Gordon Lind

For USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

APPLETON - If you’ve been to Pierce Park or Jefferson School, you’ve glimpsed my model railroad.

If you’ve been to the History Museum at the Castle, you’ve walked where my little people walk. If you’ve jogged across the river on the Old Oneida Street Bridge and seen the city dam, you’ve seen what I see on my model. If you’ve been to Fratello’s Riverfront Restaurant (Vulcan Hydroelectric Power Plant) or to the Paper Discovery Center or Atlas Coffee Mill (Kimberly Clark Atlas Mill) and seen and heard a train rumble past, you’ve seen and heard something of my Fox River Railroad.

Actually, the model railroad is in the basement of my Appleton home. Over the last 16 years I have built an N Scale (1:160) U-shaped, walk-in layout designed by Neenah architect and model railroad designer Stanley Bye, who died in 2015. Stan drew blueprints for the tracks, roads, river and major buildings representing Appleton of the early 1950s.

The History Museum at the Castle in Appleton helped me locate photos of the industrial flats in the early 20th century, as well as Sanborn Maps, which describe building composition. The Appleton Public Library directed me to 1950s maps of the city.

The layout is topographically correct, rising 80 scale feet from the flats to Pierce Park – from 710 to 790 feet above sea level.

My friend, Will Haack, a longtime Appleton Area School District teacher and counselor, helped me build the four open-grid train tables and install the track lighting above. Will died in 2011, but he is memorialized in the name of one of the paper industry buildings on Grand Chute Island.

The era-specific trains I run are Chicago Northwestern and Milwaukee Road, trains run by digital control, so I can run two or three trains independently on the same track.

Trains travel long stretches from the flats to the residential park area to downtown – over one scale mile. My grandchildren often operate the sound system of horns, whistles, air release and brakes.

The principle of dioramas, or framed scenes, provides focal points for viewers. An example of this is recess at Jefferson School, framed by trees, a fence and Mason Street. I enhanced the sense of perspective by placing most details in the forward half of the layout and keeping smaller buildings and trees toward the rear. A sky blue backdrop wraps the layout.

This creative and satisfying project has been worth years of therapy for me – not cheap, but worth every penny.

Gordon Lind, 65, lives in Appleton and operates a model railroad in his basement. A retired United Methodist minister for 39 years, he has lived in Appleton for the past 20 years.