Title - The locomotive man

In Ap Market, Maurya Enclave, Pitampura, shop number 41 is little known. The store front is of a mobile repair shop. The insides are plastered with the latest cellular service providers’ offers. Owner Virender Kumar (32), is taking mobile recharge orders. There is no sign of ‘Decibel Scale Models’ — the railroad-modelling shop Virender advertises on his website. A large brown parcel sits prominently on the counter, a model train set. Virender smiles and moves away from the counter to reveal a small glass case with three shelves, all of them crammed with model trains of various makes — Bachmann Union Pacifics, Hornby Intercity, steam engines, Amtrak trains, and many more. Virender, an electronics engineer from Delhi University, is a railroad-modelling enthusiast. A rare and expensive hobby, railroad modelling involves assembling and creating scaled-down versions of trains — passenger coaches, freight cars, wagons and electric, diesel and steam locomotives. “I asked for a train set every birthday,” he says happily. What was a hobby for over a decade has become a business venture in the last two years. Virender is one of the very few people in Delhi, perhaps even in the country, to retail, repair and collect model trains.“There are steps to get started. First, you get the model according to your preferred scale. Scale is very important in railroad modelling. There are many scales such as HO, OO, G and N. HO or OO scales are the most popular and they’re available. The HO scale is 1:87, which means that the actual train is 87 times bigger. People like the HO scale because it doesn’t look like a toy and yet doesn’t take up a lot of space. The Japanese, however, like the N scale — the smallest size. And for a decent layout, you need a space of at least 8x4 ft.

“Second is research. Trains are motorised but for additional sound, light and other effects, one needs to get digital command controllers (DCC), which can control up to 10 trains or even more at once, shunt, couple, billow smoke and flash lights. Third is creating layouts and scenery building. That’s when you get creative. The variety of scenery you can build now is incredible,” Virender says breathlessly, with an air of comical seriousness.

Virender’s first model was a Bachmann Union Pacific. He built an 8x4 ft layout with plywood on Ep sheet material with a plaster of Paris tunnel on a green turf, of which he also has a video. The only member of this hobby club, as he thought of himself, Virender has gradually realised that he is not alone. Through his website and customers, he has met other enthusiasts from all corners of the country. He has sold about 30 train sets in the last two years, invested Rs 4-5 lakh and seen repeat business from railroad fanatics. His clientele comprises doctors (child specialists), hoteliers, collectors, modellers and kids. “Doctors like displaying these model trains at their clinics. They’ve told me that their patients insist on playing with the models even before the check-ups,” he says.

“And kids! Recently, a boy came in from Dwarka with his father. He had an HO-scale Thunderbolt which needed repair. Even I was surprised that a kid knew of a Thunderbolt. I saw myself in this kid, the same craze. This hobby is certainly catching on,” he says in part disbelief.

Last winter, for Christmas, Virender provided a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy steam locomotive to the Imperial Hotel (4-8-8-4 is the standard denotation of the wheels). The Big Boy had eight kinds of whistles and a DC controller that could operate 40 trains. On similar lines, Virender developed his own sound decoder on a 1 GB memory card, feeding the chip into his model train for a single steam-whistle sound. This February, he had asked authorities at Rohini Metro Walk mall to build a layout. Valentine’s Day was around the corner, and the only way Virender could show his model at the mall for free was to have a Valentine’s Day theme. Designed by his wife, he built a railroad layout for ‘Love Express’ — a visual treat that drew crowds.

Virender has G scale dreams (closest to the real thing). He wants to build a museum dedicated to railroad modelling, recreate the Delhi-Amritsar journey that he often made as a child and replicate a 15 min-day, 15 min-night railroad layout exhibited at a Switzerland Museum. His collection consists of 30 train sets. His purchases are inspired by ‘Extreme Trains’ — a show on History Channel. He mostly imports sets from the US and the UK where railroad modelling is a platform for outrageous creativity.

“My target is to popularise railroad modelling with the middle class. And get models of Indian Railway coaches, of which none are available. In the next two years, I will,” Virender announces as his brother, sitting at the counter, looks on with suspicion.