A miniature train city

Stepping inside the train room of the Central Operating Lines Model Railroad Club in Bohemia, it’s not unusual for visitors’ jaws to drop in amazement as they become giants inside an elaborately laid-out train-oriented city.

An otherwise unassuming warehouse building at 50 Carlough Road in Bohemia is the current home for Central Operating Lines, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and brings together rail enthusiasts of different ages and backgrounds with a shared love of model trains.

“It’s like an oasis,” said Central Operating Lines member Walter Metz, “You want to get away, just take a break from the real world, and just enjoy the miniature world. It’s kind of a combination of fellowship with the members and sharing a love for the trains.”

Inside the train room, four tracks twist and turn around the hand-built displays, ranging from a midtown-Manhattan-inspired cityscape, to a Coney Island-themed amusement park, and rural, wild-west looking communities.

In “Midtown,” a towering model Empire State Building with King Kong on top hovers over Grand Central Terminal and then the Pan Am building. A subway line runs under Grand Central and a tunnel for the larger “O Gauge” trains that operate across the warehouse.

The four tracks meet at a central station located adjacent to an amusement park reminiscent of Coney Island, which stands beneath a skyline partially made up of buildings from Lower Manhattan. When the warehouse lights are shut off and a certain switch is flipped, a lightning storm using LEDs on the walls strikes the city, with its buildings glowing in the dark.

Across the room, a rural community fitted with men hanging around vintage cars near a gas station and a trestle bridge straight out of an old western movie sit below a ski village the group recently constructed, and plans to expand for one of their next projects.

Each of the roughly 45 members of Central Operating Lines brings their own locomotives and train cars, with many members having preferences for freight or passenger trains, including vintage Long Island Rail Road diesel trains from the mid-20th century.

For member Augie Montalvo, who’s been into model trains since he was 10 years old and was previously a member of a train club based in Dix Hills, the Central Operating Lines caught his attention the moment he spotted the group’s large red bridge that connects model subway cars from the 1960s along the warehouse perimeter between the midtown section, to the other metropolitan portion of the display.

To members like Montalvo and Metz, model trains have been a lifelong passion, explored during different parts of life but ingrained in them during their childhoods.

“Many of the fellows here… received trains for Christmas gifts when we were kids,” Metz said. “It’s an old story: you get them when you were kids, your parents put them away and take them out at Christmas time, put them around the tree. And then at some point, [for] many guys, their interest would be rekindled for whatever reason… [like showing the trains] to my grandkids, and all of a sudden you just get interested in it again.”

While members control their locomotives at their own transformer boxes near the central amusement park station, many model train members use modern upgrades such as Bluetooth controls, unlike the original Lionel trains from the mid-20th century.

But playing with and appreciating trains aren’t the only duties of Central Operating Lines. The model train club has given back to the wider community through food and toy drives and holds open-house events, inviting the public to learn more about railroad history through intricate displays.

Members say open houses around the holiday season have sometimes filled the room with hundreds of people visiting throughout the day.

Central Operating Lines is also hosting a series of model train and toy swap meets at Amvets Post 18, 141 Carleton Avenue in East Islip, where attendees can buy and sell new and vintage toys, including model trains, tanks, planes, ships, slot car racing items, and more. The train and toy swap meets are happening almost monthly from 8 a.m. to noon at the Amvets Post, with upcoming swap meets on March 22 and April 12.

Through these swap meets, Central Operating Lines can put resources into expanding their growing city.

Central Operating Lines encourages model train enthusiasts of all ages to stop by, and among its many members, no matter the age, a feeling of childlike wonder fills each member as they watch their train pass by.

“It makes me feel like a kid again,” said incoming member Richard Mestousis.

To learn more about Central Operating Lines, visit coltrains.com.