Golden Spike

Do you remember when you were a little kid and you loved to play with your cars and trains sets? Do you remember begging your parents to see and ride the bigger trains and hear the big, loud, whistle blow on the engine of the train? The Golden spike Model Trains exhibit at University Place in Provo, Utah is happening now and its for all train enthusiasts!

This event is only on weekends and for a short time so hurry in! If you head straight to Kids Corner of the mall, there is a shop called Hobby Stop and inside this shop you will find the model trains! It is actually pretty big and really cool to see.

There are several older gentlemen who run the Golden spike club where they teach anyone between age 5-105 how to build model trains for free. You literally show up twice a month for two hours and you can learn how to build model trains for free! The whole goal of the program is to bring back the art of model trains building and creation. This is a fun way to explore your artsy and design side as well as your engineering and railroad side.

This exhibition was fascinating. When you first walk in, you will see two giant tables that wrap around the room. They are just high enough that small kids can still see the trains. The train master sits at the head of the table and conducts all of the trains. The very first table on the right has all sorts of landscapes and designs.

There are a few spots where you can see small towns, houses, and even people that are placed around the train tracks. If you walk around to the other side of the table, you can see the more natural and mountainous parts of the train station. There are mountains, bears, and even campers that are displayed around to make it feel as if you are camping with them! There are around 3-4 different tracks and all of them had trains bustling forward and backward on the train tracks. The fastest train was the blue one on the very inside track. It also had small lights on it and would make noise as it passed through.

On the other table, there were underground sections that were for display to see.

My favorite was the underground mine where lights actually went on and off with the workers in the mines. You could see the “gold” pieces they were digging with the trains running overhead. There was also a few excavators that actually moved, and mini police cars that would drive around by themselves near the train tracks.

Lastly, there were student displays in the windows to see. These students are in the train modeling course and their works are still in progress. Most of the student were in elementary school and it was super impressive! Make sure to stop by and see the trains before they are gone!