If writing with no end in sight is graphomania, trainomania can be the word for constructing an entire slice of American life on a tabletop. Roadside America was built by a model railroad enthusiast in the mid-30s. It's your best friend's basement run amok. Remember how impressed you werew with how your buddy made the crossing gates go up and down, or showed you how real steam puffed from the Lionel locomotive? That's like a kid showing you a card trick at his birthday party compared to this. These trains travel backward and forward on time, from 19th Century Pennsylvania to the modern day (and by "modern day" that's roughly 1941, when the colossal diorama grew into the space it occupies today).
Night falls on the display when the room darkens, the literal bells and whistles are silenced, replaced by a patriotic display and the strains of "God Bless America" sung by Kate Smith. Night fell three times when we were there, because a bus filled with camera-laden tourists arrived, and the proprietors presumably didn't want to disappoint.
On the far wall are the retirees who have given up puffing steam.
