Model train builders to display trolley, railroad at national convention

There’s no room for a car in Gary Quale’s Lynchburg garage. A replica trolley car takes up most of the space.

And not just any trolley car. Quale built this one by hand. Inside, it features a three-dimensional, 1940s Main Street with an operating trolley system and streets filled with people, cars and trees.

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Today, they will load the trolley into a truck for transit to the National Model Railroad Convention in Connecticut, where it will be displayed from July 5-11.

The trolley car was built to scale and is roughly one-third the size of the early 20th-century mode of transportation used in many American cities, including Lynchburg. It measures 7 feet long, 5½ feet tall, and 3½ feet wide.

Quale and Riley, also of Lynchburg, hope their project stands out among the expected 50 displays at the convention.

The trolley’s detail is striking. It has functioning headlines, for example, as well as a “brake line” running alongside the windows that passengers would pull to alert the driver of an upcoming stop. A broom handle serves as the trolley pole connecting the car to overhead electric wires.

“A lot of this is imagination,” said Riley. “With the imagination you can build this with what you have at hand.”

Riley is the director of marketing for Railroad Model Craftsman, a magazine for hobbyists. That connection provided many of the materials for free used to make the three-dimensional trolley layout, as it became a demonstration project for the products.

The magazine also is financing the trolley car’s tour from the convention to an additional five cities.

“It’s become part of our marketing approach to expose rail models to as many people as possible,” Riley said.

He is also trying to promote trolley layouts, which have a smaller niche. He estimates 200,000 people will see the trolley and its interior model by the end of the tour.

Though Riley describes himself as “in the business,” his job was not his only motivation.

He enjoys the problem solving involved and the ability to “recount the past even in 3D.” Children, he said, easily understand this format.

He often sees “kids three or four deep around the layout” at conventions. “Children are fascinated by it.”

Quale, a member of the local chapter of National Railway Historical Society, said that he has loved trains since childhood, when he would spend hours watching them from a front window in his family’s Chicago apartment.

He joked his parents didn’t even need a babysitter, “I’d just watch trains all day long,” he said.

Quale also has a railroad running through his lawn and underneath his porch called the “Dogwood and Birdbath railroad line” since it “runs from the dogwood tree to the birdbath.”

His wife Kathy said he really enjoys model railroads and his hobby has been an outlet n his retirement. “It keeps him out of trouble,” she laughed.

Recalling their first date, she said, “(Trains were) all he talked about.”