A childhood toy has turned into a lifelong hobby for a local man who’s cuckoo for choo choo.
Bill Musika is a train enthusiast who transformed the dining room of his Erin Ridge home into a Christmas oasis with a two-storey train display featuring a ski hill and maple syrup factory.
He got started with model trains about three decades ago when he set up a train to circle the family Christmas tree.
“This is my train around the tree,” he said, looking at the 200-square-foot display, equipped with a smoke-blowing caboose and realistic railway sound effects.
His affinity for trains goes far beyond his collection. Trains have been a part of Musika’s life since he was an infant.
“My dad worked for CN too, so I’ve been near the track since I was two years old,” he said.
Musika worked in signalling and communications at CN for 40 years before retiring in 2002, although he is still called back each year help train new staff.
He said he has a few thousand dollars invested in the display, which takes two-to-three weeks to set up each year. This year, however, it took roughly a month to set up.
Musika said this year’s display is the largest it has ever been and is likely the largest it will ever get.
“Unless I move to another home, this is going to be the biggest,” he said.
When he began purchasing items and expanding his collection, he never imagined it would get to the point where he would have to disassemble his dining room table and move it elsewhere in his home – this has been the case for the last seven years.
Musika said he plans to stop expanding his collection, but said it might be a different story for his wife.
“She keeps buying the houses. That’s why I keep expanding,” he said with a laugh.
Regardless whether or not there are new additions to his already extensive collection, he said he would likely keep setting it the display for his grandkids.
“We’ve been doing it every year. It’s a tradition now,” he said. “I’ve got some grandkids who come over … to play with it. Some of the boys really like playing with it and I enjoy it, too.”
The display goes up a few weeks before Christmas and is disassembled a few days after ringing in the new year.
“A lot of times, you put it up and you don’t want to take it down,” he said.
