Corvallis Society of Model Engineers shows off trains at annual event

ADAIR VILLAGE — When Aline Bergemann was a child, she got “boring” dolls for Christmas, while her three older brothers got model trains.

“They wouldn’t let me play with them. Trains weren’t for girls,” she said.

Now the 60-year-old Salem woman gets to play with trains as much as she likes as the only female member of the Corvallis Society of Model Engineers in Adair Village.

On Saturday and Sunday, the group held its annual Train Layout Open House at its clubhouse in Adair Village. The event will continue next weekend as well.

The organization’s president, Patrick Sloma of Corvallis, didn’t know why more women weren’t interested in model trains, but he added that it was an interesting nature-versus-nurture question.

Scott Huiskens of Corvallis, who had a model train set as a child, said trains appealed more to boys.

Huiskens attended the event with his 6-year-old daughter Alyssa, who likes trains, and his 4-year-old son Gabriel, who helps his dad play with the Microsoft train simulator on their computer.

“My son’s really into trains. … I think it’s the whole mechanical thing. They’re big. Guys like trains, they like planes, they like automobiles. I think it’s genetic, the y chromosome,” he said.

Trains aren’t strictly guy stuff, though, said 11-year-old Darian Seim of Philomath, as she looked out over the layout and trains on the miniature tracks.

“It’s cool. The scenery’s cool,” she added.

Bergemann’s husband also belongs to the group, but she joined two years ago after seeing a real steam engine in action and being smitten.

“Just sitting there, they look like a hunk of cold metal,” Bergemann explained. But once they start moving, with the steam spilling out of the stack and from the sides…

Bergemann, who has another hobby in genealogy, said she enjoys researching the history of the real-life trains the models are based on.

The Corvallis Society of Model Engineers Train Layout Open House will continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $3 for adults and $1 for kids 3-12.

For more information, see www.csme1959.org.

Kyle Odegard covers public safety, Philomath and rural Benton County. He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.