By Jesse Davis
MIDDLEBURY — Das Dutchman Essenhaus didn’t know what hit it.
Hundreds of toy train lovers from the local area as well as more far-flung regions packed the second floor of the main building during the business’ first Essenhaus Train Show, which will now be an annual event. Thanks to a healthy community for the hobby as well as a good amount of advertising, attendance passed all their expectations.
“When we opened, we were so packed you couldn’t move,” Joel Miller, son of restaurant founders Bob and Sue Miller, said. “It was jam-packed in no time.”
The event was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., but enough people showed up that the doors were opened at 9:30 a.m. Within just 40 minutes, more than 250 people had already paid and began looking around. By Miller’s estimates, more than 1,000 had visited with an hour left to go. His response was simple.
“Wow,” Miller said.
One of the main attractions was a large LEGO train setup run by 34-year-old Scott Sanburn of Warsaw. At age 4, his sister gave him all of her LEGOs, but his fascination with the toy’s trains came when LEGO came out with their first 9-volt train system in 1991. At that point, he began seriously collecting and it “never really stopped.”
“My big thing with LEGOs is the creativity involved and that they have unlimited potential,” Sanburn said. “My first few layouts had a whole city with a spaceport, complete with a back story and periodic invasions.”
Much of his childhood time spent playing with the sets was spent in his mother’s attic, which wasn’t heated. He recalled taking blankets upstairs with him during the winter and only playing with the trains at night during the summer because of the temperature.
Sanburn helped start the Michiana LEGO Train Club in 2003.
Vendor Gary Ziessler said he first started collecting toy trains when he was 4 years old. However, after serving in the Army, he came home to discover his mother and father had not only sold all of his Lionel trains, but had done so at a garage sale.
“I about fell over,” Ziessler said.
He again collected from some time during the 1960s until 1995, when he started his own business. After starting once again in 2007 after retiring, he finally made the decision to get out of collecting for good about three months ago. Now he just buys and sells the trains.
Ziessler said part of the joy of toy trains is that it appeals to such a wide audience.
“It’s not just guys,” he said. “Their wives like them and their kids like them.”
The large fan base for the toys, however, didn’t sprout up overnight and almost disappeared according to Tom McComas, a vendor and special guest at the event.
“Lionel opened in 1900. It went through the Great Depression and both world wars. But in the late 1950s, kids turned to slot cars and plane travel took over trains as a dominant mode of transportation,” he said. “Finally, the baby boomers, by the late 1980s and 1990s, had money to buy all the trains they wanted in the 1950s, and it gave it a huge boost, which has carried on ever since.”
McComas should know. He wrote his first book on Lionel in 1974, and has written many more since, as well as producing several video series including the popular 13-part “I Love Toy Trains,” as well as a series on celebrities’ toy train setups and a multipart series on John Deere equipment.
He was impressed by the turnout at the Essenhaus.
“I’m surprised, considering the economy, how many people turned out,” he said. “I think it’s a tribute to the hobby.”
McComas also said they should use a bigger facility for the event next time.
More space and more activities are planned for next year’s Essenhaus Train Show, Miller said.
“I’d like to add demos and seminar-type activities next year, like how to wire train setups, how to make trees and such,” he said. “I’d also like to add more layouts.”
Miller said it was likely the 2011 show will be held both at the restaurant’s second floor — where it was this year — as well as in the convention center to allow more space for both people and vendors. He is also considering stretching the show to two days.
The 2011 Essenhaus Train Show is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 19.
