Adriano Oddi of Burke (Kindergarten at Nativity Catholic School) checks out the N Gauge electric train setup at the Fairfax Railroad Museum. Kent Smiley of Alexandria (right) with the Northern Virginia NTRAK model train club ran the station. Photo by Tim Peterson.
Adriano Oddi is 5, and he likes that he can control whether his trains “go fast or slow.” The Burke resident was mesmerized by an N gauge model train whirring around a handmade landscape, designed by the Northern Virginia NTRAK model train club to resemble local surroundings. Oddi and his family were inside the life-size caboose in front the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum for its 25th Holiday Train Show, held Dec. 6 and 7.
Model train clubs from around Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Maryland filled the museum with classic N, O, HO, Z and Standard gauge sets dating back to the 1920s. One track even circumscribed the outside of the building itself. The museum will host the Art Guild of Clifton running a train-centric painting workshop for kids on Dec. 14. For more information on events and the museum, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/FFXSRR.