The model railroader with a green thumb

"As a teenager I went to study in a boarding school in central Switzerland, when I returned home my mother had given my entire collection of model trains to my cousin. She told me: you're not a child anymore to play with trains. " But passions are not erased and how they can be reborn after decades is what Roger Peverelli, member of the Chiasso Model Railway Friends Club, tells us.

"I consider myself privileged," says Peverelli, "because in the 50s, when I was 5-6 years old, my father gave me Märklin steam locomotive models. It was exciting just to browse their stylized catalog. We lived in a single-family house, and underneath was the hobby room. My father made me a platform as big as a ping-pong table and I made my first circuit there. "

But as mentioned, his studies outside Ticino had a surprise in store for him on his return: "For my mother the models were just a toy for children and in my absence she gave them to my cousin."

The passion thus remained dormant for over thirty years. "I became passionate about model railways again when I was 50, about twenty years ago," Peverelli recalls, "when I came into contact with the AFC Chiasso Club. I started to make a model in Z scale (1: 220, ed), which still worked in analog and was placed in a retractable closet. Then, given my passion for gardening, when it was time to fix up the garden at home, I created an outdoor circuit in scale 1 (1:32, ed.) "

As for collecting, Peverelli prefers steam locomotives: "About 70% of my investment is in vintage locomotives, they always have their charm. Even the first electric ones are beautiful. Today, however, they all look identical. At one time, you could immediately distinguish the Swiss, the Germans or the Italians by their shape. "

Over the years, Peverelli has also ventured into model building.

"Being part of a club also serves that purpose," he explains, "it serves to share knowledge and experience. I have always worked as a shipper first and then in a bank, so I never had to deal with mechanics and I never had to have special manual skills. But I put my heart into it and now I help friends who are making models at home. I'm less good at the electronic and computer part. I am instead specialized mainly in the reconstruction of landscapes. "

And it is precisely in the rediscovery of manual skills that Peverelli offers to young people who want to approach model railroads: "Today they grow up in a world of electronics and information technology, but it is a virtual world. Making models, on the other hand, develops a whole range of manual skills that would otherwise be lacking. "

And then in many cases, the fascination and enchantment that he remembers feeling as a child is missing: "My grandfather was in Basel and he always took me for a walk around the city to see the port on the Rhine and the train station. These are worlds that have always attracted me. Even now, if I'm at the station and a train passes, I can't help but be excited. "