Plains man helps with Paradise train display

by Ed Moreth

An avid model train man donated one of his favorite sets to the Paradise Center's railroad display room and has become the newest member of the Paradise Center Railroad Club.

Bill Beck donated a set of three engines and a dozen cars to the Paradise Center on Friday afternoon, when he delivered the set to Mac Hall, who heads the railroad display. Hall built a 22-foot shelf for the set.

The 83-year-old Beck bought the set for around $900 some nine years ago, which depicts the Northern Pacific Railway of the 1960s. He said Northern Pacific trains used to run through Paradise, which makes the center a perfect place to house and show the train set. "I was looking at everything in the display here and even if it's not the same scale as the rest, I thought it would look good here," said Beck.

Beck unboxed the set one by one and dusted them off for Hall to place them on the shelf. The set included three engines, a baggage car, a dining car, a sleeper, two vista dome cars, and seven coaches. Hall had to cut a piece of train track for the entire set to fit on the shelf.

Beck has been a serious train collector since the 1970s and has Lionel O-gauge trains in every room of his home, including the bathroom. He used to periodically exhibit the North Pacific set at the Rocky Mountain Bank, but he said it was high on a shelf and was barely seen by visitors. He also donated a Polar Express train set, along with an entire winter village, to Plains School two years ago and still sets it up at the school at Christmastime. "I got my first train in 1947 and I still have it," said Beck.

Beck's Northern Pacific train is only the second O-gauge train at the center's railroad display, which is mostly HO scale trains throughout the room, including two trains on the main display table and another one on the tie plant display. Both displays are works in progress and have more than 70 feet of train track.

The other O-gauge train was a set depicting a steam engine train of the 1940s donated by Larry Gerhardstein of Plains. Hall also made a custom shelf for that train. The railroad display takes up one entire classroom of the former Paradise School and has been an evolving exhibit with volunteers continuing to make buildings for the two main displays. A model of Paradise School is the next structure being built. The main display table depicts part of the train depot and the town of Paradise with a train that circles the town. The display includes an intricate scale model of the roundhouse constructed by Plains resident Terry Christensen. Completion of the displays is probably around two years away, said Hall, one of the main coordinators of the project.

The room also has numerous railroad artifacts, such as a conductor's uniform and cap from the late W.D. Hansen from the 1970s and railroad tools that date to the 1900s. Many of the artifacts were donated by Paradise and Plains residents whose family members used to work at the railroad depot when it was highly active. A group of volunteers meet at the center every Wednesday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. to work on the display.

"I think that looks quite astounding up there," said Hall in reference to Beck's addition. "It's so cool and it's going to draw all kinds of attention."