Model train dioramas just fill me with inexplicable pleasure.
I realized this in Kyoto, Japan last year, when I visited their incredible train museum. I kind of lost track of time when I found their interactive model train area. It hit me again when I went to the Alameda County Fair this summer and went to their model train exhibition area.
Yesterday I got a major dose of model train dopamine at the Carquinez Model Railroad Society open house, about an hour north of SF. A massive, two-story installation is crammed with miniature recreations of local cities and towns, from Oakland to Sacramento and beyond.
Trains of all sorts meander through the landscape, from modern Amtrak ones to BART cars, to classic steam trains. I was just agog at it all, craning my eyes to take in as much detail as I could in each scene.
This mountain scene just left me feeling calm but also tingly with pleasure after a few minutes of observation. I can’t really describe it.
At one point, one of the train society members noticed me gawking at his classic steam locomotive.
“Want to give it a spin?” he asked me.
“More than anything,” I replied.
He showed me how to control the tiny train from an app on his phone. You could of course control the speed with a slider, from 0 to maximum speed. You also had various sound effects you could trigger, including a whistle and a horn, that I got a huge kick out of.
I drove the locomotive all through one entire floor, careful to slow down on curves and at local stops. A tiny wisp of smoke puffed from the smoke stack. So much fun.
I reluctantly gave him back the controls when we were back at the start.
Why are trains going around a series tracks again and again so satisfying to watch? I think it’s this combination of freedom and order. Freedom that each train conductor has to drive their individual locomotive combined with the orderly structure of the rail system that ensures that the whole thing operates smoothly. It’s an elaborate dance of tiny machines moving so fast, sometimes just a couple of centimeters away from each other, and then racing off in different directions.
And the dioramas! These miniature environments are full of such life and motion. There’s a quiet, calm order to them. You see tiny people just going about their business, riding in the passenger cars, waiting on the platform, fishing off a pier, watching a drive-in movie, having a barbecue, enjoying a local carnival. It’s a snapshot of an imagined community that functions in harmony. And that’s just mesmerizing to me to watch in action.
It’s not dissimilar to the pleasure I get visiting a theme park. Both of them are a type of virtual world, an imagined reality that is close to our own, but a little bit better.
I don’t really have time, money or space for another hobby. But in a different lifetime, I could imagine being a big model train nerd. For now, I have to satisfy myself with visiting places like the Carquinez Model Railroad Society.
