At 17, Spencer Pedri is a city planner, architect, engineer and train conductor. He also mows lawns for extra cash.
Pedri is a model-railroad enthusiast and builds scenery through which his electrically powered trains travel.
“I’ve been into it since I was a baby,” he said. “My dad got me involved with it. “
Pedri was one of hundreds of model- train enthusiasts staffing 45 exhibits at the Great Train Expo over the weekend in Denver.
About 70,000 people came to the National Western Complex on Saturday and Sunday to see model trains, shop for parts and accessories, and learn about the hobby, said event spokesman Nick Zorn.
Denver is the latest stop for the Great Train Expo, a traveling event featuring shows all across the country.
Visitors walked through two exhibition halls packed with elaborate displays of miniature cities and towns set in plastic and foam mountains, complete down to details such as traffic lights, gas stations and restaurants.
Among these landscapes rumbled model locomotives of all sizes, from the diminutive Z-scale models running on tracks hardly wider than a pencil to G-scale behemoths 10 times larger.
A big part of this expo of “the world’s greatest hobby” were seminars and workshops on topics such as the fine points of hand-crafting detailed scenery.
Pedri said model railroading can be an expensive hobby, estimating that he spends about $1,000 on his miniature railway every year.
To make this possible, Pedri says, he runs a business mowing lawns, cleaning Dumpsters and doing other chores that people without railroads to run will pay him to do.
“Basically, it’s anything people don’t want to do,” he says.
Kyle Glazier: 303-954-1638 or kglazier@denverpost.com
