Correspondent photo / Sean Barron Grant Taylor, 18, of Boardman, busily connects two cars on the model train layout he designed that was part of the show.

CANFIELD — Grant Taylor isn’t hesitant about using the word “inconsistent” to describe a model train layout he designed and customized, but therein lies its eye-catching appeal.

“I started collecting this stuff when I was probably 1 or 2 years old,” Taylor, 18, of Boardman, recalled.

Some of his stuff includes Thomas the Train-style cars, along with a host of Hot Wheels model cars, plastic train track pieces and stuffed animals.

Taylor also had many of his collectibles on display or was selling them during Saturday’s annual Canfield Train & Toy show at the Event Center building at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

About 90 local and regional vendors set up on an estimated 320 tables in the large building and sold countless new and vintage train cars and parts, supplies, books, kits and a slew of other merchandise, Elwood Woolman of Berlin Center, event promoter, said.

Some of the Lionel and American Flyer brand trains date to 1900, around the time that Lionel came out with electric trains, Woolman noted.

Other merchandise included track pieces and switches, vintage structure assemblies, model airplanes and battery-operated rechargeable train sets with wireless remote controls.

Also available was free testing of train cars to ensure they functioned properly.

Taylor, who’s in the creative arts and design program at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center in Canfield, said he strived to have his layout of plastic train tracks “as realistic as possible.” Complementing his creation were a wide and diverse array of replicas of trees, logs, a statue, a few houses, a mat resembling grass, a small farm and a toy freight car converted to a barn.

Taylor, who also works at Giant Eagle in Boardman, recalled having stopped collecting train-related items when he was 12. During the COVID-19 pandemic, though, he began to watch “Thomas & Friends,” a British children’s TV series that aired from 1984 to 2021.

In the U.S., it initially broadcast in 1989 on PBS and later on Cartoon Network.

Watching the popular series inspired him to resume his interest, said Taylor, who added that he also enjoys making train-related videos.

Train aficionados come in all ages — even as young as 3. Just ask Michele Solarz of Vienna.

“I said ‘Train show,’ and he said, ‘Absolutely,'” Solarz said, referring to her 3-year-old son, Jaxon Solarz.

At home, Jaxon has a train set called The Polar Express, along with four or five Thomas the Train “old school” cars that are about 30 years old, Michele explained.

Jaxon’s interest in things that move doesn’t stop with trains, however. He also loves toy construction vehicles, perhaps largely because his father is in that industry, she added.

Another 3-year-old fan of all things trains was Benjamin Phillips of Lordstown.

“We knew he would absolutely love it, and he’s been fascinated since we got here,” his mother, Emily Phillips, said.

Also at Saturday’s show, Emily bought her son a plastic train with small tanks on top to add to a track layout he has set up at home, she added.

An additional attraction was a large double-tiered layout with an X-patterned set of tracks on the lower level that Mark Fabian Sr. and his son, Mark Fabian Jr., designed.

The elder Fabian, a science teacher at Crestview High School in Columbiana, ran two sets of trains: several gold 1926 Lionel O Gauge cars on the top level and newer ones from the 1990s on the bottom.

The layout also consisted of replicas of an oil derrick and a coal rotor from the 1950s, as well as a train trestle he built.

“You have to be creative,” he said. “That’s where the scenery comes in.”

Fabian Sr. added that he hopes the love of model trains will resonate with young people, many of whom spend a lot of time communicating and playing games on technological devices, and continue to be handed down to future generations.

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