Building Trains

Harvey Hinz

'His Cup of Tea'

There is a place in McCook, Nebraska where steam is still the most popular means of running passenger trains.

This place is the home of retired BLE member Harvey Hinz, but the trains that he runs now are a little smaller than the ones he operated as a locomotive engineer for 30 years.

When he began building scale model trains 15 years ago, Hinz's co-workers thought he was crazy. They could not understand how he could work on trains all day and then go home and build them all night.

"They would ask me why I was doing it. When they were off, they would go play golf or go fishing," Hinz said. "Building the trains was just my cup of tea."

What his co-workers did not understand about Hinz, 68, a member of BLE Division 623 (McCook, Neb.), was that his fascination with model trains was what led him to hire out on the railroad in the first place.

"I had been into model trains since I was a teenager, and my career in the railroad just took it one step further," says Hinz who retired in 1996. "I enjoyed the work, and fulfilled a boyhood dream of being a locomotive engineer, which is, in my opinion, the best job on the railroad."

He now owns two mini-locomotives and several passenger cars, and with the four locomotives owned by his son and a conductor friend, the fleet on the property is six. The fleet consists of four gas powered diesel type engines and two steam engines.

Hinz's engines are both real steam powered. The first one that he built was a passenger engine modeled after the last steam engine built for Burlington, and his last project was a UP 800 series passenger steam locomotive.

"My UP train was built out of pieces that I had acquired that had sat around for a long time. I took the pieces and built them into a larger model," Hinz said.

Hinz built most of the equipment himself in his machine shop. Friends and family helped him build and lay a half mile of track that run through the property.

All of the trains run outdoors and are large enough for people to ride. And people do ride.

Once a year, Hinz and his family open up their little railroad to the public. This year the family expects 400-500 people to come and ride the trains.

"Half of my enjoyment comes from watching others enjoy the trains," says Hinz.

The other half comes from building them.

"This is what I have done since I retired," says Hinz. "It is something I enjoy doing and I plan on continuing until I can't do it anymore."

The people who have enjoyed his little line in McCook hope that he will be able to keep running these little engines for a long time.

© 1999 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers