WESTLOCK - On Saturday, Dec. 7 and Sunday Dec. 8 from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. the Northern Alberta Freemo Group will showcase their elaborate model train landscape at the Westlock Tractor Museum.
“It is really wonderful that the Freemo Group is coming to the museum to share their setup with the Westlock community,” said Barb Kostiw from the Westlock Tractor Museum.
“We have a great facility here and we look forward to people stopping to visit this feature attraction.”
The topographical setting includes working lights, a grain elevator, a treacherous bridge to cross and track loops that intricate miniature trains manoeuvred over the course of the day.
“Come and see a large-scale layout with modules from club members with a variety of scenes," said Grant Sterling, member of the Northern Alberta Freemo Group.
"There will be things ranging from a large canyon, long bridges and small-town scenes.”
These miniature trains run around the custom tracks traversing the designed landscape.
Details on the trains are so exact that it is hard to believe that they can make these train cars so small and so accurate.
Sterling worked for the railways years ago and Sterling’s parents are from the Clyde area with family in Westlock and Barrhead.
Club members say that the best parts of these showcases are that they get to meet so many people who share their train stories.
Many share their knowledge of when they worked on trains, offering ideas how to improve the exactness of the model train setup which the group appreciates.
“One lady from the Brule area near Hinton explained that before the highways were built, they would take the train into Jasper to go to the hospital,” said Julian Lengauer, Leader of the Northern Alberta Freemo Group when in Barrhead on Aug. 24.
“We love trains and have from childhood on. We also love sharing our collection because it's a little bit of art and a little bit of science,” said Lengauer.
