In 1960, one item sat atop my Christmas wish list: a model train set. Somehow, Santa got the message. Waiting for me under the tree was a Lionel Trains starter set. It contained a forward-only ...

As kids for generations have done, Landon Tennant looks longingly at a streamlined Lionel Santa Fe engine as it chugs around a tiny display with houses, mountains and bridges at TrainLand, a hobby ...

Don Norman hopped over a snowy train track and onto a caboose outside the Toppenish Depot and the Northern Pacific Railway Museum. After taking photos for visiting families and a booming “All aboard!” ...

Mr. and Mrs. Claus greet 18-month-old Micah Lampman and his parents, Ralph and Noriko, on the way to the Northern Pacific Railway Museum's "North Pole" during the Toy Train Christmas event in ...

There are few toys as closely associated with Christmas as model trains. No one is sure how the tradition started, but for more than 100 years, people have been putting toy trains around Christmas ...

For some people, the aroma of Christmas is freshly baked cookies or a newly cut pine. For me, it’s the oily burn of my 71-year-old Lionel sparking across equally ancient tracks. The train is one of ...

This story was originally published February 12, 2020 in the South Bend Tribune. Model trains are more than just a hobby to many people. For the past 13 years, Jay Budzon and his business partner Len ...