Rhenn Zumwalt, 4, watches a miniature freight train pass through a miniature town layout during the Train Show and Open House ...

Dale Desser, of Erie, doesn't want visitors to simply watch his spectacular model railroad. He invites people to operate it.

But children had special reason to love trains. “Trains brought everything from visiting relatives to all the goods in town,” says Tony Cook, editor of Model Railroad News.

“Trains brought everything from visiting relatives to all the goods in town,” says Tony Cook, editor of Model Railroad News. “The train under the tree maybe signals the path by which the ...