THE BALLOON MAN

Berks & Beyond: Model trains call Fleetwood depot home

Reading Eagle: Ryan McFadden Jim Herbein of Fleetwood with his model train display in a former depot.
Ron Devlin
Reading Eagle
Originally Published: 11/26/2011
When Jim Herbein was growing up in Fleetwood, he'd catch a ride on a Reading Co. steam locomotive delivering freight to his grandfather's depot, A.R. Hoffman Lumber & Coal.
More than 50 years later, he's still riding the rails.
Herbein, 65, is chief engineer on a model railroad located in the depot, a quaint clapboard structure built in 1865.
Over countless hours, Herbein has painstakingly recreated a miniature representation of a bygone era when locomotives were the economic engines of their time.
"It was those rides on the steam engine when he was a boy," said Cindy Herbein, 57, Jim's wife. "That's what got him so interested in trains."
On Friday, Herbein opened his model train display to the public free of charge. The Herbein Line will run weekends through Dec. 23, with Santa Claus visiting next Saturday.