The State Fair (Part 5)

Some people never lose their love for model trains. I can understand that. I had trains in junior high school and I loved playing with them and creating the little town and country scenes around the track. In high school I lost interest and sold my trains; the person who bought them was a grown man, and he was buying them for himself.

Pat and I were so enraptured by the elaborate, meticulously created dioramas in the model train competition at the State Fair, we hung around for quite a while and chatted with the various exhibitors. The train track went around in a very large oval, maybe 25 feet from end to end, each segment painstakingly imagined and constructed by very creative competitors. The winning section featured an old fashioned, outdoor drive-in movie theater, complete with screen (and sneaky interlopers trying to view the movie for free through cracks in the fence -- genius, I tell you!). The man in the photo at the top of this post actually recreated historic buildings in Lincoln County, Colorado, in some cases having only old photos to use for reference. It must have been months of work, but then again it's not truly work when you love doing it!

Note the half-sunk boat in the background and the dolphin in the foreground.

Here's the winning section, the drive-in theater. The "movie screen" was actually a tablet showing old railroad footage (of course!).

There's always someone who tries to see the movie without paying! But as you can see, the police are on to their shenanigans ;^)

The emergency lights on top of the cop car and ambulance actually flashed on and off. God is in the details.

This roundhouse is a recreation of an actual historic building in Lincoln County, Colorado. I believe it's the one in Hugo, built in 1909. (Follow the link and click on the old black and white picture.)

Here's the guy who built the Lincoln County section of the track. He won second place.

In fact, Lincoln County sponsored him! Pretty cool! How fun is it that he got to do his favorite hobby to benefit the county where he lives? Great job!