In this photo taken on Tuesday afternoon, April 15, 2014, Richard Oehrig swaps locomotives on the upper rail line of his model railroad he's building in a friend's warehouse in Fairbanks, Alaska. Oehrig spends his lunch hours laying railroad track and carefully gluing pieces of scale-size gravel along the tracks. Sometime he's so busy with his project that he doesn't eat.(AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Eric Engman) MAGS OUT, NO SALES

In this photo taken on Tuesday afternoon, April 15, 2014, Richard Oehrig swaps locomotives on the upper rail line of his model railroad he's building in a friend's warehouse in Fairbanks, Alaska. Oehrig spends his lunch hours laying railroad track and carefully gluing pieces of scale-size gravel along the tracks. Sometime he's so busy with his project that he doesn't eat.(AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Eric Engman) MAGS OUT, NO SALES

Fairbanks man builds elaborate model train layout

  • By Sam Friedman
  • Sunday, April 27, 2014 10:08pm
  • News

FAIRBANKS — Richard Oehrig spends his lunch hours laying railroad track and carefully gluing pieces of scale-size gravel along the tracks. Sometime he’s so busy with his project that he doesn’t eat.

“When you’re modeling there’s always something you can improve on or make better,” he said during a tour of his new O-scale model railway. “The thrill for me is you have to know something about everything from carpentry … to mechanics.”

Oehrig, 59, is a retired Air Force electrical technician who now works in heating and plumbing. He has collected model trains for almost 50 years and describes himself as one of about a dozen serious model train enthusiasts in the Interior.

In the past year, he’s been working on an especially ambitious project. In a friend’s warehouse space, he’s building a layout for large “O-scale” trains. It’s probably the largest O-scale layout in the Interior, he said.

O-scale is one of the largest scales for model trains. With a 1:48 scale, each inch in the model world scales to four feet in the real world.

Oehrig’s setup centers around a crowded railyard. Oehrig owns more than 40 O-scale engines and more than 100 cars, although they don’t all fit on the layout. Around the yard are tracks with bridges, a passenger station, a house with a barbecue scene and an airport. When activated, automated steel loading cranes transfer small metal cylinders off or onto rail cars using magnets.

Oehrig likes the entire modeling process from finding deals on eBay to setting up the model building facades. But he’s most at home with electronics. His setup has analog controls, digital controls and block lights that trigger when trains approach and leave a switch. The trains have speakers on their front grills that broadcast the sounds of roaring engines, squealing brakes or the chatter of conductors talking on radios.

Oehrig grew up with a military family in Iowa and Texas. Originally, he favored models of the red and silver Santa Fe trains he’d see Outside, although he’d always been interested in the Alaska Railroad.

“Alaska Railroad is fairly unique, it’s one of the last remaining class one (large) U.S. railroads that still has passenger service,” he said.

But early Alaska Railroad model trains were crude, childish things not geared to the serious model crowd, he said. Almost all the model cars had a silhouette of a waving Eskimo that was used on some real trains but was relatively rare.

An explosion of better Alaska Railroad products followed an Alaska vacation a group of model manufacturer owners took in the 1980s, he said. Today Oehrig’s favorite O-scale train is a contemporary a Alaska Railroad passenger train although he’s also fond of some novelty Alaska cars like a flatbed carrying a pair of Zambonis and another with a load of planes.

Oehrig’s model layout completely fills the 15-by-20 foot room he started in. If he expands he’d like to make a real-life Alaska Railroad scene. In particular, he’s thinking the steel bridge over Hurricane Gulch or the area around Nenana Canyon.

To see videos of Oehrig’s model train layout, search for his name on YouTube. Model train enthusiasts interested in seeing the layout in person can also call him at 347-5333.

More in News

Erin Thompson (courtesy)
Erin Thompson to serve as regional editor for Alaska community publications

Erin Thompson is expanding her leadership as she takes on editorial oversight… Continue reading

A woman stands with her sign held up during a rally in support of Medicaid and South Peninsula Hospital on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 in Homer, Alaska. (Chloe Pleznac/Homer News)
Homer residents rally in support of South Peninsula Hospital and Medicaid

The community gathered on Wednesday in opposition to health care cuts that threaten rural hospitals.

Hunter Kirby holds up the hatchery king salmon he bagged during the one-day youth fishery on the Ninilchik River on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 in Ninilchik, Alaska. Photo by Mike Booz
Ninilchik River closed to sport fishing

The closure is in effect from June 23 through July 15.

Señor Panchos in Soldotna, Alaska, is closed on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Soldotna restaurant owner remains in ICE custody; federal charges dropped

Francisco Rodriguez-Rincon was accused of being in the country illegally and falsely claiming citizenship on a driver’s license application.

Brent Johnson speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly in Soldotna, Alaska, on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Borough to provide maximum funding for school district

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will receive less money from the state this year than it did last year.

Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion
Pool manager and swim coach Will Hubler leads a treading water exercise at Kenai Central High School on Tuesday.
Pools, theaters, libraries in jeopardy as cuts loom

The district issued “notices of non-retention” to all its pool managers, library aides and theater technicians.

A sockeye salmon is pictured in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Fishing slow on Russian River, improving on Kenai

Northern Kenai fishing report for Tuesday, June 17.

Josiah Kelly, right, appears for a superior court arraignment at the Kenai Courthouse in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Anchor Point man accepts plea deal for November shootings

Buildings operated by a local health clinic and an addiction recovery nonprofit were targeted.

Most Read