Napa model railway loses legal battle

An immense model railway is being dismantled after losing a three-and-a-half-year legal fight to remain at the Napa Valley Expo.

Thomas the Tank Engine’s ‘Fat Controller’ would be shaking with indignation as it emerges that a favourite model railway in Napa is being forced to pull up its tracks for good.

The impressive miniature world, comprised of trains, villages, rolling hills and elaborate switching equipment is in the process of being taken apart after losing its legal bid to stay at the Napa Valley Expo. The decision marks the end of the road for The Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society which has tended to its intricate miniature railway at the downtown Napa fairground location for more than 51 years, since finding a home there in 1970.

Expo board members confirmed the closure in a news release last week, marking the end of an almost four-year battle between the rail enthusiast group and the Expo that erupted when the fair authority declined to extend the train society’s $180-per-month lease beyond the end of 2017. Members of the model rail group sued to block their departure, arguing that the eviction was an illegal manoeuvre to enforce the Expo’s redevelopment without having carried out a state-required environmental study. However, an appeals judge ruled the model train supporters could no longer sue for attempted eviction due to a revised lease agreement in 2018, which collapsed when the rail group stopped paying the increased monthly rent of $2,000.

A Facebook message posted by the rail group conveyed the end of the line for the tiny universe.

“It is with a sad heart we must report that we have to close and vacate our building at the Napa Expo fairgrounds,” it read. “It will be bulldozed! After almost four years of fighting in court, the decision went against us. We do thank you for your support of our organization. We gave it a good fight.”

The pocket-sized trainline, which boasts not only engines and boxcars but tiny scale houses, cars, forests and mountains that together create a tableau of small-town Northern California life, will be replaced by a livestock pavilion and a parking lot. The labyrinthine model railway is so detailed it has taken almost two months to dismantle.

“It’s sad, it really is,” Wayne Monger, president of the model train society, has said. “We have a very complex machine here. I estimate there’s 10 miles of wiring underneath this; the mechanical tolerances are fractions of a millimetre. This was a fully operational machine in its own right and the work of four generations of people… The only option we had left was to take an appeal to the state Supreme Court, but that would have cost over $200,000, which was way beyond our means.”

Joe Anderson, the Expo’s retired chief executive, said in a statement: “We are looking forward to transitioning back to somewhat normal operations as we start to welcome back a host of community activities including bingo, a modified fair/carnival experience in June, the Junior Livestock Auction in July, the BottleRock Music Festival in September, and a variety of other events and private rentals of our facilities.”

Only time will tell whether the Expo’s tunnel vision turns out to be just the ticket. But for now at least, the move signals the last time miniature train fans will hear the tiny rumble through California’s urban jungle.