By Pam Walatka
 courtesy of Janet Miller Springer first-grader Jeremy Miller explains gauge and scale in model trains. |
Six-year-old Jeremy Miller wowed the audience in the Los Altos History Museum on Nov. 12 with a lecture about the gauge and scale of model trains. Jeremy, a Los Altos resident, is in the first grade at Springer school.
“He did a splendid job,” said Carla Bjork, membership chairwoman of the museum. “He was so knowledgeable. Obviously, he has a passion - he’s been bitten by the train bug.”
Jeremy comported himself with the maturity of someone much older as he explained that “gauge” refers to the span between tracks, the distance between the outside rails. Even real trains can be of different gauges. “Scale” refers to the proportion of a model train to a standard-gauge real train.
Jeremy used a pointer to refer to a chart showing different scales of model trains. He also used four different-scale models of the same boxcar to illustrate the differences.
His mother Janet said Jeremy developed an interest in trains “as soon as he could say the word ‘train’ and discover what one was.”
His grandfather Kirk Kellogg (another Los Altos resident) has been involved in Jeremy’s passion for trains and has a train layout in his living room for Jeremy.
Janet said Jeremy and grandpa have been working on an HO gauge train layout together and often visit train stores.
“Jeremy loves riding trains at Roaring Camp, Caltrain, Billy Jones Railroad … any train is a good train to him!” Janet said. “I remember when he was about 2 years old we went to ride the train at the local pumpkin patch at Halloween time. After several train rides, the other kids were all running around crazy and Jeremy was squatted down by the tracks looking under the train. He was fascinated with how the train worked and was studying the train’s undercarriage.
“That is Jeremy - he is very engineering minded.”
His talk was part of “A Conversation: Toy Trains, Any Gauge, Any Age,” a presentation of the History Museum as part of the current exhibit, “Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream Train.”
Dick Blanding, featured in a Nov. 15 Town Crier story, has transformed the museum gallery into an amazing display of toy trains and landscapes.
When Jeremy was asked how he felt about speaking to the group, he said, “I liked it, I was nervous but I was fine. … My favorite part was seeing all the trains run and being a part of Mr. Blanding’s dream trains.”
Blanding and others answered questions from the audience about the toy-train hobby, which attracts enthusiasts of all ages. Golden Gate Lionel Railroad Club President Jerry McClellan mentioned that every morning he has his “coffee and train,” and his hobby is a great stress reducer.
For more information, call 948-9427, visit www.losaltoshistory.org or stop by the museum, 52 S. San Antonio Road, between noon and 4 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays.
