Lone Star Hi-Railers to hold first train fest model train show, swap

The Lone Star Hi-Railers model railroad club will hold its first Train Fest Model Train Show and Swap Meet on Saturday.

The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Grapevine Founder’s Building, located across from the Cotton Belt Depot at 701 S. Main St.

Train Fest is free to the public to buy, sell and swap model trains of all gauges.

“All table spaces have been filled, so there will be plenty of model train paraphernalia available to collectors,” said Mike McLintock, club president of Lone Star Hi-Railers.

The Cotton Belt Depot is the location of the Grapevine Vintage Railroad, which features weekly excursions to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Attendees may also visit the Lone Star Hi-Railers’ hi-rail O-gauge model train layout built inside an authentic vintage baggage car and located less than one block from the Cotton Belt Depot at 410 W. Dallas Road. The exhibit is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children ages 3 to 12 and free for ages 2 and under.

The project, which was begun several years ago and opened to the public in 2013, was undertaken by the model club, which invested about $26,000 in materials and hundreds of hours of volunteer labor. Members built the highly detailed structure with scale models of many of Grapevine’s iconic and historic buildings, including a replica of the Grapevine concrete grain elevators and a scale model of the club baggage car.

The layout also includes a long series of late-1800- and early 1900-era buildings in historic downtown.

“We tried to include as many building as we could that would give the look and feel of the city’s historic Main Street,” said McLintock, who served as head of the scenic committee.

For McLintock, it was a labor of love.

His father was a toy buyer for a Champaign, Ill., department store, and many of his early gifts were of trains.

“My father said he never gave a gift that changed anyone’s life as much as those trains did mine,” McLintock said.

McClintock joined the club because he loves trains and wanted something more meaningful than just the fun of watching his “run around in circles.”

“There’s a lot of talent here, a lot of knowledge,” he said of the club. “And I’d like to bring that to the next generation.”

McLintock’s contributions include constructing and painting a hand-carved mountain that towers 4 feet over the project. The mountain was inspired by one in West Texas and includes three train tunnels and working oil wells.

The layout also features two rail yards and working wind turbines.

The layout has three independent tracks allowing members to run up to six long trains simultaneously. Members can also run their trains with state-of-the-hobby handheld remote control devices. Many of the trains emit smoke and have realistic lighting and built-in sounds of horns, bells and voices of the engineers and tower personnel.

A target audience is children, so low-set buttons allow youngsters to get involved such as making music come out of the diner.

“One girl hooked her teddy bear over the front rail,” McLintock said. “She was enthralled. A little boy started crying because he didn’t want to leave.”

For information about Train Fest or the Lone Star Hi-Railers, visit www.lonestarhirailers.com or contact Mike McLintock at mamclintock@verizon.net or 214-693-0258.

For information about the Grapevine Vintage Railroad, visit www.GVRR.com.

For additional information about Grapevine or Grapevine’s events, call the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau at 817-410-3185 or visit www.GrapevineTexasUSA.com.

This story was originally published March 2, 2015 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Lone Star Hi-Railers to hold first train fest model train show, swap."