LOS ANGELES — Forget the Polar Express. 

Each December, crowds in Santa Paula flock to see the Odd Fellows annual holiday train display. The tradition goes back 16 years and the folks at Lodge Number 314 aren’t about to let anything derail it. 

It’s a true labor of love for Sandy Easley who starts setting up the 15 tracks in October, working a few hours every day right until opening. Each year the layout is different, but lately her goal is the same — to make the original designer proud.

“Every now and then we’ll look up and go okay, ‘hey, did we do it right?’” she said, casting a smile toward the lodge’s high ceiling.

It was her husband, Wes Easley, who started this train rolling. It began with a simple track around the tree in their living room and grew and grew until they had to move it to tables out on the front lawn. When he retired from the Santa Paula PD, he joined Odd Fellows and noticed something about their historic hall. 

“This room is empty in December,” Sandy remembered him saying. “So, hey, can I put a train down here?”

The multitude of engines whiz past various vistas from — from fantasylands like a new Lord of the Rings display to local landmarks built by Wes and other members of the lodge. 

There’s a replica of Odd Fellows Hall and its famous clock tower plus a 1/29th scale model of the Santa Paula Depot.

Wes died last year at 69 but his presence is felt in the loving details of his handcrafted trellises and upstairs in the control room.

“His initials are on these control boxes here,” Ron Merson said, pointing out a simple “W.E.” printed in black marker on several boxes. “Yeah, kind of goose bumps on that deal.”

If you ask him, Merson has the best view and the best job in the house.

“I am the engineer,” he stated proudly, gesticulating to his striped cap.

Night after night he keeps the trains running smoothly and safely, while also controlling the special effects like lightning storms and an erupting volcano. 

He’s been part of Odd Fellows for 38 years and while he says he stays out of the way during the build because he’s not “good at imagining or designing or those kinds of things,” he does looks forward each year to setting the cars in motion.

“It’s a lot of fellowship and camaraderie us all working together,” Merson explained. “But the kids having fun, that’s the best part of it.”

(Spectrum News/Tara Lynn Wagner)

Kids like eight-year-old Adan who couldn’t get enough. 

“I hear lots of thunder,” he said, his eyes opened wide in awe. “It’s cool!” 

He spent at least an hour circling the display, trying to count nutcrackers and locate all the superheroes hidden among the buildings.

Sandy, who serves as the Noble Grand of Santa Paula’s oldest fraternal organization, says there are families who bring their kids back every single season. It’s what she and Wes loved most of all.

“It’s just fun watching the kids grow and how excited their faces are when they see it,” she said.

For the past two years she says visitors have told her how proud Wes would be that she is continuing his legacy. 

Which isn’t just the trains, but what they do for the people.

“He made them happy,” she said. “Just trains make people happy.”