- [Narrator] The Columbia River Gorge is full of natural wonders, but barreling along its banks are also wonders of human engineering, trains.

(train engine humming) Combined, the power of trains and the grandeur of the Gorge is enough to inspire awe.

(train engine humming) For one group of Portlanders, the combination has also inspired a project of epic proportions, in miniature - That is humongous.

- [Narrator] The Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club is the biggest model railroad in the Northwest and one of the oldest clubs in the country.

Since 1947, its members have built a meticulous replica of the tracks that trace the Gorge, from Stone Henge to Crown Point to Union Station.

- There's no way in the world I could build something like this at my house.

Couldn't afford it.

So you join up with everybody else and we come down here and just have a blast.

- No choice, have fun.

- [Narrator] When the full majesty of the railroad gets chugging in its North Portland warehouse, you get a sense of just how far model trains have come from a circular track in the basement with a stop and go button.

- This is just the entire mainline in white, and then the red spots are tracks that are occupied by a train.

It's pretty accurate for when you can't see a train.

- [Narrator] It takes around 30 people to run the entire setup from individual conductors to dispatchers buried deep inside the model.

- What train do you have?

You have the cross over Horse Thief.

Let me know when you're clear.

- The nice thing about this club is that there's a whole variety of people.

We have some people that all they want to do is run trains and then there's the opposite, in my case, as to where I just enjoy doing scenery.

- [Narrator] The club chose to set the model in the 1950s because that was a golden arrow when steam and diesel locomotives overlapped.

Members make most of the scenery themselves, working off photos and even architectural plans.

For Cynthia Leonard, no detail is too small.

- There we go.

This is a new animation that we put in this year, which is chickens feeding.

It's a little magnet that goes around and makes them peck.

There's something about recreating the world in a very small sort of way.

It makes it very manageable.

- Do you ever have fantasies of King Kong or Godzilla?

- Yeah, everybody, that's the one thing that we are always talking about, is, like, walking across, like, Godzilla actually, and yeah, doing the whole Tokyo bit, yeah.

- [Narrator] Like Godzilla, trains are captivating in part because of their size and power.

They roll over the landscape, reshaping the mountains and cities around them.

- There's something rather awesome about these massive, huge machines that are moving tons of material and people, and they're elegant.

- [Narrator] The goal of the club feels like a paradox then, to replicate that same sense of awe on the smallest of scales.

(train engine humming) - That's not good.

- [Narrator] That requires not only realistic looking scenery, but also an intricate web of electronics and soundscapes that hides just out of sight.

- I have just completed wiring all of the headlights, taillights, and street lamps on this section of bridge.

There are low voltage DC light-emitting diode type wiring.

So don't look at this and say, "My God, "I'm would never let him wire my house."

This a little different.

- [Narrator] It's a constant process of tinkering and upgrades that feels like you crammed all the Christmas presents for 130 train nerds into one giant room.

They've recently upgraded the track from analog to digital.

- There we go.

- [Narrator] So operators can control any train from anywhere in the setup.

(train horn blowing) And they're constantly trying to make the scenery more accurate by adding things, like the native fishing platform at Celilo Falls.

The emphasis on new technology and change means that the club continues to attract new members.

- The stereotype is old, retired white guys.

There's quite a bit of truth to that, but the hobby is expanding.

- You know, my father used to wake me up and say, "Train's going by," and I'll get up and watch the train.

I did that to my grandson and look what he's doing now.

- I have to go over to the power room where we turn on the layout, flip a switch that turns on all the building lights, and then this whole board should light up.

- We'll check it out.

Which ones did you do?

- I did, basically, this whole street right here, all the houses.

The church is lit up right now.

- Oh, yeah.

- The drugstore is lit up.

- That looks good, good job.

Thank you.

- [Narrator] Club members put in thousands of hours of work every year, but it's with one big moment in mind.

- Train.

- [Narrator] November, when they throw open the doors to the public for their annual fundraiser.

- There goes another one.

There goes a fast one, there goes a fast one.

- Since he was 1-year-old, we've been coming to the trains.

He knows all the bridges in Portland.

- That's the b'way bridge over there.

That's the steel bridge over there, it has a lower level.

- [Narrator] It's nearly impossible to take in every scene in detail.

- Oh, they are moving.

The chickens are moving.

- [Narrator] So club members have drawn up a scavenger hunt with some of their favorite items, plus some sci-fi Easter eggs.

- By the lookout towers.

- By the lookout?

- So that'd probably be, wouldn't that be up on the top of the hills?

- Is there a dinosaur up there, I can't tell?

- We have things kind of just as a little wink and a nod to the fact that this is a hobby.

It's not work.

Let's have fun.

(train engine humming) - [Narrator] Just as the beauty of the Columbia Gorge has been preserved for generations to come, the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club looks to drawing in these emerging train lovers to keep their model railroad running full steam into the future.

- That way, we constantly have younger members coming up through the system, learning how to do things.

So that it comes their time, they get to take over as we move on off into the sunset, back to the caboose and down the track, you know?

(Isaac laughs) (train horn blowing) (train engine humming)