BROOKFIELD — Cross the threshold at Defern Depot and enter the magical miniature world of a northeastern railway line set in just before World War II.

Located at 102 Governor's Road in Brookfield, the Defern Depot is home to the Balboa Granada & Eastern Railroad, a classic HO scale model railway that depicts life along the tracks in the early fall of 1941. The designation, “HO” refers to one-half size of toy trains built by the Lionel Manufacturing Company.

The railway, its lavish landscape and features, is the creation of model rail enthusiast Bill Gaver, who serves as the line's superintendent and guide. Gaver's wife, Nancy serves as Chairman of the Board, and art teacher Lee Gridley, who painted much of the landscape background and sky, serves as Land Acquisition Agent. The model railway takes most of the 1,288-square-foot Defern Depot that Gaver built 12 years ago after buying the land — adjacent to his barn — and demolishing an old mobile home that sat on the property. The depot, actually permitted as a three-bedroom ranch house with kitchen and bath, also includes a workshop, small meeting area, walls of photographs and train memorabilia, and storage for the countless bottles, tubes and jars of paints and supplies.

How many hours, would he venture to guess, went into the rail line — still a work in progress? “Thousands,” Gaver said, adding later that he works on the trains every day and never gets bored. Gaver either builds the models and buildings from kits and sometimes from scratch. For the Union Station replic project, he is reconstructing by hand a miniature replica of a station agent's home in East Wakefield as it appeared in photos at the turn of the century.

His skills and expertise have not gone unnoticed. Most recently, the Wakefield Heritage Commission recruited Gaver to assist them with building an HO scale railway model of the 1909 Boston and Maine Railroad line that served the five villages of Wakefield. The project, to be located at the Heritage Centre in the Freight Building adjacent to Union Station, is expected to take a year or two to complete, Gaver added.

Wakefield Heritage Commission Chair Pam Judge knew of Gaver's railway and asked him if he would assist with the Heritage Centre's HO scale project of the 1909 railway line. Gaver said sure, and she and commission members visited Defern Depot. She recalls the first time she entered.

“I was blown away by the detail,” said Judge. Gaver works closely with Judge's husband, Bill, who is also handy with his hands and carpentry and who has purchased more than 40 scale model rail cars for the Centre project. Pam Judge said once completed, the Centre scale model depicting stations in the five villages of Wakefield will be educational for children and community members.

A lifelong hobby, Gaver said he became interested in model trains after he received his first Lionel train set for Christmas when he was a boy.

“It went up after Thanksgiving and came down on New Year's,” he said, adding that with his HO railway, he can enjoy the set year-round. Gaver also hosts visits from school children and model train enthusiasts by appointment from around the country.

A member of the North Conway Model Railroad Club, Gaver is also a retired musician and educator. And, no, he never worked at a railroad. Instead, he was a musician, playing clarinet, sax and flute, over a 30-year career. Several of those years were spent playing with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and others with Big Bands.

He also headed up the music education department at Memphis State College. In post-retirement career, Gaver also worked designing, building and renovating homes.

Details, details

Several steam and early diesel powered engines carry freight and passengers through 10 cities and towns, a power station, a coal mine, farms, swimming and fishing spots, hilly and wooded terrain and several vignettes of country life.

A tiny driver encounters a tiny moose on the roadway. Tiny people take a dip at a swimming hole while an observer looks from a bridge. Tiny police respond to a traffic accident.

Trains maneuver along the tracks. Sound effects include the familiar “all aboard” horn, whistles and the chug-a-chug of the train. Gaver said each locomotive is equipped with a microchip and can be remote controlled with a radio-operated device about twice the heft of an average television remote.

The model railroad may be fictional, but the operation is realistic.

Gaver explained the operation.

“The model railroad hobbyist who constructs a layout combining fantasy and reality is developing a 'real' railroad whereby the movements of the locomotives and train cars operate like the prototype — a form of simulation game playing,” he writes in his brochure.

“Operation is not just running trains and enjoying the visuals. Model trains moving through well-executed and convincing scenery should have a non-aesthetic purpose based on reality,” he stated.

During the tour he points out that the system includes a coalmine to fuel the locomotives. Coal is mined and transported. “Freight cars move from A to B for a reason,” he said.

Another boxcar loaded with rolls of paper is routed to a printing company. An empty grain hopper is routed to a grain elevator, and so forth. Along the way are tiny conductors, engineers, yardmasters, hostlers and dispatchers, and passengers and passers-by dressed in 1941 fashion.

Waybills and car identification cards determine the routing of cars, locomotives and trains.

Gaver said some model enthusiasts enjoy one or two aspects of the hobby, such as building the structures, landscaping, or electronics. But he likes it all.

“I'm interested in the broad scale,” he said. As for the Heritage Centre project, he predicts it will take some time to complete the project.

“It's a wonderful challenge,” he said.

For more information, visit the Balboa Granada & Eastern Railroad website at www.deferndepot.com, or e-mail Bill Gaver at bngaver@roadrunner.com

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Larissa Mulkern may be reached at LMulkern@newstote.com.