Model Train Expo Returns to Historic Chatsworth Depot April 25

The historic Chatsworth Depot will turn into a busy rail fan stop on Saturday, April 25, when the Model Train Expo runs from noon to 4 p.m. The event will bring N, HO and G scale layouts, vendors with trains and accessories, ride-on trains and a Thomas the Tank Engine raffle that includes the locomotive, cars, track and power supply, plus a $100 cash prize.

The setting gives the expo much of its appeal. Built in 1905 by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, the Chatsworth Depot is the oldest public building in town and sits inside the Chatsworth Downtown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside, the depot houses railroad memorabilia and a museum devoted to Murray County’s talc industry, while outside visitors will find the 1960 caboose behind the building and the depot’s big blue train giving rides. A kid-powered flat car, popular last year, will also let youngsters crank their own ride and control the speed.

The railroad artifacts tell their own story. The caboose was built in Jacksonville, Florida, by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, later operated on Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and Louisville & Nashville Railroad lines, and ran until the mid-1980s. The depot itself has an operable G-scale model railroad and an operable HO-scale model railroad, giving modelers a chance to see active layouts inside the same site that helped shape Chatsworth’s rail identity.

The expo will also extend beyond the depot to the Wright Hotel, another preserved piece of town history on the National Register of Historic Places. Thomas Wright planned the building by drying heart-pine lumber from his farm for a year, then having a brick plant make the hotel’s soft rose-colored bricks. A historical marker says the hotel served railroad staff and passengers, vacationers, traveling salesmen and later county-seat visitors after Chatsworth became the county seat in 1913.

That mix of operating trains, preserved structures and local railroad history gives the expo unusual range for a Saturday outing. The Whitfield-Murray Historical Society says the depot’s exterior was recently restored with a City of Chatsworth grant, building on earlier help from Lowe’s, area businesses, residents and local high school construction students. With club layouts, family rides, tours and a strong heritage backdrop, the Chatsworth Depot expo will offer a working snapshot of why railroading still anchors Murray County’s story.