More than a hobby:

‘It’s something you build forever’

NEWPORT — No model railroader ever completes a layout.

That includes Pete Scobby, 76, and a collector and builder of model railroads for 60 of those years. Fascinated by the steam locomotives that pulled coal past his house when he was a child, Scobby soon gained an interest in model trains — scaleddown versions of trains whose routes see cities all over the Pacific Northwest region he calls home. More than 1,000 model trains and thousands more tracks, figurines, structures and other accessories later, Scobby is still building.

His layouts spread throughout a warehouse on his property a few miles away from Newport.

“It’s something you build forever. You just keep building and building,” Scobby said. “You really never finish anything and if you do finish it, then you tear it all apart and start all over again.”

But model railroading, a hobby that has existed since the 19th century, is dying, Scobby said. Youth do not play with trains.

Books and magazines about trains are going out of print. Organizations of train hobbyists are losing members. And now tariffs have been imposed on imports from more than 90 foreign countries, where almost all model trains are made.

“There’s all these unknowns, and it would apply to anything with the tariff. Is it going to kill the hobby? I don’t know,” Scobby said. “[Model railroading is] already fragile.”

Scale modelers like Scobby are not the only ones whose hobby involves trains. Besides them, there are train collectors, toy train operators and even so-called railfans, whose interest lies with real trains and railroads rather than scale models or toys.

Wayne Antcliff, 64, identifies himself as an antique toy train collector. During the three decades he lived in Newport, Antcliff served as a member of the city council for 13 years, also holding positions on a few boards and commissions in the city. He can name most of the train hobbyists in both Pend Oreille and West Bonner County, and many were model railroaders.

“Scale modelers build scale everything, right down to the nuts and bolts,” Antcliff said. His own uncle used to model railroads himself with miniature HO-scale trains. “You’ll see a tiny little train car; they’ll spend $20 for the kit and $400 customizing it to make it into something that’s realistic with a magnifying glass.”

One layout of a model railroad can feature any number of train cars, tracks, figurines of people, structures or pieces of scenery such as trees, rock and streams, arranged on landform sculpted by the scale modeler’s hand. A closer look will reveal details to even a non-scale modeler: passengers pointing out the open windows of a train car, trees on a hill shifting in color with the seasons, tracks running over and through bridges and tunnels carefully recreated from memory.

The attic of Scobby’s warehouse is filled with such scenes. One module has a section of track where Scobby played as a child, sneaking onto train cars unloading tons of sand. Another has a train roundhouse, reminiscent of the one at Hillyard in North Spokane.

“These are just the ones

Scobby says he got his interest in model trains from watching real trains.

that are displayed, but not the ones that are boxed up,” Scobby said. He has hundreds more model trains and accessories in boxes stored within his warehouse. “So, this kind of keeps me moving.”

Of his decades-old collection, Scobby said at least 90% was partially or fully manufactured in a foreign country. That means thousands of model trains and accessories whose country-of-origin labels read that they were made in China, Japan, Korea, Germany — almost never the U.S.

Model trains have not been manufactured in the U.S. since around the 1960s. Before that, they were made by American manufacturers like American Flyer and Marx, whose model trains were “fairly rudimentary” and “crude as far as detail” compared to those of today, Scobby said.

By his high school years, most model train manufacturing had moved to foreign countries like Korea and Japan, which then exported model trains to the U.S. for distribution to American suppliers and consumers.

The only part of the process that occurs in the U.S. is the assembly of model train parts, Scobby said, which are still manufactured overseas.

After the move overseas, American model train manufacturers shut down their plants, and government agencies began to set stronger regulations for all manufacturers.

Prices on model trains and accessories were increasing for some time.

Helen Campilli, 100, is the owner of C’s Train and Antique Shop, the train hobby store closest to Pend Oreille and West Bonner

Counties and the only one around for miles. At 6222 Maine St. in Spirit Lake, Campilli gets customers from both counties, including Scobby himself. Like shops of her kind everywhere, Campilli sells fewer trains every year but she has yet to increase her prices under the tariffs — her supplier handles that, she said.

“Once [model railroaders] get their set-up made up, they always look at it and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to put [that], change that,’” Campilli said. She bought her husband his first train set in the 1950s. “That’s what they do, is make it better.”

Scobby and model railroaders all over the country continue to build. Their hobby allows them to spend time with loved ones, learn about history, economics and design, get creative. And above all, have fun, Scobby said. After all, a model railroader has yet to complete a layout.

“When you’re doing this, you’re not thinking about politics and family problems and all sorts of other things,” Scobby said. “You’re kind of lost in your own little railroad world.”

Pete Scobby, 76, of Newport inspecting one of his modules, a section of the model railroad he had laid out in the attic of his warehouse Thursday, Sept. 4, in Newport.