Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008

Trains fill void for man in search of hobby

by Clarke Davis

Galen Reichart was 11 years old in 1947 and was anticipating an electric train for Christmas.

Money was hard to come by and times were hard during the war years, but farmers had it a little better a couple of years later and a $20 gift was now possible.

He was with his dad on a trip to Topeka when he spotted a couple of trains in a store and let his dad know that that was what he wanted. His dad bought it and wrapped it up, but when they ran into his mother something happened. There was whispering and his dad took the train back. His mother had ordered one from Sears & Roebuck.

Photo by Clarke Davis

Galen Reichart with one of several train sets he has in his basement. This rural scene is enhanced with two barns made by his father back in the 50's

A few days before Christmas the catalogue company notified Mrs. Reichart that they were out of stock. Mr. Reichart made a special trip back to the capital city only to learn that the store was out of trains, too.

That Chrismas Galen received a tool box and some shiny new tools.

In 1960, after Galen was married and he and Joan

had started a family, his mother asked him what he wanted for Christmas.

“You know, I never got that train,” he told her.

This time he got his electric train and he and all six of their children got some enjoyment out of it until it was finally boxed up in the mid-1970s and put away for 30 years.

Last August the 72-year-old Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. retiree got that train out and set it up again. Then, shortly after Labor Day, the couple took a trip to Hannibal, Mo., and visited the Big River Train Store.

He was looking for a part that was broken on his old train but he left the store with a new train.

That was one year ago and since then he left other train stores with more new trains. And then there’s the train cars that come in the mail — a kind of train-car-of-the-month sort of thing.

“I used to be so tight and thrifty with money, but I never had more fun. I spent all winter in this basement putting all this together,” he said.

Joan hasn’t been left out. There’s a table with three tracks and two trains for her, also.

To the right of her table is a double decker with two trains on top and two below. A third table has a Christmas scene and a Rudolph train. There’s another train upstairs on the dining room table.

Stacked on the basement shelves are numerous cars for at least two more complete trains.

But there’s more to it than trains. Each table contains farm or city scenes with various buildings, some he made and some he bought. Two barns were made by his father back in 1956.

He crumpled up paper and used plaster cloth and paints to make mountain scenes and hills with archways for the trains to run through. A train came as a kit to put together but when he was finished it didn’t light up. So he took the tops back off the passenger cars and installed lights on the interiors.

The basement display contains four different sizes. Trains, he explained, come in five basic sizes from the really big G size to the tiniest, Z. The Reichart house contains O, HO, N, and ON. The trains double in size as they step up the letter sizes.

He has both passenger and freight trains and several different themes. Added to the Christmas train is the Moonlight Special, and a green Irish train.

“Those Chinese will make anything to get our money,” he said.

The only American made train is his original one given to him by his mother that is now on display at the town’s museum. The public can view it during open house Saturday.

Galen said the kids today don’t know about electric trains. The couple has several grandchildren and stepgrandchildren who have visited this new enterprise to find enjoyment.

Reichart is a native, born in the house he grew up in two miles north of Valley Falls. His parents, Elmer and Veryl Reichart, would always remind him that it was 115 degrees on Aug. 12, 1936, and people were wrapping themselves in wet sheets to get through the night.

He and Joan are loyal Lions Club members, but Galen was never able to find a hobby. He doesn’t golf or hang out at the casinos or follow the race cars.

But he’s got a hobby now and it’s almost like that Christmas so long ago when he thought he was going to get a train.

“I was walking in tall cotton,” he said.