Eight-year-old Ethan Saul has a 14-foot by 9-foot model train layout with vintage steam locomotives at home, and Friday he was in his element as he admired the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express train at the Science Museum of Virginia.
"When the (model) trains are in town I like to see them," said the Louisa County boy, accompanied by his mother, Jenny. "We go here every year pretty much."
The Science Museum has been transformed through the Thanksgiving weekend into a model-train lover's paradise, with hundreds of miniature train cars, classic locomotives and elaborate layouts with hundreds of feet of track.
On Friday's opening day, 2,534 children and their parents traversed the show's three rooms of exhibits, which feature the work of central Virginia railroad clubs. At that rate, this year's 33rd annual Model Railroad Show could break attendance records.
About 5,000 people attended over three days last year, with 2,049 the first day, a museum spokeswoman said.
This year, event organizers have broadened the displays. They've added a Harry Potter-themed Lego exhibit with a Hogwarts castle and express train, and included a first-ever model-train drag racing show that allows participants to "pick their locomotive and pull the power lever," said Bill Dessent, president of the Richmond Freelance and Prototype Model Railroaders Inc.
"For most people that come that aren't railroaders, I hope they just enjoy the layouts and the efforts that went into putting the displays together, and the excitement that model railroading typically brings to those folks," said Dessent, a supervisor for transportation at Dominion Virginia Power whose hobby is model trains.
"To the modelers that attend, I hope they can pick up on things that will help them do their own home layouts, or inspire them to expand what they're trying to do with their own modeling hobby," he added.
In addition to the displays, the museum is showing the animated film "The Polar Express" for a special limited engagement through Dec. 31.
In the museum's front hall, a working model of the Polar Express is on display by the River City 3 Railers model-railroad club. The diorama through which the train runs features an elaborately detailed amusement park with an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster and other miniature rides.
"When you ask somebody how much they have tied up in trains, most of them would probably blush to tell you how much," Dessent said. "Or, they wouldn't want to put it in print where their wives would read about it later."
Some of the children in attendance — even some of the younger ones — have displayed an impressive command of train knowledge, Dessent said.
"They'll ask, is that a Niagara or a Mohawk steamer?" Dessent said. "A lot of kids these days that are into model railroading really know their stuff."
One of those children is Ethan Saul. "I have a Shay locomotive and a Heisler locomotive," Ethan rattled off proudly.
Ethan developed his love of trains without any parental influence.
"My husband and I, we're not into trains," Jenny Saul said. "But he's always been. He's been interested since birth. We started with Thomas (the train) and went on from there."
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