Walk into BARN’s Commons this month and you might hear the gentle hum of model trains crisscrossing their tracks. Metal Fabrication Lead Andy Dupree has brought his treasured Märklin train collection to share with the community — a collection that began with a single engine over 50 years ago.

“I was given a train set for my sixth birthday,” Andy recalls. “It started with one small engine and two cars.” From there, the collection grew steadily as family members added new pieces each Christmas and birthday. One particularly memorable gift came tucked into his Christmas stocking. “They had carefully put an engine in my stocking so that it was a huge surprise instead of something under the tree,” he says. “They had me figured out, for sure.”

By late elementary school, Andy had moved beyond simply watching trains circle the track. He dove into the technical side — building signals, creating switching systems, and learning how to run multiple trains on a single track. “It’s basically an analog computer,” he explains. “You can make all sorts of crazy things happen with the signals.”

Andy’s fascination with trains continued into adulthood. One Saturday, when an employee came looking for him at work, Andy invited him in to discover that the entire apartment had been transformed into a model railway. The employee’s response? He got down on his knees and helped.

Andy’s trains are Märklin brand, a German company that began as a toy maker in the 1880s. The company built everything from tin toys to steam locomotives, and their HO-scale trains became especially popular with American soldiers stationed in Germany after World War II. What makes these trains special is their durability — they’re practically indestructible, Andy says.

When Andy and his wife moved to Bainbridge full-time a few years ago, he found himself without space to set up his collection. “You guys are allowing me to let them run again,” he says.

Stop by The Commons to see Andy’s trains in action. And thanks to Andy for sharing this special exhibit with us all.