Samantha Stephens photo Trains pull up to the station.
By Samantha Stephens
November 09, 2011 2:00 AM
Bridging the generation gap with brightly colored "Thomas and Friends" model trains, Ralph Luby has been busier than Santa's elves while finishing a Christmas display for the Maine Mall.
Luby, a York resident, along with two of his friends and fellow model train enthusiasts, Dick Rubin, of York, and Dick Serreyn, of Michigan, created a six-train course.
"There will be the three Thomas trains, a Lionel train, a Circus train, and a big freight train with probably 25 cars," Luby said.
Rubin explained that the trains will run around the rotunda at the mall and offer children a mystical world to explore as they wait to see Santa.
"They have a live Santa Claus and he sits in the display. When they have all of these kids waiting to see Santa, they're not crying because they're happy watching the trains," Rubin said.
Capitalizing on Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends, Luby said younger generations are becoming interested in model trains through the popular cartoon and children's book character.
But for Luby, who has been interested in model trains since childhood, he most enjoys building.
"For me, it's the building part of it that's the fun. I never run the trains by myself unless I'm trying to find something wrong," Luby admitted. "The appeal of trains is no matter how many you have, you can run them all on the same track. You can't do that with model airplanes, you can only fly one at the same time. Or model cars, it's the same thing."
Taking his love of building model train tracks and applying it to the festivities of the holiday season, Luby also created a candy train for Halloween that served six-packs of peanut butter crackers to kids.
"This is all about fun," Rubin said. "It's all about candy, fun and local kids."
But Rubin said at the Maine Mall, and other displays, there's an element of teaching incorporated into model train displays.
"We try to show some of Maine life. Farming, a quarry, maybe a timber operation, so (viewers) can better understand what's going on in the state," Rubin said. "It's an involving process."
As for Serreyn, who flew from Michigan to help assist Luby and Rubin, he said he best enjoys the escapism of model train building.
"It's a good pastime. I get to share my layout with a couple of autistic kids who come over and play with them," Serreyn said. "You have a bad day, you go downstairs and play with the trains, and your worries go away."
And after a year of planning and a summer hard at work with the model train display, Luby is ready to carry on a tradition he enjoyed experiencing as a child.
"Years ago in Boston, Macy's had a big train display. That was the big thing at Christmas, you all went out to see the trains," Luby said. "A lot of people have trains they only bring out at Christmas. For some reason Christmas and trains mix, don't ask me why."
But whether it's a Halloween display for local York kids or constructing an elaborate six-train track for the Maine Mall, all three agree what constructing model trains is all about.
"It's all built around a smile," they said.
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