“When I was very young, my father’s tradition was decorating the tree on Christmas Eve and putting an electric train under it,” Erhardt said. “Each year the size and layout of the train would get a little bit bigger.”
As the years went on, Erhardt’s father, William, allowed his son to run the trains and help put the track together.
“Our trains multiplied as we could afford to add to the collection,” Erhardt said. “I was always told that they were going to be mine one day.”
That day came while Erhardt was in high school. His father had tables built in the family basement and they expanded the set. Then in 1966, Erhardt decided to join the U.S. Air Force and attend college on a scholarship.
With a degree in business administration, he accepted his commission and first assignment at Lockport Air Force Station in New York.
The trains went into storage since Erhardt was no longer able to devote time to the hobby.
“At that point I had two engines, quite a few cars and a lot of track,” Erhardt said.
Erhardt worked in New York for about a year and married his first wife, Kandi. He was sent to Japan on remote assignment and continued to travel with the Air Force for a few years between Washington DC and Europe.
Meanwhile, he had two daughters, and the family moved to Dayton in 1985.
“When I got my assignment to come to the Dayton area, it was the first time I was able to purchase a home that was large enough with a basement to set up the trains again.”
With his daughters close to high school age, Erhardt applied for a follow-on assignment at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and was able to keep his family in the area until he retired from the military in 1993. He worked as a civil service contractor at WPAFB and set up his trains only at Christmas time under the tree.
Mostly, the trains sat in boxes and bins in his basement in his Beavercreek home.
“I married my second wife Susan in 2002,” Erhardt said. “We decided due to health challenges, we were going to need a care facility to help us as we continued aging.”
After extensive research, the couple decided upon Bethany Village in Washington Twp. and moved in five years ago.
Prior to moving to Bethany, Erhardt and his wife had to sell their home and downsize their possessions.
“We had a lot of things that had accumulated over the years, and we gave most of it away,” Erhardt said. “But I always kept the trains and made them a priority.”
Erhardt rented a storage unit and locked the trains away but never forgot about the possibility of setting them up again one day. He talked with the administration at Bethany about giving him a room where he could set up the trains and establish a train club.
“Space is limited there, so years went by without a decision,” Erhardt said.
Then in January 2024, Erhardt received a call from the maintenance department at Bethany. They asked him what color he wanted to paint his train room.
Excited, Erhardt immediately put up a notice asking for folks interested in train collecting to join his club and help set up the train room.
“We had a group of about 15 people respond, and I explained to them that I was hoping others had trains they brought along with them to Bethany. I was the only one who had any left.”
Dana Albaugh, the director of Bethany Village Home Health Care and Independent Living helped the club get donated wood to build their tables. The men in the club, however, did all the building and set up themselves.
“These guys worked so hard on this,” Albaugh said. “And it makes my heart full to see it all come together.”
On Jan. 15 of this year, the train room was opened for the first time. The club has built eight tables of varying sizes — enough room to set up everything from Erhardt’s collection. The open house welcomed all residents of Bethany and attendance was “excellent,” according to Erhardt.
He hopes to open the train room to visitors and the general public, so people can bring in their children and grandchildren.
“I think it’s the nostalgia of the trains that keeps people interested,” Erhardt said. “People remember trains in store windows and under trees at Christmas. But it’s become an expensive hobby and fewer and fewer people have their own trains. I’m doing this so I can share the joy I have in trains.”
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