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Issue date: October 20, 2000

Toy trains have track record

by Jeff Williams

Pleasanton is a city grown around the path of the locomotive. So it is not surprising to find a partnership between the Amador-Livermore Valley Museum and avid toy train collectors Stephen and Diane Rodriguez.

Now through the end of December, visitors to the museum can find an entertaining exhibit of Stephen Rodriguez's toy trains along with train paintings by his wife Diane. Some of the pieces are in the likeness of engines and cars that actually passed through Pleasanton.

Since 1869, when the first train chugged down First Street, trains have been an integral component of Pleasanton. In the heyday of trains - between about 1910 and 1972 - Pleasanton welcomed thousands of visitors and future residents, as well as countless dollars in goods, entering and leaving the town... all by train.

Today Pleasanton sees (and hears the whistles) of the train that commutes to the quarry as well as the commuter ACE train and BART. It is this historical and present-day component of life here that the museum captures in its new exhibit.

The exhibit, like many of the other displays in the museum, caters to the imagination of children while embracing the heart of Pleasanton. As the 58-year-old Pleasanton resident and toy train collector Stephen Rodriguez said, "These are toy trains. They're not to-scale models of the actual trains."

And, as the museum points out at the exhibit, there is a fascination for people, especially children, to see the real world replicated in miniature. With the exhibit's glass-roofed passenger cars, and Tootsie-Roll and colorful LifeSaver cars, it is as if an enormous adult world has been turned into something more manageable for kids.

As for the paintings, Stephen Rodriguez said his wife tried them only after his constant coaxing. "I kept egging her on... and finally she tried it and fell in love with it."

Diane Rodriguez, who holds a bachelor's degree in art education, is "one of only a handful of women across the country that paint actual trains," her husband said. The paintings, represented in print form in the museum, capture the personality of the trains along with their intricacies - the bolts and valves, lines, curves and colors. Alongside the trains lent by her husband, the paintings complete the exhibit.

Stephen Rodriguez, who has been collecting the toy Lionel brand trains since his father gave him his first engine in 1947, says this is not only something for children but that it is accessible at many levels of expense. "I collect for the colors and motifs that go through toy trains," he said. "I happen to collect Lionel trains but you can get involved in lower lines... there are six different types of excellent manufacturers available."

He recommends that those interested in collecting model trains contact the Northern California Division of the Train Collectors Association. Members keep each other updated on the collecting world and swap collection pieces.

The group meets at Iron Horse Middle School in San Ramon and Montera High School in Oakland. Call (510) 886-6699 for more information. <@$p>