Get ready to ride the rails

YOUNGSTOWN -- All aboard!

Model train collectors, operators and enthusiasts can attend the Iron and Steel Spring Rail Fest all-gauge model train show and expo as it returns to the area Saturday.

The event is on track for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the St. Mary Assumption Center Social Hall, 356 S. Belle Vista Ave.

This would have been the fourth show, but COVID-19 canceled last year's spring and fall shows.

Happy to bring the show back is the founder, Dennis Mamone of Boardman. Like most kids growing up in the 1950s, Mamone was introduced to Lionel trains on the floor under the Christmas tree.

"In 1954 I was 4 years old and my dad bought me a Southern Pacific diesel set," Mamone said. "I played with it for a while, then I put it away."

He married, started a family and began a 36-year career as a teacher in the Youngstown school system. He and wife Anna raised two sons, Tyler who went on to become a corporate attorney in Miami, and Cody is in the banking industry in New York City.

"Of course both sons enjoy trains," Mamone said. "I still have their train sets I bought them when they were young. We get them out and run them at Christmas when they come for a visit."

Today he is employed part-time in the Beeghly College of Education at Youngstown State University.

He decided 15 years ago to get the trains out and start enjoying them again as a hobby. Five years later he cleared a room in the basement and began setting up a table and some collector shelves to house some of his specialty trains.

"I think it is a great hobby for him," his wife Anna said.

For the next 10 years, he started buying and selling trains. He would rent tables at railroad shows or would just attend and add to his personal collection.

As he watched the hobby grow in the area, he had an idea to bring in a new show. In 2019, he founded the Iron and Steel Spring Rail Fest and had a successful spring show.

"I called it 'Iron and Steel' because this area was steel town," Mamone said. "I had worked at Youngstown Sheet and Tube and my father and grandfather worked in the steel industry."

In spring 2020, he was planning his second show and a third one in the fall. Then COVID-19 struck and canceled both.

This year, Mamone felt it was time to bring it back, and the Saturday show was scheduled. He is ready to welcome area train enthusiasts of all scales and sizes.

The show will have a snack bar and will feature train sets, locomotives, accessories, equipment, memorabilia, and an operating layout. The Assumption Center is handicapped accessible. Admission is $6 per person, 12 and under are free, and there is free parking.

"It costs money to hold a show, but it makes money as well," he said. "But I put the shows on for the fun of it. It keeps me going -- as long as I don't lose money."

He enjoys seeing fellow hobbyists make new friends and purchase that one piece they are looking for.

Meanwhile, he's having fun running his own trains and seeing others enjoy the hobby.

jtwhitehouse@tribtoday.com