Longtime choir director finds his own music in model railroading

As a newspaper delivery boy growing up in Galesburg, Ron Benner was so mesmerized by the trains that ran through the railroad town that he told his mother he wanted to be an engineer.

Pointing out his love of music, his mother said she thought he might make that a career instead.

His mother's insight proved prescient. The West Chicago resident taught choirs in public schools for 34 years and still serves as a part-time accompanist at Community High School in West Chicago. But he never lost his love of trains.

From the first Lionel train his dad gave him at age 9, Benner's collection has grown to a two-room layout in his basement that recently was featured in an open house sponsored by Train Collectors of America Midwest Division. The open house drew 77 railroad enthusiasts from five states.

"It went gloriously," Benner said. "I've dreamed about a layout like this since I was very young and now I have it."

It's the second time in four years Benner's layout has been chosen for an open house.

He's done a lot of work since then. His current layout took five years to construct and features 220 freight cars, a passenger train and a variety of landscapes, from a newly built oil field to a cityscape and farm.

"It's a work in progress," Benner said. "Train layouts, invariably, are not finished."

The O-gauge railroad with its 11-to-12-inch long cars runs around a 44-by-45-foot room, with an upper passenger line extending through a tunnel Benner drilled in the wall into a 15-by-17-foot annex.

Skiers can be seen on the mountains in the layout, and a mural of the Colorado Rockies stretches two feet across the wall.

Sights along the way include a 1950s-era whistle-stop diner with a black-and-white checkerboard floor, a theater marquee announcing "Gone with the Wind," a hardware store with a bag of fertilizer and a couple lawn mowers sitting out front, and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle shop.

Benner said the route is based on the Santa Fe railroad, now called the Southwest Chief, which runs from Chicago to Los Angeles. He's taken that train several times himself.

"The people on the train are so wonderful to talk to," he said. "The scenery is beautiful."

Benner, a member of the Train Collectors of America Midwest Division, doesn't do all the work on his layouts himself. He has a Wall of Honor in his basement acknowledging those who have helped him out.

Among them are Carroll Wienecke of West Chicago, a retired carpenter who built the tables to hold Benner's layout. Not a model railroader himself, Wienecke said he nonetheless enjoyed the experience and took his grandson to see the results.

"The grandson really loved it. Everybody loves it," Wienecke said. "It's a beautiful setup."

Interior designer Roger Wright of Oswego painted the murals and created other features, such as a water tower and the theater. Like Wienecke, he's not a model railroader.

"I've never seen anything like this anywhere except in the Museum of Science and Industry and on TV," he said. "This is, as far as I'm concerned, one of a kind."

Benner, who tries to spend at least an hour a day on his hobby, has constructed some buildings from kits and bought others ready-made. He has become more adept at wiring, he said.

"I'm a signal person," he said. "I just love signals of all kinds, grade crossing signals as well as track signals."

Benner said he makes his purchases through hobby shops and train magazines, and admits his hobby is an expensive one. But he thinks his parents would be pleased.

"My mom and dad loved trains," he said.

• Do you know someone with an unusual job or hobby? Let us know at sdibble@dailyherald.com, (630) 955-3532 or 4300 Commerce Court, Lisle, 60532.