By Ruza Zivkusic
A MINIATURE wonderland is the reason why these men go missing from their homes every Thursday evening.
With sparkling eyes they watch their beloved trains cruise through a diminutive village – a model railway, which they and other members from the Sunshine Model Railway Club built.
Sunshine residents Joe Saliba and Ted Allen may have a childish hobby but it is an interest that keeps them young at heart.
Since forming the club 12 years ago they have picked up members from a new generation with the youngest being eight-years-old.
The club has grown into 35 members with most of them meeting weekly to build new railways and play with their toys.
But listening to the bells and whistles of a passing train is like music to the ears, Mr Allan said.
Every Saturday morning he finds his favourite observation spot in Sunshine and in Ardeer and waits for the trains to pass by.
He is so fascinated by locomotives that he once drove more than 5000km to hunt one down.
“I used to play with trains until I found cars and girls. But then when my son was two I bought him a train set and he hasn’t played with it yet because of me,” Mr Allan said.
He has more than 100 locomotives in his collection and has spent nearly $12,000 on the hobby over the past 20 years.
Mr Saliba, who watches the television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends to keep up to date in case his kids question him about the locomotives, said he’s just an average person but his wife thinks he’s “insane”.
“We had a return trip from our honeymoon from Brisbane to Melbourne. We had no money and that was the cheapest way to get home. It was a good trip, I enjoyed every bit of it,” Mr Saliba laughed.
This weekend the pair with other club members will be showing their models at Braybrook College.
It is a project that has taken more than two years to build and it displays a town with miniature buildings, animals and people.
The model train exhibition starts on Saturday from 9.30am to 5.30pm and finishes on Sunday 5pm.
For more information phone Joe Saliba on 9360 4125.
