WASHINGTON, Iowa (AP) - A former bricklayer made a deal with an eastern Iowa retirement home when he became a resident to allow him to put up a display of model trains.
Jim Bennett of Washington says the holiday season is his favorite time for the past 10 years because he gets to practice and display his enthusiasm being a train engineer, KCRG-TV reports.
His train display is in the lobby of the United Presbyterian Home in the town of 7,400 people about 50 miles south of Cedar Rapids. He’s posted hours of operation so that visitors can see it for more than three hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Bennett says he will likely leave the display up through February.
Bennett said he has always loved building toy trains, repairing them, and watching them cruise around the tracks. But as he got older and eventually moved into the retirement home, he worried he would not have a chance to ever bring out the sets again.
“People like me got older and then they started coming to retirement homes, and didn’t have room for them,” Bennett said. “So I sold them. But I couldn’t stand it. So I started over again.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.