BillLindau

Model Railroads

Store becoming famous for its vast model railroads
From The Post of Troy, August 2005
By Bill Lindau
ALBEMARLE, N.C. -- Even though fewer Americans than ever travel by railroads in their lives, very few can take their eyes off a model train in action. Jim Brown has used the upstairs room of his music store for that form of entertainment -- free.
J.W. Lowder, the “chief engineer” of the model train layout, can run to as many as 10 to 15 model trains chugging over Lionel, HO Gauge and other tracks on four to five different levels in the top floor of Albemarle Music Store. On Fridays, Saturday mornings and for special groups, both kids and kids at heart can visit the train room, and the only time you pay for anything is when you cave in and buy one of the train sets, model airplanes, race cars, ships and military vehicles. Kid-sized, pedal-operated autos are among the other items; one of these medal cars has the design of a World War I-1920s-era roadster.
The train room is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays, 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and by appointment at other times. The Albemarle Music Store is located on Main Street in downtown Albemarle. A statewide magazine and at least one TV station have produced features on the train room.
Brown’s father opened Albemarle Music Store in 1925, and Brown himself took it over in 1951. He began collecting model trains.
“Jim just collected these trains over the years,” Lowder said. “And every time one would go bad, he’d throw it in a box. And I said, ‘Why don’t I fix one or two of them up?”
And so the train room was created.
“We got all the trains that Jim has collected over the years and we restored them,” Lowder said, mentioning a recent development. “We got a new transformer and put a new track down and we sold every one.”
The train sets on sale start from around $100 and up. Engines, cars, pieces of track and other accessories can be sold separately. Their designs range from the first trains of the 1830s to today’s Amtrak trains. Replicas of the Polar Express, Crescent Limited, Southern Express, Santa Fe and the Pennsylvania and Ohio trains are among the most popular models, Brown and Lowder say. The various cars and engines range from an inch to three feet long. One of the layouts has a trolley, and one of the cars has a psychedelic theme, featuring the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
People of all ages have played with toy trains as long as they have traveled on real “iron horses”, Brown said. Rock star Neil Young is one of the more famous model railroad junkies. The Canadian recording artist loved them so much he once bought out the Lionel electric train company, Brown says. Young later sold the age-old business, which is known for its three-rail track.
Some of the trains on the layout have seen plenty of action. Sometimes the trains would run so long the plastic bodies of the cars melted, Lowder said. But he tries his best to keep them all repaired.
“I’ve glued (one of them) together so many times I don’t see how it even runs,” Lowder says.
There are two large tables in the center of the room, each with a transformer and controls for each set of tracks on one end. Two areas along the walls also have trains running. The “engineer” can operate the different railroads from one spot, viewing the trains on closed-circuit TVs overhead.
It may be easy for someone to get too close to the tracks and “derail” a train, but Lowder says he never has any collisions with trains unless small children fool with the trains, putting them on different tracks. He keeps the area supervised.
One of the other items, a flying model of a P-51 Mustang fighter plane from World War II, hangs overhead in one corner. With an estimated five-foot-long wingspan, the famous American aircraft hangs at an angle as if it were strafing a Panzer tank convoy. The store’s display of military aircraft is another big eye-catcher. One of the other flying models is a Messerschmitt BF-109, a German World War II fighter aircraft; this specific model has the design of the aircraft flown by Adolf Galland, with a yellow nose and emblem of an S on a medieval shield of the aircraft.
Galland (1913-1995), a veteran of the Battle of Britain, uttered one of the most famous quotes of World War II. When the British Spitfires were proving more than a match for the thousands of German bombers over England, Field Marshal Hermann Goering asked his Luftwaffe generals what he could do for them defeat the Royal Air Force.
“Get me some Spitfires,” Galland answered sarcastically.
The Albemarle store also features at least one flying model of the camouflaged Supermarine Spitfire, among others.
With the train room receiving its share of media attention, Lowder hopes the train room can attain status as a historic tourist attraction. He says he and Brown have been talking to Wade McSwain of the Stanly County Citizens and Visitors Bureau about acquiring that classification.
In the meantime, Brown, Lowder and company just sit back and watch all the faces light up as they watch the trains chug across the mini-countryside.
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Contact reporter Bill Lindau at blindau52@yahoo.com.

posted by Bill Lindau @ 8:23 PM