MONROE — If Brett Lopez had to choose between tickets to the Super Bowl or a model train, he’d take the train.

Lopez, 49, of Tacoma, was one of about 4,000 people who attended a model train show held this weekend at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds.

“I’d rather do this than Super Bowl,” he said Sunday.

A self-proclaimed train historian, Lopez runs a business selling various train models. He hand paints many of them.

“I took a hobby and made it into work,” he said.

Lopez laid out his models on a vendor’s table at the show, which is an annual event organized by the Seattle-based United Northwest Model Railroad Club.

Some of the proceeds from the show benefit 4-H clubs around the county.

Trains are his life, Lopez said, especially early diesel and steam engines. He recalled riding one of the nation’s early trains back on the East Coast.

“I love the smell of the steam,” Lopez said, glowing with excitement. “It’s just the feeling of being free, to ride on one of these historical trains that ran back in the 1800s.”

To Lopez, his hobby is much more than just pastime. It’s about preserving history and encouraging young people to take an interest in it, he said.

Bill Bell, 60, of Snohomish has been building models for decades. It’s fun to make things and give them away to charities, friends and family, he said.

Bell left the show content. “I found stuff I was looking for for years,” he said. Among other things, he got a bargain on a set of teeny wheels. Bell plans to use to use them for a forklift, part of a model warehouse he built.

Bell said the hobby came naturally to him. “Didn’t you ever have a toy truck when you were little? Well, you grow up, get another one … and soon you start getting all the toys you wanted when you were a child.”

You don’t have to be a model builder or train specialist to enjoy the show, said Amber Green, 33, of Bothell.

Green, her husband and their 3-year-old son, Rory, were in the neighborhood and decided to stop by. “It’s really interesting to see people’s take on history,” Green said.

The family especially enjoyed the three-dimensional landscape displays featuring miniature railroads with moving trains, makeshift forests, mountains, itsy-bitsy people and much more. “They seem to be able to get so much detail,” Green said of their creators.

Members of the club work in teams to build a landscape like that to display at shows, said club member Tim Finley of Seattle.

A list invited observers to take a closer look at the 12-by-35-foot modern railroad display for a few teeny-weeny surprises: a hiker in the woods, a tree struck by lighting, a Sasquatch, a roadkill or two, and a flock of dancing clams.

“It’s interactive,” Finley said. “The observer can participate in the display. They are motivated to look closer.”

The show, which always takes place during the Super Bowl weekend, draws thousands every year. It gives people a chance to meet with old friends and make new ones, buy, sell and swap trains and train parts, Finley said.

“Coming here brings the child out of the adult,” he said.

Train building is a hobby many people not just enjoy, they take refuge in it, Finley said. Skills and trains get passed on from generation to generation. “There is a lot of older people living in the past … These are some of the big escapees,” he said.

Reporter Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452 or kyefimova@heraldnet.com.