Overland, Mo. ? “The land of misfit boys,” Bruce Brown said from his perch on the stool at the train store.

“Look at them,” he said. “They look like little kids.”

Brown motions toward the group of men older than 50 who spend Friday mornings in the Electric Train Outlet, which boasts the Midwest’s largest inventory of model trains.

Every Friday, over doughnuts and coffee, they talk trains, watch trains and have their own train sets repaired.

One of the regulars, a lawyer from Chesterfield, manipulates a remote-control switch that makes smoke puff, brakes squeal and little voices inside a little crane car yell things such as, “Swing the boom!”

The men stand at the sprawling display table, towering over miniature trees and hand-painted people the size of thimbles.

Misfit boys? Brown, 59, is one of them, of course. He is a customer who drives 90 minutes from his home in Chester, Ill., to get here. He has 400 feet of track in his basement at home. He and his wife, Mary, operate the trains every evening for an hour before going to bed.

“I have enough routes and scenery that it doesn’t get boring,” Brown said.

The camaraderie at the Electric Train Outlet keeps him coming here, plus the antics of store owner Bob Jacobson.

“He’s Santa Claus with an attitude,” Brown said. “I really enjoy being around him.”

And Jacobson knows trains.

‘Service with Abuse’

Jacobson is the proprietor of the Electric Train Outlet. He has been at the new 5,000-square-foot building for about 18 months. Before that, he spent 12 years at a smaller facility. Before that, he ran a train store in St. Louis.

The Web site features a happy lion with the phrase “Service with a smile.”

But regulars scoff at that. They good-naturedly anointed him “Service with Abuse,” and he wears the label with some pride.

Colin Jersa, 4, is held by his father, Michael Jersa as Bob Jacobson, owner of the Electric Train Outlet shows Colin how to work the controls to one of his display trains, Dec. 10 in St. Louis, Mo. The camaraderie at the Electric Train Outlet keeps him coming here.

He doesn’t suffer fools, especially when it comes to those who ask questions without bothering to read the directions.

“People come in – they’re doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs – but nobody can read,” Jacobson said.

Operator error is what Jacobson calls it.

This time of year, it seems, Jacobson spends half of his time fixing new trains. Regular customers love knowing that if they buy something from Jacobson, he’ll fix it without charging for his labor.

Experts say $500 million is spent annually on model railroads. And Jacobson has a corner on the Midwest.

“This is serious training, not just toys,” said Rich Edwards, the lawyer from Chesterfield who is a regular at the Friday gatherings. “They have close to $1 million in inventory. Go to the east or go to the west, and you won’t find anything like this.”

Brown said: “I’ve been to Chicago train stores, and they have nothing like this. This fella is top-notch.”

Jacobson still has the mountain that his son, Jason, helped build and decorate for the train layout when he was 5. Now Jason, 31, of Charlack, comes to the shop and still gets a kick out of things like the talking crane car.

Jason Jacobson said not every teenager these days is hung up on computer games. He’s seen a lot more teens coming in by themselves buying track. “That blew me away,” he said. “I haven’t seen that in a while.”

Modern-day trains, after all, have digital computers built in.

Bob Jacobson said he’s impressed when the 5- and 7-year-olds come in with their grandpas and already know the makes of trains.

“They know this is a General locomotive, this is a Hudson, this is a Challenger.”

Starter sets are $189 and up at the store. Jacobson might steer grandparents toward these if their grandkids have a tendency to destroy things.

Martin Gruettemeyer, 72, of Manchester, Mo., looks over the stock at Electric Train Outlet in Overland, Mo. The store boasts the Midwest's largest inventory of model trains.

“Almost everybody in here is over 40, they’ve stayed in the hobby and the kids are really coming back into it,” Jacobson said.

He attributes that renewed interest to the popularity of Thomas the Tank Engine and Polar Express.

‘Nuts’ for trains

Gene Garofalo, a retiree from Florissant, figures he’s sunk $30,000 into his train setup. It spans 17 sheets of plywood. His favorite features are the miniature carnival, merry-go-round and restaurants.

“It took me two years to do the decorations,” he said.

He’s been to several train stores but lingered at Jacobson’s store, at the old location, five or six years ago.

“I went nuts when I saw that big layout,” he said. “I came here with $7,000 and spent it all the first day.”

Another regular is Fred McCoy of Town and Country, who started building his 350-square-foot train layout in his basement as soon as he knew his grandbaby was going to be a boy.

“He’s nuts about it,” McCoy said.

But McCoy acknowledges it wasn’t built entirely for the grandson.

“Half for him, half for me.”