Great Train Show rolling into town

The Great Train Show will be rolling into Wichita this weekend, the biggest show of the year for local model-train enthusiasts.

The national traveling show will bring train collectors and dealers from throughout the country to Century II’s Exhibition Hall on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to catering to hobbyists, the show draws in children who can ride a train and play with layouts just for them.

It also brings back memories for the young-at-heart.

“It’s the adults in many cases maybe remembering when their parents or grandparents would have a train layout,” said Shari Shockey, president of the Wichita Toy Train Museum, which will have displays at the show. “Many people still put trains under Christmas trees.”

The show will feature thousands of toy and model trains from the leading manufacturers for purchase, as well as collectibles and, for children, Thomas the Tank Engine and all the supplies for their first layout.

The Great Train Show will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $9, which covers both days, and free for children under 12. Other features will include operating railroads of various sizes, railroad memorabilia, and demonstrations. People who have an individual collection or large collections to sell also can connect with dealers at the show, said Bill Grove, media liaison for the show, which is based in Illinois.

“There’s always new products that’ll be there with new displays,” Grove said. People also can buy used items.

Shockey said she and her husband love to be on the hunt not only for new trains but specific pieces such as a refrigerated car. “This is one of the excellent places” to shop, she said.

One of the toy train museum’s displays will be a rather uncommon American Flyer S gauge, and an O gauge layout that will allow children to press buttons that make accessories come alive as a train runs through it. The kids can make logs roll, dump ice or coal into rail cars, make the swings swing.

“Children are always delighted. With the onset of Thomas the Tank, that has really brought trains to life for children. And ‘Polar Express,’” Shockey said.

The train show also is known for its trademark sounds, said Claudia Rollstin of Garden Railway Gizmos in Wichita, who also will be at the show. The children make a lot of them: Some of the vendors carry wooden train whistles, and kids love to get them – and then blow, blow, blow them.

“But the trains have sounds,” Rollstin said. “A lot of them with the chug and the diesel sound, and (conductors will) blow the whistle every now and then to make it real.”

There are at least two local model-train shows in Wichita each year as well. The local division of the National Model Railroad Association had its show in early February.

A third show and swap meet, by the Wichita Toy Train Club that runs the museum, will be Sept. 26 and 27 at Cessna Activity Center, 2744 George Washington Blvd. The museum, at 130 S. Laura, is open the second and fourth weekends of every month, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. those Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. those Sundays.

Another local model-railroad group, the Wichita Area Garden Railway Association, has its annual garden-railway tour in September.

This story was originally published March 5, 2015 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Great Train Show rolling into town."