William Miles wasn’t happy with his second-place finish two years ago during the annual Christmas decorating contest at Newark City Hall.

He figured he’d be a cinch to win in 2018 with an intimate display that would incorporate his childhood passion for trains.

Miles, however, missed the competition when he got carried away working on his creation. It’s a good thing he did. What he came up with instead is more valuable than first place. It shows how deeply Miles loves the city where he was raised.

Spread across a table four feet wide and six feet long, Miles built an elaborate, detailed model of Newark life, featuring historical landmarks, NJ Transit and Amtrak trains zipping through tunnels and the city’s landscape.

“My mind took me in another direction," said Miles, a project coordinator for the city’s construction official in the engineering department. “If I had a larger table, I would have gone a little bit further."

His vision is something to see underneath a fiberglass enclosure on the first floor in city hall.

Weequahic and Branch Brook parks are landscaped with shrubs, trees and cherry blossoms. There are replicas he assembled of prominent buildings, including the Prudential Insurance Company, 744 Broad Street and the Newark Public Library, which has an added fixture. On its roof are small signs with the mascots of Newark high schools.

“I want kids to realize that you can do anything in this world if you put your mind to it," Miles said.

In the center of the display is Broad Street, with several miniature city vehicles and a model NJ Transit bus traveling along the major artery he made. Decorative street lights that work line the corridor. Police vehicles sit on top of two bridges that resemble sections of the Pulaksi Skyway.

There are murals and graffiti sprinkled around for flavor. He didn’t forget anything in this tribute. Billboards that Miles made contain images of Queen Latifah and Shaquille O’Neal, who are natives contributing to Newark’s redevelopment with residential buildings. Past mayors Kenneth Gibson and Sharpe James share a billboard as well. Current Mayor Ras Baraka has his own space above Whole Foods, too.

Miles said he didn’t intend to build something this large and intricate when he started. But he kept adding to it, making the exhibit bigger whenever he’d pass something in the city that caught his eye.

An overhead view of the Newark model created by William Miles, a city resident. (Barry Carter)Barry Carter

“I said ‘I’m going to do this project for the city," Miles said.

Newark Liberty International Airport has a spot. So does a row of mom and pop stores, a food truck and another billboard with the names of Newark breweries and department stores.

Before he knew it, the calendar flipped to January.

Miles was still in design mode, not knowing what he would do with his production.

March arrived and his artwork still didn’t have a home, except where he built it at Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Newark. He is a member there and spent three months and about $1,500 putting it together in the basement.

Only a few people knew about it. He’d send pictures of his ideas to Lillian Washington, but the retired Newark employee said she didn’t realize how big it was until he invited her and his fourth-grade teacher to see it at the church.

“It made me so proud that someone would take an interest to that degree, that he would put Newark out there like that," Washington said.

There’s a lot to look at with each gaze. Positive messages are attached to street signs. Birds and butterflies blend into green space. Construction equipment demolishing the old Carlton Hotel shows progress. His skyline is a pictorial of other Newark attractions.

Audrey Berger, his fourth grade teacher and her husband Rick were floored when they saw it at the church.

“He is something else,” Audrey Berger said. “I never saw this side of him." Rick Berger said Miles crafted a “permanent documentary of Newark” with love.

It speaks to his penchant for hobbies, something he says young people today don’t do enough of in the digital age.

As a kid growing up in Stella Wright, a former Newark housing development, Miles was fascinated taking apart radios and toy cars. But nothing rang his childhood bell like the sight of a train. When he walked to his grandmother’s house on 18th Avenue, Miles said his sister would have to hold his hand to keep him from jumping on the train that rolled by at rail crossings.

“I was a fanatic," Miles said. “To see a big piece of metal on a track was just amazing."

Amazing doesn’t even describe how he transformed his passion.

The word reached Mayor Ras Baraka, who had Miles display his creation during his State of the City address at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Miles is not sure how long it will be at city hall or where it will be next.

“I want it to be somewhere where people are going to appreciate it," he said.

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Barry Carter may be reached at bcarter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@BarryCarterSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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