Remember that model train you got as a kid? Relive the moment at this Beaufort exhibit

Though the old freight lines no longer run through to Port Royal, it’s the time of year where you can still appreciate trains — even if its on a much smaller level.

When the lights are flashing and the engines are purring, it means the normally tranquil Beaufort Branch Library downtown is hosting the Beaufort Railroaders and their 25th annual exhibit.

“We love the kids and put on the display because there’s a kid in all of us,” said Larry Kay, a Beaufort Railroaders member and 14-year veteran of the exhibit.

Through Saturday, would-be engineers of all ages can enjoy the N, HO and G-gauge trains club members have assembled. That generally means moving all the sets from garages and into truck beds for transport to the library. There, setup includes ensuring the electrical wiring is functioning and the digital command controls are operational.

While it takes a team effort to put all the scales and models together, the result is always worth it. You can get bogged down in all the different gauges and technicalities, but the general public generally seems to just enjoy the nostalgia.

Where else, besides the myth of Mussolini’s Italy, do the trains always run on time?

Where else, even if its temporarily, can you walk in and be transported to a different place and time, an ideal world of continuous carousel rides and parades and Christmas tree forests?

Where else is it perpetually 1939, with “Gone With The Wind” playing endlessly in the theater?

For Kay, as with many train enthusiasts, it started in childhood with a Lionel train set. That memory still guides him. While he has learned to deal with the humidity and wildlife that destroyed his visions of an outdoor train layout, he retains a passion for a hobby that evokes a bygone era.

“Now you can go to Savannah or Charleston from Beaufort and not see a single train, but there’s still a child’s instinct in all of us,” said Kay. “It’s amazing that young kids always seem to have interest.”

Fellow Beaufort Railroader Jim Nicholson agrees.

“It’s good for the community to reminisce,” said Nicholson. “We all remember the basic tracks that go around the Christmas tree.”

For Nicholson, who received his first Lionel set when he was barely a year old, it’s a “labor of love” that he’s passed on to his own son and grandson and now shares with all of us each Christmas.

So despite the lack of actual trains, the models serve as a great substitute for children who need to see a world beyond video games and computer-generated, effects-laden movies.

Oddly, it’s the generic display common to all scales that is perhaps most memorable. None of the sets at the exhibit are based on any particular place, but rather, as Nicholson says, “some place in everyone’s heart.”

It’s nice to know, in 2017 of all years, that place still exists for us in Beaufort.

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 12:25 PM with the headline "Remember that model train you got as a kid? Relive the moment at this Beaufort exhibit."