A Model Railroader: Ruef Continues Family’s Railroad Tradition His Way

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

MATTOON – Two of Jim Ruef’s uncles worked for Illinois Central Railroad, and he practically “lived” at the depot in Arcola, where he grew up.

“Railroading has always been in the family,” he said, noting that his wife’s grandfather was a freight agent for Illinois Central in Mattoon.

So it shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise that Ruef, 66, would spend not only the better part of his youth but also much of his adult life working with trains – albeit on a much smallerscale.

His childhood hobby of building model railroads evolved into a career of sorts, and even though Ruef is now retired as a truck driver, he is still working basically full-time laying track, building miniature towns and painting locomotive engines for businesses and private residences throughout the area.

Like most avocations that become vocations, his foray into model railroading began modestly. “I got my first train when I was 8, “Ruef said, referring to the Marx train set he received as a birthday gift.

The next year, he got an HO train layout on a piece of plywood, and he promptly added some scenery. “It was pretty rudimentary and crude-looking, but it was a start,” said Ruef, who now lives in Lerna with his wife, Peggy.

His passion for model trains ebbed somewhat but regained momentum later. “Like most kids, I had a couple years I got away from it, but I always gravitated back toward it,” he said.

In the early 1980s, Ruef said he “really got serious” about model railroading, as it turned into “not just my own hobby (but) doing stuff for other people.”

While living near Dallas, Texas, Ruef opened a shop for model railroads in 1985. He went on to travel on the train show circuit in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

In 1993, he was passing through Illinois and met with his friend, Allen Yoder, who at the time was manager of Rockome Gardens near Arcola. It was agreed that Rockome Gardens needed a large model train set, and Ruef spent the next three years installing one there.

He returned to Texas to work at a hobby store, and later managed a model train store in California. It was during that time that he was commissioned to build the model subway for