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In one small scene from the sprawling O-gauge train layout inside the Mills home, a locomotive passes a family sharing a meal at a picnic table in their back yard. Thomas Mills has made collecting, displaying and researching trains his life's passion.
The Mills family of King George has devoted a specially constructed room in their home to a miniature-train layout. It took Thomas Mills, retired from the Defense Department, nearly six months of work to build. He painstakingly made many of the town's features by hand.
This model car from the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad is
Thomas Mills (left), his wife, Lillie, and their daughter, Melanie Smith, |
GROWING UP at Hamilton's Crossing in Spotsylvania County, the soundtrack of Thomas Mills' youth was punctuated with the "whoosh" of steam locomotives and the "clackety-clack" of freight cars passing day and night.
Which is why it's no surprise that Mills, who now lives in King George, has for the past 15 years made collecting, displaying and researching trains and train-company paraphernalia his life's passion.
"It's something my wife, daughter and I have really gotten into in a big way," said the man with his own train museum-quality display in a specially constructed room on the second floor of his home. "We specialize in RF&P and Southern."
I first heard about Mills and his family's display a month or two ago by some local folks who were treated to a visit.
"You've got to see it," implored one of them soon afterwards. "It tops anything you'll see in a store or a museum."
She's right. In an long, narrow room specially set aside for the display, a table 25 feet long and 8 feet wide holds a miniature town and train display that's amazing in its detail.
Sure, there are train-track ovals, bridges, stores, houses, churches, restaurants, factories, schools and more, complete with parking lots, roads and even a cemetery full of tombstones.
But there are also hockey players and ice skaters--on a pond Mills made of epoxy, after more than two dozens trials to get just the right color for the water.
Not to mention sunbathers in chaise lounges, vehicles, picnic tables, a working car wash, a junkyard, a handmade gazebo and a working Ferris wheel.
And a waitress who roller-skates out at Mel's Diner to take the order of patrons in a red '57 Chevrolet.
It took Mills, retired from the Defense Department, nearly six months of work to build and mount the display. He handmade much of the town, using everything from plaster to slivers of shingles in the construction.
He's joined in his passion for the collection by his wife, Lillie, and daughter, Melanie Smith.
Several times each year, the family will travel to train and toy shows around the country. They've been from Chicago to New Hampshire to Texas in search of just the right engine or railroad lantern.
Other times, the family combines vacations with side trips to antiques stores, specialty shops and junk emporiums looking for trains and their new collecting focus--antique toys.
"It's nothing for us to drive a day or two to a show," said Lillie Mills. "It's something we're all interested in."
Mills said it all started when his daughter, who knew he'd always wanted to have a train around at Christmastime, got him one.
They ended up exchanging the later-day model for one of the type the family now collects, from the post-war era of 1945 to 1964.
Soon enough, Mills and his family were true enthusiasts, joining clubs, getting periodicals about train collecting and even researching details on trains they've had custom-painted.
"We went to Richmond and got some of the original information on an RF&P train we had recreated by having a locomotive custom painted," he said. "We've also got quite a collection of RF&P lanterns, uniforms, hats and other paraphernalia."
Visitors to the Mills' display will see dozens and dozens of trains displayed on shelves that hold the sets on the walls of the train room.
If Mills is the one sharing the display, he's got one of the late-model trains running, as well.
From his master control spot at the end of the table, he can control the train's speed, the smoke it emits and a range of sound effects which include everything from whistles and wheel sounds to railway announcements customized to include things like "Welcome to Fredericksburg."
And, at this time of year, there are even Christmas carols, playing on speakers inside the trains themselves.
These days, the family that spent more than 20 years living in the Lake Anna area before moving to King George three years ago is also excited about collecting vintage toys.
In particular, they are after a series of children's ride-and-push toys built by a company called Keystone.
On shelves in their den, there are an array of pressed-metal wreckers, water tankers, police cars and circus trucks in pristine condition.
Like many of the trains, and a collection of miniature dolls and doll furniture set up near the railroad layout, each of the pieces has a special story to this family that's made collecting a way of life.
"It's something we have fun doing together," said Smith, who has become knowledgeable and a collector in her own right.
Mills, who works a few days a week at a train shop in Locust Grove to keep close to the subject, says one thing has affected his collecting in recent years.
"I had to slow down a little bit after I retired," he said, noting his reduced income. "But it won't stop us. We have too much fun with it all."
To reach ROB HEDELT: 540/374-5415 rhedelt@freelancestar.com
