Collectors and fans of toy trains will find plenty to do this weekend during the Rocky Mountain Toy Train Show.
Now in its 32nd year, the show has moved from its previous location at the Crowne Plaza in Aurora to the Denver Merchandise Mart for 2009. The new location offers double the space, allowing for additional booths, elaborate displays, and new exhibitors.
Serious collectors can find electric trains from the 1920s through the present, with some push trains and wind-up toys going back to the 1890s. Like most collectibles, value is determined by rarity, condition and attractiveness to collectors. There is also a very personal element involved with toy trains.
“In my case, I collect and operate the type of trains I had as a kid,” says Jim Marski, president of the Rocky Mountain division of the Train Collectors Association, which organizes the show. A lifelong collector, Marski has an entire room of his home dedicated to his trains and layouts. He received his first train set when he was 5 years old, an American Flyer “Silver Comet” set from the late 1950s. “I don’t have my original set, but I have a replacement of it,” he says. This vintage set is at the Conifer library, as part of a Christmas display. Marski visits the library on Mondays and Tuesdays to operate the train set during story times.
While some collectors seek vintage, rare, or specific types of trains, there is another camp of toy train aficionados.
These collectors are all about the operations. Modern toy train sets offer innovative, intricate electronics, sound and layout options. “There are unbelievable electronic control systems now,” Marski says. High-end sets feature automatic couplers — the pieces that connect cars and engines to each other — so that operators can switch train cars around from across the room. Elaborate sound systems offer personalized voice-recording options and sound effects. “You can easily spend thousands of dollars if you have the means,” says Marski.
However, the hobby is not necessarily expensive. Kids can happily play with a $10 toy push train, or simply enjoy some of the other fun entertainment options at the show. In addition to the many exhibits, kids can visit Santa or chug happily along the aisles in a ride-on train. An artist will be on hand to sketch lil’ engineer portraits, and the Kids’ Corner offers train races on an X-shaped layout, offering boisterous youngsters a chance to crash the toy trains all around. Visitors can also help with a build-a-layout activity, where an entire train layout — rails, scenery, and buildings — will be put together from scratch over the two-day weekend. Participants can enter to win the layout, including a brand new train set.
With added space and exhibits on hand, train lovers of all ages should be able to find plenty of ways to share the hobby. “For some people it’s the mechanical stuff, and there’s a certain association with travel to faraway places,” Marski says of why so many people are drawn to trains. “But for folks from my era, we still rode trains, trains delivered a lot of goods, and we all had toy trains as kids.”
The Rocky Mountain Toy Train Show is today and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Denver Merchandise Mart Expo Hall, 451 E. 58th Ave. Tickets for the two-day event are $8 for adults, $4 for ages 12-17, and free for kids 12 and under. rockymountaintoytrain
