Tulsa Man Builds Impressive Model Railroad Layout

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Model railroading is a year-round hobby, but it takes on a special significance at Christmas time.

Hugh Keen of Tulsa is a retired mechanical engineer. Now he's the engineer on his own model railroad layout. He has been building it for about 30 years and still going.

"Don't want it to be done 'cause if it was done, I wouldn't have anything to do," said Hugh Keen.

Keen says he has lots of ideas for new things and new ways to set up the old things. The theme for the layout is the Wabash railroad.

"There was a guy in Nashville, Tennessee who sang about the Wabash Cannonball," said Keen.

Hugh Keen says he likes the color schemes and the look of the trains. So it's Wabash everywhere. At one point he had five trains running at once. There were others just sitting, and under the table top, lots of track, kind of a subsurface rail yard.

"I can put about 15 trains underneath," said Keen.

Not only are there lots of trains, but other mechanical stuff like a pipe loader and a sawmill. He can operate all of it from an intricately wired control panel. The trains can run automatically to prevent collisions.

Hugh may be the engineer on the model railroad, but his wife Virginia is the trainmaster, in case the engineer loses track of time.