free cocoa for kids at the Pullman Club Coffee shop. Holiday flair was added with scenes from “Polar Express” projected on a screen in the background while still shots from the film were enlarged and placed around the Pullman House Project Welcome Center.
The trains were operated by informal engineers, including some from Valley Model Railroad and Lionel Railroad Club, Inc. which brought the trains, tracks and other items and patiently showed kids how to run the remote while explaining all about the locomotives and exhibits.
“We’ll show you how to run the throttle and you just follow the signals,” said train operator Mark Malik, who appreciated the location’s link to railroad history. “We really enjoy being here.”
Pullman volunteers also were on hand to help out.
Tom McMahon, a longtime volunteer with the Historic Pullman Foundation, helped organize the event and oversee the trains. He said the event started out as a way to entertain local children and reinvigorate a love for model trains.
“It’s blossomed into this display … we realized everyone loves trains at Christmastime,” said McMahon, who has lived in Pullman for decades with wife Cindy McMahon, another volunteer with the HPF. “The families come to see it and the kids who’ve never seen model trains up close, their faces light up.”
McMahon said though the model train hobby seems to have tapered off in recent years, he hopes interest is coming back — and with it, an appreciation for Pullman’s history.
“We connect the history of Pullman through model trains,” he said.
Michael McMahon, Tom McMahon’s son and another long-time Pullman resident, helped run the trains. He said they start set-up three days before opening the doors.
“It’s a great event to get people and kids out of the house, plus it gives us a good excuse to play with our trains,” he said. “We focus a lot on the vintage (trains from the 50s and 60s). Building it is half the fun.”
Youngsters Harry and Jake Everett, were having a ball conducting the trains. Ryan Everett, their dad, said it was a fun event for a Sunday morning.
“If we had the same thing at home, they might not want to play with it, but come somewhere else….”
Some families had also seen the movie “Polar Express,” without realizing the connection to the neighborhood until they came.
Director Robert Zemeckis grew up in Pullman, half a mile from the site of the event, explained Mike Shymanski, founding member and past president of the Bielenberg Historic Pullman House Foundation, as he showed off the blow-out pictures from the movie. “He sent his designer (Doug Chiang) back here to be inspired.
“Santa Claus comes out of the Clock Tower Building,” he said of a scene in the movie.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.