Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association preps for ninth annual model train home tour
Superman has been compared to a bird or a plane, but he's associated with trains at Rob Enrico's Hempfield home.
Those who enter his basement during the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association's ninth annual model train home tour May 20 can look for a miniature Man of Steel emerging from a phone booth. It's just one of the details Enrico has included in his elaborate O-scale railroad layout, which depicts locomotives at a quarter-inch to the foot.
"It's a little whimsical thing to spruce it up," he said. The layout features realistic elements such as a now-defunct brewery.
Enrico's display provides a snapshot of portions of the Monongahela Division rail line, between Pittsburgh and West Brownsville, during the summer of 1970 — shortly after the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads had merged to form the Penn Central. Close-up photos he's taken of the layout have won numerous awards and have fooled many into believing they're images of a full-size railroad.
He's invited hundreds to view his handiwork, on two previous Ligonier Valley tours and on visits by organizations such as the Train Collectors Association, which will arrive in June.
He recalled how one woman marveled at a tiny fire hydrant he'd placed near the tracks. "That's what it's all about. That's worth it right there when you spend the time to do that and someone notices it," he said.
Beginning in 1992, Enrico spent more than two decades developing the layout while also operating his family's Jeannette bakery. Then, "I hit a wall," he said of the model construction. "I was getting burned out. It became like work."
So he switched tracks and took out of storage the O-scale Lionel trains he and his father used to set up during Christmas holidays. He's since been adding to his collection of postwar Lionel rolling stock and Plasticville buildings, which line the walls of a second room at his home.
"There are memories here," he said. "It's what we grew up with."
The upcoming tour also will revisit Henry Sobota's O-scale layout, which was included among the 2014 stops. This year, tour participants will be able to walk completely around the 160-square-foot layout, which has been reconfigured to take advantage of a larger space in Sobota's new home near Youngwood.
Sobota's model of a Pennsylvania Railroad town from a bygone era is a work in progress. The tracks and major buildings are "laid out like I want them, but the landscaping still has to be done, and I have to put the roads in and the lighting in the buildings," he said.
A retired Hempfield Area School District elementary school teacher, Sobota has had a lifelong interest in trains. He grew up near the rail yard in Youngwood, and both of his grandfathers worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
"I'm a collector," Sobota said, adding, "I buy trains to run, not to sit in a box."
Embracing modern technology, he uses either a remote control or a smartphone app to adjust a train's direction and speed. He can trigger sound effects ranging from the "clickety-clack mode" to a warning whistle or the conductor's call for passengers to disembark.
Sobota strives to have his models accurately reflect the area's rail history and is open to insights he may gain from this year's tour participants.
"I'm looking forward to it. I'm still learning every day," he said.
The self-guided model railroad tour includes stops at Brady's Train Outlet in Greensburg, which will offer discounts that day to those with tour tickets, two homes in Latrobe and the Goodwill Hose Company's Huber Hall on Latrobe's Alexandria Street. Featured at the hall will be O-scale and smaller N-scale layouts, Lego and GeoTrax trains, vintage photos and a Ligonier Valley Rail Road sales table.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6622, jhimler@tribweb.com or via Twitter @jhimler_news.
