Published: November 27, 2009 11:56 pm      

Lionel memories leads local train enthusiast to build

ASHLAND — Visitors to the Festival of Trees and Trains may see a table set up in the inner lobby just to the right of the doors.

The table is covered with miniature trains made of wood and behind the table is Albert Eskew, who makes the toys in his basement workshop.

If there are small children in the theater, they are likely to be lingering around Eskew’s table, hoping for a chance to try out one of the oak and cherry locos.

Eskew makes the trains at his south Ashland home.

The stairs to his basement workshop are narrow and steep and at the bottom is Eskew’s playground, a haven of lumber and power tools. The brown linoleum floor is besprinkled with sawdust. Boards and chunks of wood are stacked on shelves, leaning in corners and stuffed into boxes.

Light spills through a single window onto a workbench where Eskew assembles his trains. He makes the components a hundred at a time and then puts them together.

His standard set includes a steam locomotive, tender, flatcar, tank car and caboose, all depicting a Civil War era train. He also makes a diesel locomotive that is about 14 inches long.

Except for the wheels, which he buys by mail order, Eskew makes every part. Most are made from scrap oak, cherry and walnut which he gets from friends in northeast Ohio Amish country and from a furniture maker in Huntington.

The Civil War locomotive, for instance, has a boiler made from lengths of a large dowel, topped by a cab sawn out on a band saw, and mounted on a flat wood base with wheels. He adds smokestacks, rails and other fiddly bits to complete the toy.

Although he mass-produces the parts he doesn’t use a pattern. He got his inspiration from pictures and made his first parts from there. As a result, no two of his trains are exactly alike.

In the 16 years he’s been making trains, he has built upwards of 5,000 sets. They sell well at venues like the festival, where he charges $20 per set. The Paramount receives 20 percent of that, he said.

Eskew and his wife Sarah take their motor home to Florida for the winter and he packs its storage compartments full of train sets to sell at craft shows down there.

Retired from the Raceland car shops, Eskew gets his interest in trains from there and from memories of the Lionel set he had in younger years. That set he gave to his son, now grown, who handled it roughly and now regrets it.

The money he makes from the trains is a welcome cushion, but his real reward comes from the consumers.

“Seeing the kids’ faces when their parents buy them a train is worth it to me,” he said.