Pahrump Model Railroad Club brings smiles to many faces

A train barrels down the tracks when an engineer sees a group of kids waving at him; in response the train conductor blows his whistle.

The train is a 1:87 ratio model train that was set up inside the Pahrump Community Library last week and the train engineer is Ray B. Squyres, the Pahrump Model Railroad Club coordinator. On plywood sheets the club formed hills, laid railroad tracks and meticulously placed details throughout the display. Including Santa Claus.

Every year since 2013 the club gives away a train set to a lucky child who gets their ticket drawn. In order to take part in the raffle, the kids must spot Santa Claus in the display and a train engineer would give them a free raffle ticket.

At the library, a couple of kids pointed out that Santa only had six reindeer. “He can’t fly, where’s Rudolph?”

The club has provided the kids with an endless amount of amusement and Squyres said, “Let’s put it this way, you never see anyone frowning.” These model railroads bring a level of joy to people.

“You know, nothing’s better than seeing a smile on the kid’s face when one of us says, ‘Wave at the engineer and he’ll honk the horn,’” Squyres said.

Moments such as these remind members of themselves as kids.

‘Life gets in the way’

Squyres and Mark Johnson, a member of the club, remembered that in the ’70s collecting locomotives was common. But now the practice has been on the decline.

For Johnson, the admiration for trains came young, as when he was a kid his dad had a windup train in his closet. One day his dad gave him an ultimatum; if he learned how to tie his shoes, the train was his.

“I learned to tie my shoes immediately,” Johnson said.

At the age of 16, Johnson stopped working on model trains, a hobby he was once actively interested in, and abandoned it for roughly 55 years.

“Life got in the way,” Johnson said. For over half a decade he was working in construction and running a business, he even spent 23 years rescuing wolves.

After moving to Pahrump, Johnson, like Squyres, he found the club and got back into the hobby after the pandemic.

For Squyres, he also remembered admiring trains as a 6-year-old when he was gifted his first train set. The three-railer would be able to make figure eights as the configurations were limited in the past. But at the age of 11 all that changed as he had to grow up quick because he had to care for his younger brother. The last train set he had at the time was an electric set that he had given to his brother.

After Squyres and his wife moved near Anchorage, Alaska they had a heated garage where they built a set of their own for his kids. His kids took a liking to the trains, but he wasn’t quite ready to get back into the trains.

Then the family moved to Texas to start his second career as a commercial pilot where it had no time for the hobby.

It was not until they moved to Pahrump, when they traveled to Beatty for Beatty Days, where they ran into the group and this time, the model train bug had bit them.

“We’re getting into this,” Squyres’ wife told him in 2012.

His wife would remember many of the Alaska trains as they would pass by close to her home when she was in grade school. And in several parts of her life, she lived near a railroad.

In 2012, the couple joined the club. “We always had fun,” he said.

In 2015, Squyres’ wife was diagnosed with cancer and was not able to continue with the club. Before she passed, he remembered her as a 5-foot-2-inch girl who could drive a 53-foot semi-truck without any problem. He is still an active member as the coordinator of the club.

Too much negativity

The Pahrump Model Railroad Club is made up of many members between the ages of 70-80 and another group of youngsters.

In the main group, there are currently 11 on their roster with seven active members. This is at times due to medical reasons. Currently, there are some members that are battling health problems.

“We’re surrounded by negativity every day,” Johnson said. But to him the trains bring smiles, nostalgia and interesting stories for the group.

“There’s a philosophy I’ve lived by after retirement: What does it cost me if I can bring a smile to someone’s face?” Squyres said. “If we can entertain people and have them enjoying themselves, there’s that self-satisfaction that we’ve done something that’s positive.”

The display is in its final form, but the public does not see the hours of setting up the displays, the hours prior that went into fixing the train and years’ worth of research. Currently in the Pahrump Museum the club has a couple of displays of what the Nye County railroad system would’ve looked like.

Squyres and a fellow member dedicated over a couple of years to researching the railroad, train stations, mining towns and even town resident occupations. This is all to have an accurate representation of what it would look like during that period.

But when the club gets to put on their fifth show of the year, it all comes full circle for them.

“You just see the smiles on the people’s faces,” Johnson said. “That’s what makes it worthwhile.”

The club is free to join with no dues and is looking to add more members. They’ve added a youth club where they make their own display with their trains and get help from the experts.

Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@pvtimes.com. Follow @JimmyRomo.News on Instagram.