By Jamie Parker
Coastal Senior

Jamie Parker photo
Lou Sommers plays with toy trains and works on big ones

If you go Coastal Rail Buffs 16th Annual Model Railroad and Train Show Jan. 15-16, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. National Guard Armory 1398 Eisenhower Dr. Savannnah General Admission - $4 Senior citizens and students - $3 Children under 12 with parents-free

Fifty years ago as many as 80 trains a day passed through this area but it wouldn't be for long. Not only were the number of trains soon to drop but parts of what once were major parts of railroading - local passenger service and cabooses would too soon be gone, and are now almost forgotten.

Steve Goodman must have something like that in mind when he wrote "this train's got the disappearing railroad blues" in his song "The City of New Orleans" about the passing of the glory days of railroads.

Today nowhere near 80 trains pass through here and not one of the ones that do have a caboose at the end. But you can see all that and more if you attend 16th Annual Model Railroad and Train Show January 15 and 16 at the National Guard Armory in Savannah.

Both serious, and longtime collectors, as well as newcomers to the hobby, will find trains and track, supplies and lots of ideas at this year's show, according to Rail Buffs' President Ken Huffman.

Though this year's show will not be quite as large as last year's due to moving back to the National Guard Armory from Savannah Mall the quality of the show will be as good or better than ever. And even though there will be a few less exhibitions this year to allow as many vendors as possible to participate; all scales will be represented, from tiny N scale, to HO, S, O and G scales.

One of the model train displays at the show will be Lou Sommers 30' x 40' N scale layout. N scale is quite small. However Sommers uses N scale's small size to his advantage to run as many as three trains at once, one a 78 car coal train. His layout includes farm land, a village, tunnels, an industrial area, a town with a working passenger station five tracks wide as well as two railroad yards.

Sommers started model railroading when he was a kid but gave the hobby up when he went to college. Twelve years later he returned home to find his dad had saved his old trains. Sommers brought them home, built a new layout and has been hooked ever since. "I just like running trains," he says. " There's something about trains that's appealing to me."

That appeal is not just a hobby however it's Sommers day job too. He is Master Mechanic Diesel at the Roundhouse Railroad Museum in Savannah. He laughs as he says he got title because, "I rebuilt a diesel locomotive and it ran," almost as if that result surprised him.

Proceeds from the event fund projects of the Coastal Rail Buffs at the Roundhouse Railroad Museum, where the club also maintains two model railroad layouts as part of the historic site's interpretation of Savannah's railroad heritage.

Plus the show is an excellent way for parents and children to explore the hobby, learn about the different scales and choose a level of modeling in which to become involved.

If you haven't paid much attention to model railroads recently as soon as you walk in the door you'll see that the hobby today has come a long way from the simple ovals of track that were so popular in the 1940s and 1950s.