URBANA — Lincoln Square Mall, home of the Urbana Winter Farmers Market, is already a bustling place on Saturdays. This weekend, the vendors peddling their baked goods, house plants and arts and crafts, and the musicians bellowing from their saxophones and harmonicas, were joined by dozens of tables of railroadiana — railroad memorabilia.
One person set up amid the chaos was Kevin Brown, a member of the Farmer City-based Illinois Heartland Model Railroad.
“I really like this show because it also has the farmers market going on for the first part of Saturday, and it’s a whole different group of people,” Brown said. “It’s not just train enthusiasts; it’s people from everywhere that wouldn’t normally come to a train show that walk by, and hopefully we can connect to people like that.”
Brown and the IHMR were there to showcase their 1:160, N-scale set up. The display consisted of various members’ individual sections of track, which fit together like a puzzle. Brown’s portion included several flying saucers, which drew the eye of passersby.
“I like dealing with the people, the public. There’s a lot more train nuts out there than you’d think. They all tend to show up at things like this,” Brown said.
The annual event is organized by the Illinois Terminal Division, the local chapter of the National Model Railroad Association. ITD Superintendent Mike Lehman said that beyond taking advantage of the already crowded mall, another key in attracting people is the event’s cost, or lack thereof.
“It’s free. There’s very few free train shows anymore. Of course, this is Urbana and we like to keep things free,” said Lehman, alluding to the Urbana Free Library.
While some tables presented elaborate model train displays, others boasted a variety of model railroading equipment and railroad paraphernalia for purchase.
One seller was Joe Tillman, an electrical engineering instructor at Eastern Illinois University who said he’s been involved in model railroading for over 40 years.
“I’ve got too much stuff. As George Carlin would say, you got to have a place for your stuff. [I’ve got to] get rid of it. So I’m thinning out a little bit of my collection,” Tillman said.
Tillman was selling a wide variety of model rolling stock at his modest table. He said that not all of his customers are collectors; some are people looking for a sentimental token of a family member.
“Here in Champaign, a lot of people will come in and their grandfathers or their great-grandfathers worked for the railroad. I had one gentleman come in today and look at a particular locomotive, and his grandfather worked for that particular railroad, and he just wanted that locomotive to have some connection with his grandfather,” he said.
That family connection is one of the reasons that Brown first got started with the hobby.
“My dad was a railroad man when I was a kid, and he had model trains. Every time there was a train wreck anywhere near, we would go in the car and go there. So, I’ve been around trains my whole life, and it’s just a fun hobby,” Brown said.
Today, with the number of local train shows decreasing, according to Brown, there are less opportunities for railroad enthusiasts to show off their work.
Despite this, Tillman is optimistic for the future of model railroading, and hopes the next generation can keep the hobby chugging along.
“What I’m seeing now is a lot of college students and junior and high schoolers are beginning to get into [model railroading]. They’re buying just a few pieces, and they’re doing kind of minimal railroading, but they’re getting into the hobby,” Tillman said.