Train your eyes: Layout features local landmarks

Published 3:17 am Thursday, December 25, 2025

The Southwest Louisiana O Gauge Model Railroad Club 2025 Exhibit is on display at the Calcasieu Parish Library in Sulphur this holiday season. Guests have three opportunities to see it from noon‑5 p.m. Saturday, 1‑6 p.m. on Jan. 2, noon‑5 p.m. on Jan. 3.

This year’s layout features a newly constructed model of an ESSO oil refinery and also many local landmarks. Also new this year is the Christmas train featuring an 1890 engine and has flat cars with different scenes. One flatcar has a man‑ ger scene. Club president Andy Buckley said 615 people have visited the exhibit since it was set up on Dec. 13. Buckley said the exhibit, comprised of 25 engines and 75 cars, has $40,000 worth of trains and takes three weeks to set up.

This is the third year the exhibit has been set up at the Calcasieu Parish Library in Sulphur, making it a new tradition for several families to stop by and see during the month of December and first weekend of January. Buckley and Tommie Stutes, club vice president, said they enjoy seeing families visit, and love teaching all ages about the trains and how they work. “It’s a great opportunity to just entertain children, parents and grandparents and to see the kids come and they’re so excited to see the trains running,” Buckley said.

Stutes serves as superintendent of maintenance. He said he enjoys showing families the exhibit and interacting with the kids and explaining how the trains work.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it to get to show these things off and get the families in here to see it,” Stutes said.

Angel Shreve and her son Asher, along with three of Asher’s friends, said they enjoyed seeing the exhibit last week. Shreve said the kids’ favorite part was the area with the Ferris wheel and Legoland.

“The kids loved it; they were floored at how big it was,” Shreve said.

The club was organized in 2014 by Buckley, Edwin Sherwood and the late Barry McCall to model the Southern Pacific, Missouri Pacific and the Kansas City Southern railroads in Louisiana and Texas from 1946 to 1978.

The first year, Buckley said he, Sherwood and McCall ran their trains in the display window of the old Muller’s Department Store on Ryan Street. The club’s original layout was constructed and displayed at the Brimstone Museum in Sulphur from 2015 to 2020 and was operated on a bi-monthly basis drawing an average of 1,500 people annually. The layout was destroyed by Hurricane Laura in 2020.

In 2022 a new exhibit was set up at the Imperial Calcasieu Museum and in 2023 constructed at the Calcasieu Parish Library in Sulphur where it now comes annually just in time for the holidays. Buckley said the club loves being at the library, which had more than 1,000 people view it last year.

“I can’t say enough about the town of Sulphur,” Buckley said. “Much of the success we’ve had is because of the community of Sulphur. They support these kind of activities and to see people I went to high school with 50 years ago and they’re bringing their grandkids — it’s just a neat experience.”

Buckley said he saw guests come over the weekend that said they’ve been waiting for the exhibit to be back and look forward to it every year and make it a part of their Christmas celebrations.

“That’s a blessing to us because it makes all the work that we do worthwhile,” he said.

Buckley said the kids are genuinely grateful and thank him for setting up the trains. He said it’s a “great feeling” to see the kids and families look forward to the exhibit and making it a part of their Christmas traditions.

“It really has become a part of Christmas to many of the families of the Sulphur and Westlake area, they really look forward to it,” he said.

“My favorite part about the exhibit is seeing the children come and seeing so many parents and for us providing a magical entertaining experience for the kids,” Buckley said.