Tom Stolte has built a model train building to house his model train railroad project. He also makes miniature railroad decals.

McLouth ? Minuscule board by minuscule board, Tom Stolte has constructed a scaled-down version of his family’s homestead.

He doesn’t recall how long it’s taken to put the buildings together. But that doesn’t really matter — this massive project is his hobby.

“I told Mom one year, ‘I’ll get you a crockpot if you get me a train set,'” Stolte said. “I’ve been into it ever since.”

The replica buildings complement more than 1,500 feet of model train railroad track in his model train building, which measures 20 feet by 40 feet next to his rural Leavenworth County home.

Replicas of grain elevators and more from Kansas City, Atchison, Leavenworth, and Lincoln and Omaha, Neb., are in the display. It runs along the walls at two levels: one 4 to 5 feet from the floor and another at 7 feet. Track also meanders throughout the building at the lower level.

The building was finished in November 2008 and work has continued on the display ever since.

Stolte started collecting model trains in 1974. His love for trains grew from trips with his father to take livestock to the Kansas City, Mo., stockyards.

“We’d always drive by the Santa Fe yard,” Stolte said.

These days, the only way to go, in Stolte’s opinion, is MoPac, or Missouri Pacific. Various MoPac signage appears throughout the display.

Stolte also is in the business of making miniature railroad decals. His business is Oddballs Decals, oddballsdecals.org.

Inside his model train building is a replica of the Blair Feeds building in Atchison. Don Bronec, of McLouth, who works for Stolte helping create the display, built the replica. The structure placed first at the Turkey Creek Meet, a National Model Railroad Association contest, in Lenexa in 2009.

Paul Knowles, of St. Joseph, Mo., and Kirk Freeman, McLouth, also work for Stolte assembling the exhibit.

As Knowles noted, creating the replica buildings takes time. He estimated that work on a building for a stop in Willis, near Hiawatha, took three or four months. Another small town, Weeping Water, Neb., is a stop on the way to Lincoln and Omaha.

In the Leavenworth area of the display is a replica of a Geiger Ready-Mix building and the former Bay State Mill. The actual mill no longer is standing in Leavenworth.

Next to the replica of the original Stolte homestead, Freeman created a cornfield, with about 1,000 miniature ears of corn. In addition, Freeman painted a backdrop complete with nearly 1,200 trees.

“I counted all those trees and I mind-numbingly did that,” Freeman said.

Work continues on the display, but Stolte already has welcomed visitors. A group of about 10 from the MoPac Historical Society visited the exhibit. Stolte had planned to have open houses on Sundays in January, but the winter weather forced him to cancel those plans. He now is planning for Sunday afternoon showings in May.

For more information about upcoming showings of the display, contact Stolte at 913-727-6649.