MONROE - Model railroaders will fill the ice arena Saturday and Sunday in Monroe for the Green County Model Railroaders' 31st Annual Model Train Show and Swap Meet.

More than a thousand visitors from as far away as Chicago and Green Bay are expected to attend the event, being held this year in honor of long-time club member Bobby Dorr, a Brodhead resident who died in July.

More than 15 model railroads will be laid out and accompanied by a variety of vendors with railroad merchandise.

Model railroad enthusiasts range from purely collectors of the little trains to makers of scenery and home-made animated models, said club member Tom Moore, Argyle.

Moore, who joined the club in the early 1990s, keeps a permanent train layout that fills two rooms in the basement of his home. But his start in model trains was a bit more modest. When he was 7, his parents gave him his wish for Christmas, a Lionel train set, which he still has.

Model train shows keep the hobby going, Moore said.

The shows allow other enthusiasts to see what you are doing and are great fun for children.

"Kids are fun to watch at the shows," Moore said.

Another club member, Paul Schoenike, Monroe, will have a train layout for kids - or adults - to use. Electrical switches move the trains and dumps their loads.

"You can run it yourself," Schoenike said.

But the enjoyment that model train sets bring doesn't end as you leave adolescence.

Moore remembers setting up a train set for a 93-year-old man confined to a wheelchair.

"When he came out to his garage, he looked like a kid in a candy shop," Moore recalled.

Moore said he spends hours in his basement, a lot of which goes into repairing, he said.

"And then there are days when you come down and you're just sick of it, and you tear it down and start over," he added.

Creating a model train layout is great for the imagination, according to Moore.

"Let the imagination go," he said. "There's nothing in here you can't find in real life when you go outside."

Much of the fun is in creating miniature look-alikes. On Moore's layout, a painted light bulb becomes a water tower, foam ear plugs make transformers on a pole, shampoo bottles become giant Sinclair gasoline tanks, and pop-up bottle caps become smoke stack tops and search lights. Moore even used bright orange and white earrings as the tops to midway circus tents. Even turkey neck bones can be found mounted as steer head skeletons around the little make-believe neighborhood.

Moore notices little things as he goes about his day, and writes his ideas down.

"I'm always looking for something," he said.

Visitors to a model railroad also should be looking, because model railroaders like to tuck in whimsical items where you least expect them, like a dancing E.T., a hobo cooking under a tree, or a skeleton coming out of its casket, Moore said.

Railroads are America's history and still are a valuable asset in transportation, Moore said.

So, for Moore and his fellow railroader club members, it seems only natural that keeping the hobby of model railroads alive helps keep that part of American history alive.