COSTA MESA, Calif. — In an area of Costa Mesa a little off the beaten path, there are trains that are less about transportation and more about inspiration.

“They’re just so fascinating,” said Declan Henry, a junior at Pacific Coast High School in Tustin. “There’s so many moving parts, and there’s so much to see and do.”

He says he’s been into trains since the age of 2, specifically steam engines. He operates his train with by burning old wood railroad ties and adding water.

“I got this over the pandemic, and I’ve been working on it since to have something to do other than school,” Henry said. 

He’s one of more than a hundred members of the Orange County Model Engineers. The group has been chugging along since its founding in 1985.

“My parents, they brought me out here, and they had the trains running, and I went for a train ride, and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool!’”

He says he was 4 then, and he’s been hooked ever since. The club operates six trains, but most members have their own trains.

“We have electric engines. We have some club electric engines, and we have steam engines, real steam. It’s not fake. Water, fire, it boils together. You create steam, and that gives you propulsion to go forward,” said Josh Guesman, one of the newer members.

He grew up in the area and had a birthday party here as a child and now wants to continue the tradition.

“Now that I have kids, I brought my kids here, and then one day, I stood up there and the guy at the front says, ‘Well you’ve been coming here for so long. Why aren’t you a member?’ I said, ‘That’s a great question,’” Guesman said.

The group offers free rides to the public on the third weekend of every month, drawing an average of three thousand people.

“We’re on the undeveloped side of Fairview Park, the more natural side, but we have almost five miles of track here,” Guesman said. “One of our founding members, actually, I believe, was in charge of the steam engines at Knott’s Berry Farm.”

Guests are encouraged to donate, but it’s not required. During its most recent public ride day, the club decorated the tracks for its Polar Express operations. The trains don’t go much faster than 5 miles per hour, but speed isn’t the point.

“I don’t know who has more fun on the public ride days, whether it’s the guys who are running the trains or if it’s the kids who are in the back,” Guesman said.

Many of the club members are retirees looking to keep busy, but there is also a mix of younger members looking to learn from those who are more experienced. All of them are volunteers and work hard to maintain the track and the trains. Members say the hobby is challenging and certainly not cheap, with some of the engines costing tens of thousands of dollars.

“Any member that doesn’t have equipment is welcome to come over and just run one of the trains from the club,” said Hank Castignetti, a long-time club member.

“We have a 30-year use agreement with the city of Costa Mesa. We started with a 30-year use agreement. It came due. We ended up getting a renewal of another 30 years,” Castignetti said. 

He likes to say you can tell a happy railroader by the bugs in his teeth, and by the looks of it, a hobby that will continue to provide memorable experiences for kids of all ages.

“It’s a fun hobby to share,” Castignetti said.

With plenty of smiles to go around.