The love of all things vehicular is the heart of Curbside Classic. While that is primarily a love of old cars out on the streets, trains and model cars show up here occasionally. What hasn’t been covered much are model trains. I’m confident this oversight isn’t due to a lack of interest, just a lack of subjects. Provided for your enjoyment today is a fantastic subject: a super-sized model train and diorama display I recently had the privilege of staring slack jawed at.
I’ve never been to a county fair before, unless you count the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo which is the defacto Harris County fair, though it’s not really county as it draws people and animals from the state and region. It does not have any model trains, sadly. I have been to the Arizona State Fair, which had in the 90’s a large model train display. It was nothing like this, though. I’ve seen a number of other model train displays, all cool in their own way, but this is by far the largest in my limited experience.
The Clay County Fair in Spencer, northwest Iowa, is the world’s greatest county fair* (*self-proclaimed, accuracy unconfirmed). I have no basis of comparison, but it was pretty great. I’ll share a few other Fair sights at the end for anyone interested, but the focal point for many CC readers would naturally be the sizable, unassuming, flat roofed building that is dedicated to scale railroading.
We were visiting family in the area in early September, unaware that it happened to be Fair Week. It was a happy coincidence, as we all had a fairly fun time. I would gladly have spent twice as long in the train building, in fact I practically had to be dragged away! But I’ll be grateful for what I got.
Note about photos: The web host CC uses has a limit on the size of photos published, so most photos are reduced to 1/2 or 1/3 of the original pixels. This isn’t a problem for the usual real world vehicles, but for a detailed miniature landscape like this, full size images are much better. So, you can click on the photos like normal and get a somewhat bigger image, but if you want the full Monty I included a link under each photo. Or you can go to the album in a separate window and see all the pictures, but they are not in the same order.
Starting from what I’ll call Corner #1, the pictures will go clockwise 360 degrees around the display, which estimated roughly 75 feet by 20 feet (actually 100 x 36 I just found out). I apologize in advance for any glare or poor focus. The display is wisely behind glass, so not ideal for photography.
There are parts that are clearly meant to represent sights around the area, but not the mountains unless there is some range in Iowa I’m not familiar with.
This is the only region experiencing winter. Not caught well by the camera is Santa Claus flying over the town (flying in a circle on wire suspended from ceiling).
As winter fades, the town transitions to a harbor.
This is the highlight of the harbor. The train cars dump their load through the grates and chutes drop it into cargo ships moored below.
Dividing the harbor is the control center, which didn’t photograph well (try to look through the reflections). The controls are extensive, though it’s pretty compact, with only space for a few Engineers.
Next is a rail yard. Also a small airport, so now with the harbor and the trucks plying the roads all modes of transport are accounted for even in this rail-centric simulated world.
Past the rail yard is a mining area that goes to Corner #2.
Corner #2 from the other direction.
Close up of the mining area. The bulldozer in the pit moves back and forth.
vehicles are not always religiously HO scale. The vehicles would be my only real criticism of the diorama, as they are a hodgepodge of eras, makes, and scales, bearing no relationship to any known reality. E.g. the 54-57 Mercedes 300 SL gullwing is probably the most common car throughout. I’d love to see a model railroad take the cars seriously.
Out of the mountain range flows a river which will run for most of the way on this side of the mountains, where there are naturally several communities.
This video gives a good idea of some of the active tracks and trains.
Corner #3 is a compacted representation of the Clay County Fair.
Tractor display fields at the Fair, which we will see more of later.
Next town.
Same town from the other direction.
Town transitions into an industrial area.
Check out the awesome bridge in the far background. Can you can spot Mt. Rushmore?
The refinery district looks like it could be on the east side of Houston (my town), known for its extensive petrochemical plants.
Past “East Houston” is a desolate oilfield landscape.
It ain’t pretty, but that crude oil for the refineries has to come from somewhere, doesn’t it? I love the polluted-looking water pit.
Note the variety of bridges in the background.
The next town looks like a happier place with its permanent parade running down Main Street.
On the near side of the tracks, a crew is busy building a new highway.
The happy town also has a drive-in movie theater.
The town pays its bills with grain and chemical storage facilities conveniently located next to rail lines, so the plentiful trains that run in the area can haul it to the other side of the mountain.
A quartet of bridges is in the background. Around the drive-in transitions to farmland.
Rural Iowa is represented with a cornfield and, in the 21st century, the obligatory wind farm.
The town in corner #4 has some impressive, stately buildings.
And a handsome public swimming pool.
Going around the mountain leads us back to Corner #1 and a complete change in weather with a different angle of the winter town.
Looking from corner #4, video of one of the trains and the functional windmills.
Back at corner #1, check out one more train. I was super-impressed by this petrochemical train. It’s the only model train I’ve ever seen that approaches realism in length and homogeneity. In the real world, when one sees a cross-country train, it often has only one type of car going past in a seemingly endless stream. I’ve never seen that in a model train to this extent. It has 77 cars including the three locomotives pulling and one pushing. On the drive home, I was able to count a couple of long trains, which had between 100 and 125 cars. So, pretty close for a model! Just needs graffiti.
Also in the train building, there was a 1:25 scale farm display. Lots of stuff to look at. The claim to fame, though, is a couple dozen or more very well done scratch built model tractors.
Including this line of vintage John Deeres.
Lots of farming implements, too. I’m not sure those are scratch built, but possibly.
From the miniature, to the gigantic, the Fair had you covered. Farmers and other tractor enthusiasts were treated to a huge tractor display. I won’t even attempt to show the extent of it, just give you a flavor.
An outsized Fendt Ideal combine harvester distorts one’s sense of scale.
I loved the coloring of the Fendt Vario tractors.
If the Fendt harvester was too much for you, a CaseIH Axial Flow 150 might be the one.
