Author's Note: For reasons of privacy, I made up a new name for the person that I am writing about.
John Smith, train enthusiast and gardener, owns an amazing collection of car models, train models and old signs and ornaments. He lives with his wife in a rather large house in the countryside.
John's love for steam trains grew as a child and he's nurtured that love to this very day! One of John's most cherished collections is his large train set, a train set that he has been collecting parts for since his early teenage years.
His extensive collection contains model people, house, shops, aeroplanes, cars and of course, trains. Over the thirty years or more that John has been collecting and adding to his train set, he has spent over 5000 pounds ($7591)! This enormous sum of money includes a small outdoor train set and various adornments and sceneries that are linked to the massive train set.
Aside from all this, John also owns an outhouse full of old, early 1900s, street signs and posters. Resident among these semi-antiques is a blue Ford Anglia, similar to that described in "Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets".
His wife accepts and enjoys living with her train-crazy husband, and shares John's enthusiasm for trains. She is 'actually interested' in steam trains and oftentimes encourages her husband to buy more models to add to his collection.
Where has John found and bought all of the pieces of the train sets that he owns? Well, whenever he goes into a model shop, either on holiday or doing a food shop, John never leaves the shop empty-handed.
John's train set is a coal-mining town based in England during the 1940s or '50s. The room that holds the enormous train set is about the length and width of two buses, side by side. The walls are painted blue with green, rolling hills and blend in very well with the plastic hills and synthetic grasses that litter the scene. Every time that I'm taken on a tour of the room devoted to this model town, I find something new. It's usually a shop or a new house, or perhaps a car upside-down in a tree. John has a few friends that own a train set, but none of them are as enthusiastic or as involved as John is!
"Nah, I never feel childish having a train set - I suppose I just haven't grown up yet!" John admits. "I've learnt a lot of new things from this whole train experience. I know how to put together circuits, I know how these model trains work, I know how to fix them and I know how to set them up without short circuiting them - it's really quite an art! I'm very proud of my work," he adds.
At an estimate, the amount of model trains John Smith has collected totals to about three-hundred. The rest of the pieces? You're talking thousands!
I've included several pictures of John's train collection. I hope you enjoy! What is your opinion on his work? Do you think it was worth all of the money and the effort? What do you think John should do with his set now? Y-mail me your answers or post them in the forums. Anymore questions? Just ask me them if you see me or send me a y-mail!
