SURVEYING MILL OPERATION — Larry Caniff stands in a trap door area of his G gauge model train display where he has built a steel mill. Caniff said he used books and photographs to create the mill buildings materials for his train layout. -- Dave Gossett

SURVEYING MILL OPERATION — Larry Caniff stands in a trap door area of his G gauge model train display where he has built a steel mill. Caniff said he used books and photographs to create the mill buildings materials for his train layout. — Dave Gossett

STEUBENVILLE — Larry Caniff loves his trains.

But the constant work to protect the G gauge scale train on his backyard deck began to take a toll on the 65-year-old city man.

“I was constantly cleaning the leaves and pine needles from the train set and fighting the chipmunks. Winter meant taking the trains inside my house and covering the set up with tarps during colder weather. So when my good friend Dr. Pat Macedonia offered me room in a vacant building he owns, I jumped at the chance,” Caniff explained.

Caniff met the Macedonia family when he managed the All-American Lanes bowling alley and later purchased the business.

“This past winter I tore everything down and moved it all to this building downtown. I have now been here for 11 months slowly building it back up again and adding even more things to the layout,” he noted.

“It took several trips to get everything moved here. It was a lot of work but well worth it. And now I am working on creating an even larger 60-by-70-foot setup in this location. I also moved most of the rocks I had used on my setup on the decks and of course the trains, the track and the buildings,” continued Caniff.

The rocks came from Caniff’s trips to state Route 7, where he waited for the hillside to slide down after the winter weather.

“I was driving a Lincoln at that time. I always carried five plastic buckets with me and would park and fill up those buckets with small rocks to take home for my outdoor display. When I moved everything here to the vacant building I started bringing the rocks in those same buckets, trip after trip. I had 200 boxes taped and labeled with the different parts and we moved everything over the course of several weeks,” Caniff recounted.

His new layout is not finished yet but visitors can see the steel mill and small village Caniff has built on the platform made of 350 2-by-4 boards, 80 sheets of plywood and 40 pounds of wood screws.

“I had five guys helping me, each with a drill in hand. I also brought 2,000 artificial Christmas trees that I have stored in another room in the building. I do all of the landscaping and small work myself. I based the steel mill operations on books and photos I have from the Weirton Steel and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel companies. Plus I have several friends who worked in those mills who described what the mill looked liked,” said Caniff.

“When I said I was going to create a G scale layout everyone told me it couldn’t be done. That was the challenge for me. But I did it and now everyone wants to visit and check it out. I created the steel mill buildings out of old plastic election signs that I painted and lettered and cut to the right size. The village houses are old doll houses I picked up at yard sales and flea markets and re-worked for my setup. Ninety-five percent of this is built from scratch. It has been a hobby for me all my life. And while I enjoy running the trains, I really like to build things. I am always working on my display,” cited Caniff.

He has created a home away from his real home in the vacant building for himself and other train hobbyists.

“I have a small kitchen in one room, a restroom, a workshop, a paint room and a room just to sit back, listen to music or watch TV. I also have a TV set in the display room where I can put a movie in just to have the background conversation. And I have a bed for my puppy who usually comes with me. Sometimes I get lost in my work and will spend 12 hours a day here. There is Naples Restaurant nearby, so I can call over for an order, bring it back and just be with my train display. I get lost in time,” laughed Caniff.

“The only drawback I have is I don’t have double tools. I will have a tool down here when I need it at home. This set requires a lot of maintenance. But I am not dealing with the winter weather any longer. I have been told this is one of the largest G gauge train sets in the country,” commented Caniff.

And when visitors stop to look at his display Caniff immediately notices the reaction from the adults.

“It is like they are little kids again. They usually stand there for a few minutes trying to take it all in. Then they walk around the track and layout and then they ask to see the trains run, just like when they were young kids with a toy train set,” laughed Caniff.

It all started for Caniff when he was 15 years old and his dad bought him an American Flyer train set from the Hub department store.

“My dad bought an S gauge and I still have it stored away, although it hasn’t been run since the early 1960s. I was using Popsicle sticks to build buildings and bridges at that point,” recalled Caniff.

“Everything today is remote controlled. I hold the transmitter and every engine has a receiver and a battery and I can walk around the setup while controlling the train or trains that are running at one time,” he said.

“It was different when I was 20 or 30 years old. But now at 65 it isn’t as much fun crawling around. I have known Dr. Pat and Dr. Dom Macedonia for at least the past 20 years and they will bring their trains down here to run them. It is a lot of fun to hang out with guys who enjoy this as much as I do. When I was younger I was onto the O gauge trains but eventually moved to the G gauge and sold the O gauge. Right now I have more than 1,000 feet of aluminum track, all 6-foot sections. That is where the real expense comes in,” remarked Caniff.

“I joined the Ohio River Northern Railroad Association when I was younger and I always listened and watched the older guys in the group. I learned a lot from them and now I am the oldest member. Now I am a builder. I run my trains for people to see them moving, but I am into the building part. I will get an idea for a building or a trestle and will sketch it out to get the size correct then start building it,” according to Caniff.

“It is like heaven down here. I have a ball when I come here. This is where I can relax, have fun and create a new display. Sometimes I just come and sit and study my layout and think about where I can take the track or what building I can construct to add to the display. I had Thanksgiving dinner with Dr. Pat Macedonia and after dinner were were down here running our trains. What a better way to finish Thanksgiving Day,” said Caniff.

(Gossett can be contacted at dgossett@heraldstaronline.com.)