News Summary

The beige and white building at the end of Squire Court in West Chester Twp. has no signs on it. The paint is new, as is the awning by the front door, but little on the exterior indicates there is anything unique behind the covered windows.

Inside, however, it's a different story.

A unique attraction is taking shape in the 80,000-square-foot building. The creators of Entertrainment Junction, a $10 million, railroad-themed family entertainment center expected to open in June, say it will be an immersive experience that they expect will become a regional — even national — attraction.

An indoor, 1920s-era streetscape greets visitors and leads them to a 60-seat food court, four 100-person meeting or party rooms, a full service hobby shop or a ticket counter built to resemble an old railway station.

"What we're trying to emulate is a Disney, in the sense you walk down main street and then decide if you want to go to what part," said president Donald Oeters.

The streetscape's railway station has a ticket booth, where visitors buy tickets for the main attractions: a 9,000-square-foot seasonal maze area, a train-themed children's play area, a railroad museum or the facility's centerpiece, a 1/24-scale railroad layout that Oeters said will be the largest indoor layout of this size in the world when complete.

"The whole feel is to immerse you as much as possible," said general manager Bill Balfour. "For a lot of model railroad displays, you're on the outside looking in. We want to put you in the middle of it."

A 230-person volunteer workforce has laid nearly two miles of track, computerized operation of 90 locomotives and is molding $27,000 worth of spray foam into steep peaks and a river system with running water.

"We are attracting attention from across the country," said volunteer coordinator Larry Koehl, who said scenery is being built in home workshops as far away as Utah.

The layout is so expansive that small scene models have been built to guide volunteers. Still, Oeters noted that, like a hobbyist's home layout, the giant model is an open-ended project: Tracks could be adjusted for better viewing, scenery could be changed over time, additions could be added by volunteers.

"A lot of it is ad-libbing," said Oeters as he considered a new shade of paint for a guardrail. "It'll be work-in-progress, basically forever."

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5127 or mcunningham@coxohio.com.