Train collectors, enthusiasts flock to Old 97 Rail Days

By John Crane

Published: September 28, 2008

For the sixth year in a row, the Danville Science Center welcomed several groups of model-train enthusiasts to mark the anniversary of the Wreck of the Old 97. 

It was on Sept. 27, 1903 when the express-mail train careened off a trestle in Danville, falling 75 feet into a rocky creek bed. The accident killed 11 men and injured six.

Sunday, the second day of Danville’s Old 97 Rail Days, had members from about a half-dozen model-train collector clubs showcasing about 15 scaled miles of train tracks and their locomotives.

Organizations from Lynchburg, Richmond, Raleigh, N.C., New Jersey and Pennsylvania participated in the Old 97 Rail Days N-Scale Model Train Show.

“We’ll travel anywhere to run trains,” said Stan Houpt, 62, a member of Keystone NTRAK who lives in the Valley Forge, Pa., area.

Sonya Wolen, assistant director of the Danville Science Center, said the facility has hosted the model-train enthusiasts annually since the 2003 Rail Days on the train wreck’s 100th anniversary.

“That’s what initiated the whole thing; it was the centennial year,” Wolen said. “They’ve been coming back ever since, and we’re happy.”

Following NTRAK standards, train lovers from different organizations contribute size-specific segments of track at events like Rail Days, and railcars are 1/60th the size of the real thing, said Bill Royse, a member of the North Raleigh Model Railroad Club in Raleigh, N.C. Thirty-three feet equal a mile of track. Members also design landscapes along the tracks, including mountains, forests, small towns, cityscapes and train stations. Some reflected their native areas. 

“Imagination has no limit as far as what you can do with this,” Royse said. 

Don Cariss, a member of the NRMRRC, features buildings from the neighborhood where he grew up in East Orange, N.J., including the original M&M factory. Cariss said the club has set up train shows at nursing homes and hospitals, providing a form of therapy for young and old alike.

Saturday’s Rail Days events included old-time musical performances, and weekend events also included artifacts from the Old 97 train wreck in the Alcove Gallery of the Danville museum of Fine Arts & History and a miniature version of the wreck scene at the Danville Science Station lobby.

Contact staff writer John R. Crane at or 434-791-7987.