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By Clare Mendez, Resident Model trains and railroads seem to cast a spell of sorts over many of us. We look closely at the miniature towns, buildings, toy people and animals to get a better look at what is taking place. In order to create this illusion model railroaders need to be surveyors, civil engineers, carpenters, electricians, artists and sculptors. Two of our Solera Diamond Valley resident model railroad enthusiasts spend several hours each week on their hobby. For Bob Chaparro the spell was cast his second year in college when he and a friend walked into a hobby shop selling model planes, trains, and such. Bob was fascinated by the model trains featuring motion and animation and the possibilities that lay ahead. As he and his wife Sherrie moved from place to place, always in Bob's mind was where he would put his model train world. His current HO scale Citrus Belt Railway Company is the fifth major layout he built since 1978. The design and layout evolved from four earlier railroads, three residence relocations and subsequent downsizing of available layout space. The current layout, a double track mainline of nearly two scale miles, fills a 12-foot x 20-foot dedicated Casita highlighting the Southern California citrus industry in 1956 with scratch-built replicas of several area packing houses. His miniature towns replicate the California Citrus Belt highlighting actual buildings from the era. Completing the transformation, Bob painted the hills and mountains and carefully placed each mini animal, vehicle and person to showcase very believable scenes. Bob takes pride at being a life member of the National Model Railroad Association and a former President of the Pacific Southwest Region / NMRA (National Model Railroad Association). He headed a small group of volunteers who created a world-wide directory of model railroad layouts for the National Model Railroad Association for which he received the NMRA's President's Award. Bob owns and manages three Internet groups devoted to railroad/ model railroad interests. These are: Model Railroads of Southern California – a group for Southern California model railroaders to share their progress, experiences, tips and techniques; Railroad Citrus Industry Modeling Group – a group that collects and shares information about the operations of the Santa Fe, Pacific Electric and Pacific Fruit Express Company (Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads) as they relate to Southern California's citrus industry; and Railway Bull Shippers Group – a group that collects and share information about railroad livestock, meat transportation and the rolling stock, facilities and operations that support it. Bob is currently working on an article about the saving and restoration of the historic Hemet Depot for the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society. 20 SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | JUNE 2019