April 8, 1990
By TESSA DECARLO; TESSA DECARLO, WHO LIVES IN NAPA, CALIF., COVERS NAPA COUNTY FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE.
The town of Sonoma has preserved several mementos of turn-of-the-century railroading along with the historic Sonoma Mission and the landmark barracks where the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt was launched.
But a train-loving visitor's first stop should be Train Town, an endearing and surprising modern tribute to trains. A mile south of the Sonoma Plaza, Train Town is an obsessively accurate model railroad - its owners call it "the most well-developed scale railroad in the Americas" - and it is a model big enough to ride on.
The quarter-size train chugs through a wooded 10-acre park on a 20-minute ride past waterfalls and beautifully detailed houses, over a trestle and through several tunnels, all precisely one-quarter the size of the real thing. It can carry as many as 90 passengers, riding in the train's open coal and freight cars.
Most of the visitors are families with young children, who enjoy climbing around inside the three full-size antique cabooses that stand alongside the brightly painted entrance.
A stop at Lakeview, a town of about 20 miniature buildings that is inhabited by live ducks, sheep, pygmy goats and a pony, allows the train a chance to take on water and gives passengers a few minutes to feed the animals (food is sold by Train Town) and admire the workings of the locomotive. A favorite sight is the tiny outhouse on the edge of town that comes into view as the train pulls away.
Train Town is the creation of Stanley Frank, an Oakland printer who decided in the 1950's that his huge basement train layout still didn't give him enough scope.
He bought the Sonoma land and began bringing his dream railroad to life, building everything himself, from the houses and landscaping to the line's two steam locomotives and one electric engine. The job took him 11 years.
Mr. Frank died in 1977. His family still operates Train Town and continues to add new features to its landscape.