This is not your grandfather’s John Deere. Track tractors seem to be the new thing in extra large farm equipment. Nothing will stop you in a 9620RX.
There were lots of other attractions at the Fair, like rides, countless handsome animals, auto racing (not the day I was there), a horse/rider costume contest, pumpkins up to 725 pounds, and of course all variety of food available on sticks. I’ll just leave you with one entertaining sample:
A baby duckling water slide. I’ve never seen one of those before!
And finally, if you’ve made it this far and you’re somehow still interested, I can’t resist showing a clip of a magic show. The magician, Jared Sherlock, was quite good, but I loved it because my 9 year old daughter got to go up and assist him on stage.
Thank you for indulging me. The trick is impressive unless you figured out how he did it and I’m sure you found my daughter as adorable as I do. If you just have to see the other half of the video (it’s a pretty good trick), click thru to youtube.
Related reading:
Clay County Fair wikipedia site
I haven’t found anything online about the railroad or the club that maintains it.
Museum Classic: Okoboji Classic Cars – Where The Cars Are Not The Star Another Clay County attraction that I wrote up a few years ago. A full size diorama, if that’s a thing.
Great article! I would venture to guess a lot of older gearheads started as rail fans in their youth.
Though kids nowadays show interest in the displays, they’re more likely to build rail networks on their laptops (phones too small?).
FANTASTIC ! .
I have always loved model trains and layouts .
This particular one is extremely well thought out and built .
PLEASE NO GRAFFITI ! .
The Los Angeles County Fair Grounds in Pomona also have a large layout .
-Nate
WOW! Thanks for the treat. Tom
That’s fantastic. TY, Jon!
The idea that so many of the farm implements, trucks, motorhomes, etc. are “scratch-built” is impressive by itself, let alone the immensely detailed display.
That’s a big railroad. Also looks like it’s still DC controlled (most are now DCC controlled where instead of just power there is also a signal telling each locomotive what to do with the power) based on the control boards. The only other time I have seen that many MRC throttles in one place is the Northlandz layout in the NJ.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northlandz
This layout is interesting in that the fairgrounds owns it and seems to operate it with private companies https://www.smokymountain1947.com/history/history.htm
vs a club which is how many large railroads work like silk city MRR club near me. https://www.facebook.com/SilkCityModelRailroadClub/
Thanks for finding that website, glad to read a little history of the display.
Nice.
FWIW, the images on my laptop are exactly the same size when I click on the actual image (our hosted image) or the link to the Flickr page. The images we host top out at 1200 pixels width, which is actually pretty good in terms of physical size. But on a big monitor it might be a bit different.
BTW, the great majority of our readers use cell phones now, so it’s a rather moot issue.
Good point. It makes a big difference on a desktop or laptop, not as noticeable on a cell phone. I played around with it a little on my phone. The Flickr images are still higher resolution, but on my phone it doesn’t zoom very well on that site.
I love County Fairs, though our timing rarely works out so that we’re someplace when the annual fair is actually happening. Glad you got to enjoy your time at this one!
This train setup is incredible, both in size and detail. The swimming pool was a nice touch; I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a realistic-looking model pool. And I agree with you about a general lack of Car Realism in train models – it’s always the first thing I look for.
I enjoy looking at model scenes and trying to figure out what the actual buildings are. In this case, the town in corner #4 looked particularly interesting. Turns out the large structure is the main train station in Neustadt, Germany. Looks like the German modeling company Faller makes a kit of this building, which is likely where this example came from. Actual photo of the Neustadt Train Station (from Wikipedia) is below.
Thanks for sharing all these pictures, and the videos too!
Thanks! Nice research! Now I’m wondering how many of the buildings are replicas of real places.
The brown building with cream canopy on the opposite platform is Tri-ang, allegedly very loosely based on Chelmsford, Essex, England.
http://www.tri-ang.co.uk/OONew/newstation.htm
I agree with the remark about road vehicles, they can help set the place and period if done right or just look wrong to those in the know. It’s why I started scratch building some in the 1980s. Same goes for other details like posters, signs, etc.
I absolutely love large model railroad exhibits when I stumble across them. There’s a local 4-H fair in the town next to me, and while my kids were more attracted to the bunnies, chickens, and sheep (and the guy who always showed up with a trailer full of snakes), they did indulge the 30 minutes I needed to spend in the model railroad building.
One of the better ones I’ve seen lately is the one at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. https://www.msichicago.org/explore/whats-here/exhibits/great-train-story/ That one is also cool in how it incorporates mass transit (i.e., model CTA trains) and “runs” from Chicago to Seattle. Many of the buildings are also scale models of actual structures (in Chicago or Seattle).
I have to also admit to enjoying your video of the Duckling Slide. I’m not sure that the ducks are having as much fun as the observers…but it doesn’t seem all that bad (they being ducks…in water).
Re: duck disposition
There was some attitudinal disparity between the ducklings. Some appeared disoriented by the descent, trying to stop themselves or get enough traction to turn around. a.k.a. Dubious Ducks. Others looked like they took to it really well. They would zoom down head first like it was the best thing ever, then run up the ramp and head down again with no hesitation. a.k.a. Daredevil Ducks.
The Chicago exhibit looks fantastic. I’ll be that whole museum is fascinating. Too bad I don’t live near Chicago. I’ll put it on my list, though!
Just one word for this: Gorgeous !
That reminds me, I should visit the local model railroad club open house again. The Eastern Cascades Model Railroad Club in Bend has a substantial HO layout indoors and a 7 1/2″ gauge railroad line outdoors you can actually ride on including some live steam locomotives
Of course the absolute monster of 7 1/2″ gauge is Train Mountain in Chiloquin Oregon with over 30 miles of track