This week at Brick Model Railroader we are taking a pause from our usual LEGO train blog. BMR endeavors to cover LEGO trains from around the world, but as many of you know, most of us who contribute are from the United States. And well, the US has been going through a lot this past week. In the midst of this health pandemic that the whole world is dealing with, our nation has seen long buried issues of racism brought to light once more. Our country is divided, and it’s led to unrest, protests, and riots.

This is just a simple blog about LEGO trains. We’re not here to advance a political agenda. Our purpose is to promote the LEGO train hobby. However, this week, we didn’t feel it was right to just carry on as usual. Ignoring the elephant in the room is what got us here, and it’s something we as a society cannot do any longer. I don’t have any easy answers to our problems, no one does. But I know we need to talk about what’s going on. And we need to keep talking about it. Talk will hopefully lead to understanding, and understanding will lead to change.

I’m writing today to tell you a story. A story which I hope will be a positive tale, and hope will help us understand that if we just stop and listen, we may find we have more in common than we know. 

It was May of 2015, and I was traveling to BrickMagic, a LEGO fan convention held that year in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was driving down to the event and had decided to make a detour during my trip. I wanted to stop and see the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. I have never been to this museum, but it was high on my list of places to visit. Housed in an old freight depot, VMT sits in the heart of Norfolk & Western Railroad, now Norfolk Southern, territory. VMT is home to legendary locomotives such as the “Spirit of Roanoke” N&W 611, the “Mercedes of Steam” N&W 1218, and many other awesome pieces of railroad rolling stock. The museum also has a nice car collection on display, and even some aeronautical and space artifacts tucked away inside. For me, this place was golden.

I timed my drive so that I got there not long after the museum opened. I spent most of the day walking around by myself, just taking in all the exhibits and shooting as many photos with my camera as I could. Got to document those future modeling projects you know. As I was nearing the end of my tour through the museum, I stopped to rest for a minute on one of the park benches in the museum’s outdoor display yard. The museum sits right on the Norfolk Southern’s very busy mainline through Roanoke, and the outdoor display yard is perfect spot to watch trains roll by.

While sitting on that park bench, one of the museum volunteers came out from inside the museum and spotted me. He was a black gentleman, probably in his late 60’s or early 70’s. He was about my stature, so not especially tall, with short curly gray hair poking out from under his Norfolk Southern Retiree hat. I really didn’t think anything of him until he came over and sat down beside me on the bench, and then it was mostly just my fear of being socially awkward. I’m very uncomfortable with small talk, and with meeting new people. He said hello, and I replied hello in return. I made mention of how nice the day was, and he asked me how I was enjoying the museum. I said I loved it of course, and he asked me where I was from. I said I was from Pennsylvania, and he then asked what brought me down here to Roanoke. I told him I was on a trip to a LEGO fan convention, and that I was a big train fan and model railroader and wanted to see the museum on my trip. He was immediately fascinated by my LEGO train hobby and began asking more questions about what I build, how I make my models, where I display my creations and such. I answered, and even took out my phone to bring up my Flickr gallery and show him some photos of my models. He had never seen LEGO train models before and thought they were pretty neat.

As we talked more, our conversation turned to his railroading career. He was a retired railroad employee, and had spent his entire working life involved with the railroad working multiple jobs for the Norfolk & Western, and later Norfolk Southern. He worked as a trainman, conductor, engineer, and several other positions over the years. He had some great stories to tell about working on the railroad, and I sat there intently listening to each one. His knowledge of the railroad ran deep, and as trains passed by he would identify each one. He knew what it was hauling, where it came from and where it was going. He even called out one intermodal train passing by saying “now in about a minute you’ll see him start slowing down, they’ll be stopping up ahead to make a crew change.” And like clockwork, a few moments later we heard the brakes being applied and the train started slowing before passing out of sight. It was clear to me that trains were his love, and a hugge part of who he was.

The two of us must have spent a half hour on that bench just talking about trains. We were from very different walks of life. Me, an awkward white guy from rural Pennsylvania in his late 30’s and obsessed with a children’s toy, and him, a retired black railroad worker from Virginia spending his days volunteering at a museum. But we connected over a love of trains. In that moment, race, age, and where we were from didn’t matter. We found we had a common interest, and all the superficial differences between us faded away.

I wish I could have spent more time talking to this gentleman. It was the highlight of my visit to the museum. I would love to return for another visit and would like to think we could meet again and talk more about trains. But if nothing else, that day stays with me. I love trains and have had some awesome experiences with them over the years. I often find though, the most memorable train experiences are not with the machines, but with the people who share that love of trains. In those moments, we all share a connection, and we’re all one.

I don’t pretend to be a perfect human being. I know I have flaws, I know I can make unfair judgments of people, and I know I can be better. I recognize that I have work to do to be better. Every day I need to strive to be a kinder, more understanding, and more tolerant human. I need to look past skin color, ethnicity, culture, gender and other differences in people because when I do, I may find someone I have more in common with than not. Maybe that’s where solving our problems should start, with each one of us working to be better each and every day. We need to lead by example because just saying something is not the same as doing something. When we all work to make ourselves better, the good will propagate.

I love this hobby most for the people I’ve met, and the friends I’ve made. I have friends now from all over the world, from different backgrounds, different cultures and languages and lifestyles. But for all the differences we may have, we all share a love of LEGO, a love of trains, and a love for each other. We are one family here. I hope that someday we can learn to treat everyone the same. 

If you’ve read through this, thank you. I hope it’s brought some positive light to a troubling time in our history. I hope you too will work to be a better person. This hobby, and this world, becomes a brighter place when we welcome all.

Thank you.

Cale Leiphart
BMR